The cost of fly fishing

[Byron haugh]

Most of the folks I come across on the Henry's a Fork are terrific fishermen, and most have high quality gear.

Gear doesn't make the fisherman, but those with a passion for fly fishing often tend to somehow acquire good gear over time.

[DG]

I just spent a week in Montana using a 25-year old rod, a $40 reel, whatever fly line was on the reel, wearing sub-$100 waders and my no-longer-waterproof duck hunting coat, with a $20 waist pack holding the few extra items that wouldn't fit in my pockets. Caught enough fish my arm will need to regrow. Only thing that would have improved it is me not tying up a bunch of flies on some store brand hooks instead of the ones I normally use. None of that high end gear (hooks aside, and I could have just CHECKED the damn hooks as I fished to prevent missing fish) would have resulted in me catching any more, bigger, or prettier fish.

[Uncle Jesse]

When you compare the cost and enjoyment of fishing against the cost and enjoyment of divorce lawyers and shrinks fishing will wins almost every time. You don't have to have the best new Sage proton strengthen ultra fast titanium rods and a reel with a ceramic disc drag to enjoy yourself. If you did, none of you would have ever heard of me on this bulletin board/

[NJTroutbum]

i'm in between a bit. I'm particular with my gear. Ragardless of the cost of a rig....it needs to be balanced and "put together" But I don't chase rod development thankfully, because I have found that 30yr old Orvis graghite is what I love the most. So instead of wanting a $700 new rod, i'm surfing EBAY for mint condition $150 relics. And I like single action reels. Having run the gammit from $300 reels with impressive drag systems, thankfully my tastes are now much simpler and all those other reels with drags I paid for but never used are gone and sold off.

[Ed_D]

My family thinks the largest cost of my fly fishing has been to my sanity. I foolishly left the sticker on the package of a full Whiting Midge Cape. Their shocked comment was to the effect of "You paid WHAT for skin off a rooster's back?!!!".

I don't mind too much. They don't ever follow e to the stream.

"Hi, my name is Ed and I'm a hackle addict."


Regards,
Ed

[vicrider]

Interesting thread. Comes up a lot on different board sites with different hobbies. I'm more of a middleman I guess. Believing you get what you pay for and having had to do with less than quality gear in the past I now try to buy the best quality I can without paying extra for more CAPITAL LETTERS following the rod or reel designation. I do like older things now that I'm getting as old as many antiques so my gear today is mostly bamboo and Hardy and it's not just fly fishing because in my shed is probably enough bass fishing rods/reels/lures/plastic to fill a tackle shop from my tournament days, and the comments about bassboat costs and the spread of rods on the deck was right on.

[RPr]

Many years ago I winced at paying $1200.00 for a 45# Kevlar canoe. I was whining to a fisherman friend of mine and he just laughed. "Heck $1200.00 would not even pay for half the motor on my bass boat".

Now that I am retired; 45 # seems quite heavy enough. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet to get what you need.

Still, the $499 rod vault costs more than all the gear I would put in it. A thief would probably have more pride than to steal my stuff.