Leaderboard

Totally agree with all this. As i predominantly sea fish now I can confirm it is a cheaper form of our hobby. Yes you can buy a £500 rod and £500 reel but you can also get a rod and reel combo for £30 and catch fish with it. The hooks are on average £2-£3 a pack, put those hooks in a fox, korda, gardener, nash etc packet and they are £5 - £6 a packet. Yes lugworm and ragworm are expensive but you can also pop into your local supermarket and pick up a whole mackerel or pack of sardines for little more than a pound and catch fish and as you rightly say , fish that you can eat.

I saw this in NCB, and decided it is a topic for main discussion as not everyone (meaning me) regularly go into Non Carp Banter, so I moved it, leaving a link to its new position. I've made the point that as anglers and as people, society as a whole, we are targeted with advertising and marketing of things we don't need, and fishing tackle of most disciplines is the same; products to 'make life easier', that frequently take away personal innovation or make it that everyone is doing the same. Fishing can be cheap and simple, a hook attached to the line with enough weight to get it where we need to cast to, simple barbel, chub and roach fishing, and either a float or rod tip to indicate a take. That is as simple as it gets, BUT, you can't watch a float or rod tip constantly for hours or days at a time. This brings us to our need for bite indication, a buzzer or audible alarm. Tackle has developed, rods that could only cast 50yards back in the 1960's have been superceded by rods that will cast hundreds of metres, and obviously the cost has increased. Reels that could only hold 200metres of line, more modern gears and the baitrunner, or Bite and Run. In alternative disciplines from carp fishing, sea fishing may work out 'cheaper', possibly because some fish may be saving us food money, as well as being leisure, although I admit lug and rag is expensive unless you dig it yourself. In terms of waters, many are overpriced; clubs, day ticket even syndicate waters. I can't justify £25 per night to fish a day ticket lake, nor can I justify £235 for the local club (including night ticket) when my syndicate is £500. There's more to say, but I'll save a few thoughts for further discussion...