I'm an old fogey who has fished off and on for the past 50 years. I'm about to retire and plan to spend more time on the water.My problem is how complicated we have made this sport.
Now I'm told I have to have a special rod for just about every bait and technique. A rod for crankbaits, a rod for spinnerbaits,a rod for soft plastics, a rod for frogs, a rod for swimbaits, a rod for carolina rigging, a rod for dropshotting, a rod for using the shakey head. Then we have to have a special reel for some applications, 4.3:1,5.3:1,6.3:1,7.1:1. Now we have to have special line to put on these special reels.
Mono,Flouro,co-polymer and braid. Now the hooks. You walk up to the hook section in BPS and it covers an aisle 50 feet long.
Take a look at the soft plastic section at BPS. Hundreds of types of plastic worms, all claiming to be the best thing since sliced bread on and on and on. My head is about to explode.
The sport has gotten so complicated, so expensive and so over hyped that I'm getting overwhelmed with all the choices that are all "must have items".
I haven't even mentioned the cost of a nice bass boat. If I don't have on that will run 100MP down the lake I feel intimidated.
Don't get me wrong, I love to fish and will to the day I die but to me the sport is getting way over analysed. Your thoughts?

Yeah, it's been commercialized like everything else.

I would agree on the complexity of the sport but much of this is directed at the serious fisherman.

You can enjoy fishing with less and at a slower pace. Spend more time fishing and less on stuff.

I tube alot, slow, less gear, cheap, and nothing beats coming up behind the multi thousand buck boat with every imanginable piece of equipment and haulin a hwag off the same laydown that that previous big buck guy threw at for 30 min. :-)

actually if I had the free $$ I would have all that, it is a matter of priorities, will all that stuff make you a better fisherman.. doubt it. fishing is an art and a science. I am sure all teh bells and whistles help. But don't let it get to you.

Less is more.

Most lures are designed to catch more fishermen not necessasarily more fish.

With that being said, there have been a lot more innovations in the past 20 years then in the previous 100. This is mostly due to advances in technology. Technology that has made us a lot more effective at catching fish. Graphite rods, high tech drag systems on lighter reels. impregnated plastics, GPS and inexpensive fishfinders for the masses all have made it easier for anyone to catch fish and harder on the resources. another reason we need to C&R as much as we can.

Nitro700,

Don't know how much response you'll get, but I say you are absolutely right! I'm relatively new to fishing. When I first got started, I sucked up all the information I could get from every source. I believed I had to try everything and pretty much did. At some point, I reached critical mass and basically shut down. Now I have 5 quality rods with baitcasting reels I KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE will boat just about any freshwater fish I have any business catching. My only consideration was to pair them up for somewhat broad and overlapping applications. I only fish mono and in two weights, 12# and 17#. I only use one line of hooks. I don't use any piece of lead as a weight or lure where the weight ends in 16, 32, or 64. That's just putting too fine a point on it for me! I use Norman Speed Clips or quality snap/swivels exclusively and never lost a fish on either one. I have not yet mentioned brands and won't. But I will say this. If it don't have a BPS brand or tradename on it somewheres, I probably ain't fishing it (except for the Norman Speed Clips)! And that goes for lures, too. I now like to keep it simple. As for techniques, I use them all on the equipment I have and never give it another thought. And another thing. 2 out of 3 trips to BPS, I walk out without spending a nickel because I just don't see anything I really NEED!

My boat is not affiliated with BPS, but it is aluminum, popularly priced, has plently of storage for what I now carry, goes as fast as I want to go on the water, suits me to a "T", and I CAN AFFORD IT.

For what it's worth, that's my outlook on fishing. And I defy anybody to tell me they are having more FUN at it than me.

Hossman

KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid

Just like any other sport there are many different levels of participants involved at any one time. From your super geek, mr. i gotta have 42 rods all different with each type of line and hook for every situation possible, down to your average joe with one brand rod, one brand reel strung with 20lb big game throwing anything and everything with it. It all depends on you man. Im not saying either guy is right or wrong or better or worse, but to each their own.

I fail to see any issue here.
Take your fishing to whatever level you wish to and leave the rest to others if you don't want to mess with it. How is that an issue?
It's not like someone is forcing you to gear up to the point you have described, if you don't want to go there then don't.
This is not a have keep up with the Jones's scenario here as most folks could care less what any one person does or does not have equipment wise, so just fish the way you want to and don't sweat the rest of it.
Pretty simple to me unless I'm missing something.

Man I hope my wife doesn't see this thread, if she does I'm dooomed.......all this time I been tellin' her I NEEDED all that stuff......(LOL)

I think almost all anglers try to be too "professional"

More "just fishing" and less thinking...

ROFLMAO aggie how can someone be too professional??? thats like saying you have too much money or feel too healthy.

It's an inside joke between my brother and law and I...

We can outfish most of the old foggies from back home (we're from rural NE LA), mostly by "just fishing". This is a really rural community, everybody knows everybody.

We've laughed at so many at local tourny's that are talking "bass are such and such deep" or "they're hitting green pumkin, but only if it's got red flake" or some other overly nitpicky detail. We call them being "professional" or "too professional"-when rednecks try to sound like the guys on TV...

There is NEVER a time when what you're doing is the ONLY thing that will catch fish...

I agree with Nitro and most of the other posts. It really is to much if you want to partake. I love "just fishing". But I also love all the gear, the knots, the techniques, the patterns and action. It keeps me on the water longer to try out that new stuff I bought. It's fun for me to talk shop at the local Gander Mtn. or Academy, it's fun to try drop shotting (or any other technique) and teach my fishing buddies what it's all about. I don't like the expense but I do like all the cools stuff. I love trying out new gear.

I'm torn between the hipe and the simplicity. But when I really just want to catch some fish I'll spend 5 bux on minnows and some short shank hooks and I'm good to go.

My $0.02.

There is a saying... It's not the tackle and gear that make the fishermen, it's the fishermen that make the gear and tackle...

I agree with the guy that was talking about fishing being an art, skill, and a science, it is very true! I love getting out there and being able to feel every bump and know whether it's a tree limb, the sand, grass, a big bass or a little perch takin' a nibble. It's all about the feel, it takes practice, and all seasoned anglers know this.

It really comes down to the tackle you KNOW, not the tackle you THINK. What I mean by this is everybody seems to find the baits, rods and reels that are comfortable to them and they catch fish with these, because they know the feel.

I don't think so. Do I need 5 crankbait rods? No, but having them is part of the fun. Like mosst things, what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.