Memories of the old days are nice and every year I go back to my old home and fish out of the same old aluminum boat but without Dad. Not only is the fishing not as I remembered and being cramped up in that small boat all day isn't all it's cracked up to be. When I return back to the bass boat and good equip I feel like kissing it. Try it and I think it will change your mind about the good old days. The good days are here now.

I noticed the I am Second logo in your siggy. That in itself tells me a little bit about your character.

If you want your fishing trips to be more rewarding, take someone less fortunate than yourself fishing. I promise you if you teach them about bass fishing and help them catch a fish it is hugely rewarding.

That is what I do. If I had to go by myself I would never go. There are lot of guys that would love to go fishing with someone that has all the great stuff and the great boat you have. It would be a dream come true for a bunch of guys. Several of them are on here regularly and would appreciate an invite more than you know.

If you're not sure who they are PM me.

Ken


p.s. Do you know Rich Fitzgibbons?

I have way too many lures ect, but like others have stated if the bills are paid for why not spend a bit. Lures are kind of a hobby for me (I used to love my football cards til this year). I don't take them all out with me and some will never be used. With those I let my kids play with them. Heck last night cleaning the living room there were pink flukes and lizards all over the floor. Fishing lures in both baths .
Some of the joy could be lost because of the cost of thing and not getting the perfect outcome each trip.
For me, when I lived in Germany it costs a ton to fish for trout, $50+ a day, fly fishing only, and all these other rules. If I did not catch fish It ruined the entire trip, instead of enjoying fly fishing with a castle overlooking the river or being high in the alps. Once I settled down to enjoy it all the trips were much better.

I have a pretty cool job that I started doing 30 years ago out of a love for the adventure. I know some very cool people who have extremely interesting jobs, rock stars, artists, actors etc....and through all of our discussions we come back to the same thing. If you do something long enough, with that kind of passion, eventually, no matter how cool it is it becomes a job, work, and we all know how we feel about work. Our focus becomes more on the product of our labors, he output, rather than being in the moment, enjoying the process. Just my little rationalizatioin. What do you think.

If I dont spend some money, the wife will spend it all. I will never fish the tour or anything so perhaps I dont need all the rods, reels, lures, boat and accessories that go along with it(I prefer fishing out of the kayak anyway). But.... I am a guide, need to keep things well stocked for clients and its a business expense so I get some of that money back come tax time.

Problem(from a business standpoint) is that I tend to take out more free "clients" than paying ones. Far more satisfying at the end of the day to show someone a good time that could not afford to do it on his own. Its cool to let some of these people "fish like Bill Dance", their words.

If I didn't fish tournaments then I would be back in my flat bottom in a split second!

As a kid we spent the summers with grandpa and grandma,
Saturdays were fishing days. He had a '59 chevy station wagon, with a rack on top that carried the boat upside down. All the equipment went in the car. The motor was a 15hp SeaKing, a small
trolling motor that he put on the transom, and a battery. There was me, my brother and grandpa and grandma. Grandpa had two poles, a casting rod about 5' long, and a crappie rod. The rest of us had one pole. We fished for Crappie mostly, and every once in a while we'd get under a big cypress tree and catch dozens of big bream. I lived for Saturdays. Grammy brought the big cooler, and picnic basket, we'd lunch back at the car, then head back out into the lake. Now I have 2 boats, a 30'foot RV trailer, and too many rods to count. More tackle than I can every use, and we just fish for 'fun',...where have we gone. jim

I�m too young to talk about the good ol' days. But I can relate to the original post in this thread. I am a year out of college, I still live at home because I bought a boat. I get on the classifieds everyday like I am going to find some buried treasure or the next best thing that "I Have to have" mostly just to look. I look at tackle warehouse once a week, and dream of my next boat that could be 10 years away. Its all about hobbies and what you enjoy, and what you can spend your working money on, to not think about work.Half of fishing for me is seeing the new gear, testing stuff out, "what are they hittin, better get me one of those"
I enjoyed the fishing just as much with my zebco 303 with some beetle spins and a couple H&H's as a kid
I dont need a 21 foot boat with a 225 and 10 combos with 2 lockers full of tackle, but I sure enjoy my things when I get to use them

When is Enough-Enough?....After u spend several thousand dollars working on just the right prop,prop pitch/cup, JP/Engine hight, Phase 1,2,3 kits, trying to get to that magical 75MPH limit, only to find out all you had to do was remove 2 tackle boxes and 2 rods, you gain 5 mph

You forgot to also add
lose about 20 pounds too...Hehehehe

Marketers these days brought us all to the point of all this equipment.

Businesses will always be telling you you need XYZ and people will always be there to listen.

And, I'm shocked this hasn't been brought up. But we're out there for the serenity/quietness/peace/whatever you want to call it anyways, not the fish.

Something to think about:

�When they go fishing, it is not really fish they are after. It is a philosophic meditation.� - E.T. Brown

"It is remarkable that many men will go with eagerness to Walden Pond in the winter to fish for pickerel and yet not seem to care for the landscape. Of course it cannot be merely for the pickerel they may catch; there is some adventure in it; but any love of nature which they may feel is certainly very slight and indefinite. They call it going a-fishing, and so indeed it is, though perchance, their natures know better. Now I go a-fishing and a-hunting every day, but omit the fish and the game, which are the least important part. I have learned to do without them. They were indispensable only as long as I was a boy. I am encouraged when I see a dozen villagers drawn to Walden Pond to spend a day in fishing through the ice, and suspect that I have more fellows than I knew, but I am disappointed and surprised to find that they lay so much stress on the fish which they catch or fail to catch, and on nothing else, as if there were nothing else to be caught."-- Baughman/Thoreau

HAHAHAHA

It's your money you decide. I go fishing to forget about life for a while. I made a decision about 8 yrs ago to limit what I carry on my boat as to what I fish with not what I might need. I don't spend money on the latest and greatest I put it in the fuel tank. soft plastics worm,grub,tube,and fluke crankbait medium depth shad color and of course a spook in frog colors pop r in shad. My time on the lake is for me and don't mind sharing.

When you start contemplating the question.

Guilty as charged, your honor!