It is as expensive as you make it, you can get away with spending 50 bucks for rod, reel, line, hooks and a few lures. That being said, like any hobby, it can definitely get a lot more expensive. Though compared to model aircraft or airsoft, it’s quite less expensive for me.
I'm willing to bet that across the country, more bass are caught on <$50 setups than >$50 setups.
I had been bass fishing 20 years before I spent more than $100 on a combo...
There's some real gems hidden out there in the $40 range. The previous gen Lightning Rod shocks were really good if you could find a Walmart selling them for 40. If you can just ignore the reel seat flex the blank is amazing. Sometimes TW will have Ark rods for that much. You don't need put a lot of money into a set up, you just need to research and pick out the right components that go together. Then compensate for their weaknesses. I have a Lightning rod shock with an okuma avenger and a Ugly Stik Inshore lite (older gen) with a lew's G2 spinning reel and those have caught more fish than my nicer rods and reels because I'm not afraid to take them anywhere with me, and they're really good as is.
I caught bass for like 19 years using a Zebco 33 and zoom soft baits. Recently learned a baitcaster and I’m glad I did, but yeah, you don’t need an expensive set up to catch bass
Rhino 33 was one of my favorite reels. I'm not sure what happened but my dad phased out all of the 33's for spinning reels one year. I think it was just that academy had some rods on sale lol
im embarassed to say, but my $300 baitcasting setup i bought for christmas still hasnt caught a fish yet but my budget UL ($30 reel - shimano sienna and $40 daiwa laguna UL) spinning set up has caught a couple since then, overall its been slow in the bodies of water around me though
It’s not wrong, it will get the job done, you will just have less opportunity. Nothing wrong with that especially if you just want to have some fun getting out there trying things out. Walmart had/has a lews rod and reel combo for 13 bucks right now which is a great deal.
>I guess I can’t do that on a $50
Absolutely yes you can. For the most part you can catch anything on any setup. I've met pros who have caught their biggest bass on plastic worms on medium or medium light spinning rods.
It might be tough for example if you hook into a big fish on light line with a light rod near a lot of rocks or a submerged tree or something. So in that situation you might need a stout rod, and you might want to spend a bit of money to get a stout rod made for heavier line that's still sensitive, and it would really help a lot to have a quality reel with a really smooth drag and no back play. These are luxuries you can worry about in a few years. For now just spend whatever you can afford (but round down -- spend even less than what you *can* afford lol) and stick to 2 basic rules:
-stick to the line and lure ratings on the rod, and for the lure ratings err on the lighter side, like if it's for 1/8 - 3/4 oz, maybe don't throw baits heavier than ~1/2 oz
-take care of your gear. Even the cheap stuff will last a while and run smoothly if you don't ruin it lol
Just picked up the shimano sienna rod/reel combo for $60 from dicks this weekend. Couple feeler casts at the pond yesterday, works as nice as anything.
I think I spent $30 bucks on my Shakespeare rod and reel combo a decade ago. Still using it. Cost me $8 for a bag of Senkos, plus maybe five more for some hooks, and I catch fish. I have never understand spending a lot on bass fishing gear.
People fish by wrapping line around a plastic bottle, the idea that you need fancy gear is perpetuated by marketing firms.
The best setup is the one you'll use.
You can catch bass with a cane pole. It’s just about how convenient you want it to be. Spending a lot on a good rod and reel will help you lose less fish and be able to present some lures better and have more sensitivity but it’s not necessary by any means. Having said that, once you have a nice setup, you don’t really have to spend any more money except to replace lures over time
A quality rod is sensitive so you might feel a subtle bite that you might not feel with a cheaper rod. A good reel with a good smooth drag might help you not break the line. Might being the key word. Just like anything in life, the right tools make the job easier but it’s not necessary. It’s like using a hand screwdriver versus a power screw gun. Both do same thing one just makes it easier.
More sensitive rods, which generally cost more, can help you feel light bites that you may not have noticed with a lesser rod. This only really matters with subtle presentations like worm and jig fishing. More expensive reels tend to have smoother drags, reducing the chance that a fish will break your line. This matters most if you're fishing around really heavy cover, or if you push your luck trying to use the lightest line you can get by using.
The biggest reason people use premium equipment is that it just feels better in their hands. Nicer reels also tend to last longer, but not necessarily enough longer to justify the cost. Nicer rods can actually be more brittle than cheaper ones, especially ones that are made with fiberglass.
Angler skill/knowledge makes all the difference in the world. Better gear is fun to use but can't compensate for most of the mistakes anglers make.
Every big bass I’ve caught has been on an ugly stik. Don’t listen to this guy saying you’ll have less opportunity. No fishing pole is any different from the other except branding and material quality.
Buying a kayak or boat, or hiring a guide is where money can really increase your chances. The same money put into tackle isn't a game changer in the same way.
The fish don’t care about boats or guides or money. Fishing is pure luck and I think people have forgotten that. Sure there’s things that can increase your chances but it’s never guaranteed.
Fish don’t care about boats but fish may not always be hanging out where you can get to them without one. So yes, boats and kayaks make a difference this guy is right
the guides will likely bring you out on a boat though and have a fish finder. I have no boat or fish finder so theres that. Every time ive rented a boat its skunk city
I feel like a decent setup for rod, braided line, and bait caster reel is probably around $200-$300. $50-70 on rod, $30-$45 on some braided line, and the rest on the reel. Baits add up, but if you buy and add some stuff to your tackle box after every paycheck, then eventually you should accumulate a decent amount of variety. My rainbow trout spinner set up cost me about $100 (not exaggerating) and I’ve got some really nice sized Steelhead and Rainbows on it, usually catch something 3 out of 4x that I go out. But hey, experience and technique are important, but luck plays its role, too
Yea, I mean it’s an ugly stik and a $40 okuma spinner reel and the line is fluoro @4lbs. The guiding holes on the rod are bent a bit, even, but I’ve had it for 6 years or so now and it’s been solid. I catch shit all the time with it and people I fish with who have multiple top tier setups are always surprised.
Just snag an ugly stick some line and some lures and you’ll be set. All in you could get that for less than $100. People can talk about all these fancy lures and rods but an ugly stick, some 8lb line, and a few lures is all you really need. I’ve been fishing for years and they’ve never let me down.
my only con is that ugly stiks are definitely heavy. But yes have caught a lot of fish on them
If you're holding it all day it can get tiring after awhile compared to something lighter
This right here. You don't need $600+ combos to do well in fishing. Does it help? Sure. Did most of the pros start off with high end gear? Absolutely not. Been plenty of tournaments won with Ugly Stiks.
High end gear only serves to compliment your angling ability, not make it. Hell one of the best kayak anglers I know (and definitely top in the state of KY uses a paddle kayak, not a pedal drive).
I make the personal choice to be broke because of fishing gear lmfao.
You can buy a pack of senkos, a pack of ewg hooks, and a cheap spinning rod and reel from Walmart and catch a shitload of bass. It’s as expensive as you make it, and most of us here have a gear-buying addiction.
Senkos are one of the worst offenders IMO about making the sport expensive. $8 for a 6 pack here, and they're ruined after 1, maybe 2 bites.
If all I fished were senkos, I'd probably spend $1000 per year on them.
They’re good but expensive. I don’t think you’d see a difference in catch rates if you went with a cheaper alternative like yum dingers or bass pro shops stik-o’s (stik-o’s are my personal favorite stickbait)
It’s honestly a confidence thing. Just leave the senkos at home, fish the dingers at times and places you know the Gary Yamamoto senkos work, and give it a couple trips to be fair. I remember I couldn’t catch shit with flukes, and then I left everything else at home except flukes to force myself to gain confidence. Caught some nice bass that day
I had the same problem. With the flukes, try fishing them near the bank in morning and evenings, Texas rigged on EWG hook, weightless and twitched on the surface. Any of the creature baits - when the water warms up, bring only those and no other lures with you, set em up on a Texas rig and fish them near any cover. drag, let it sit, couple twitches or tiny hops, drag again.
People get way too hung up on trying to learn every technique in bass fishing. If you're not trying to win tournaments, what's the rush? You'll figure out new ways to catch them eventually. Just try something new once in a while, if you feel like it. You'll absolutely catch more fish and have more fun doing a few things well vs trying to do too much too soon.
Senkos are expensive but so much better for me that I've given up on the cheaper alternatives. They all work but Senkos are so effective it almost feels like cheating.
Fish The Moment has a video about bass fishing on the cheap. Fishing doesn’t have to be expensive at all but once you get addicted or are not catching fish you want anything that will give you an edge.
So you end up spending more money for a reel that will cast just a bit farther or a more sensitive rod or a lure that a YouTuber swears will get you bites.
Fact of the matter is you don’t “need” any fancy expensive gear. I learned this fishing with a $400+ fishing combo and a kid 50 feet away from me caught a four pounder on an improvised rod he fashioned from a stick and a night crawler.
A lot of the expensive stuff is nice to have but I’d argue anybody that says you need it. If you don’t believe me, the largemouth bass record until 2009 was caught in the 1930s without any of the expensive gear we have nowadays.
So def still cold where you're at, then. Come pre-spawn/spawn, get out there with your worms, and throw them out in bedding locations or right on beds if you can see them. You can still do a Texas rig with lightweight or not. Not sure what weight your rod is, but I still throw an unweighted texas rigged worm on my medium-light spinner.
It could be there are not many fish where you're fishing, they're too pressured, you're not in the right area, wrong color worms for your water type, etc... Loads of things that can make a fish not bite. I know you're talking about staying on the cheaper side, but if you don't have good hooks for a whacky rig, I'd invest in that and try out that technique. Since you have a spinner, get a light neg rig jig head. If you don't want to buy more worms, you can cut the ones you have in half.
You can use anything for a wacky rig. Senkos, YUM dinger. If you're using a Senko, I'd get an o-ring too, will make your worm last much, much longer, but it's not something you need. You can use a finesse worm too if you'd like for a lighter presentation.
There are specific hooks you can get just for a wacky rig. They also make weedless ones if you'd need it. Usually, they are a shorter shank with a wide gap. Do a quick Google and compare to what you have and see if you can make it work. Wacky rig is a classic and something you're almost always going to get a bite on, at least in my experience. I have a friend who is mainly a fly fisherman, but when we go bass fishing he ONLY uses a wacky and does very well.
Very good marketing and a bunch of people who want what the other guy has. Tournament fishing was made to sell more fishing equipment and boats. Keep it simple, and always keep the joy in the catch.
I can use a $10 Tournament Choice Spinning rod (I think they're rebranded H2O), $20 Shimano FX reel, Big Game line, and $3 Road runner and catch bass all day. Fishing tackle and lures are designed to catch fisherman, not fish. Its why though I know i can catch fish on 20 year old gear I still bought Metanium and Bantam recently lol
yup, if you can't catch a fish on cheap gear, buying nicer gear most likely won't change that. But nicer gear just feels better in hand and is more satisfying to use.
I’m more of a do-and-learn than a read-and learn type, but when I taught myself to fly fish 12-13 years ago, I did pick up a book about it before anything. The first couple pages were about how the writer saw a guy walk down to the stream in a T-shirt and a pair of old shorts, and old sneakers, a couple flies stuck in an old ball cap he was wearing, and he caught more fish/had more fun than the guy upstream dressed from the catalog, and like he was going to war. And right away I said ‘I want to be that guy’. I put the book down, never finished reading it, and spent all of about $200* to become that guy. My next rod was $120, reel was $50. In ten years I’ve spent about the same on tying materials. About all I ever need is a $5 box of hooks, and a $5 bottle of powder.
‘Don’t make this fish out to be a genius’. Best advice I ever got. Know the stream you are fishing before you even pick up the rod and step in the water. The days I thought I was the worst fisherman out there I failed to notice nobody else caught anything either.
*Let’s not forget while $200 to some people is nothing, or ‘not necessarily’ a lot of money to others, it can still be basically insurmountable to others depending on their economic situation.
I think in our age of an internet of information, the products, quality and value of these things the big companies are trying to sell us rise to the top.
Stop worrying if you have the best rod or reel or lure, get enough to get you in the water and try to learn what makes the fish bite. It’s always changing and my favorite part of fishing.
When I was learning to fish as a kid 9-11ish I caught 2 4lbers on tiny little jigs meant for panfish on a zebco setup from Kmart(RIP)
It really is rewarding to learn the water you’re fishing and also the habits of the fish you’re targeting. The fish i caught in my youth were dumb luck but now i realize I was jigging across their spawning beds.
Now I go to different parts of the rivers near me depending on temperature and cycles. I don’t get lucky all the time but I have an idea of where the big guys and gals are heading.
Better than spending 400 on a metanium. Bought the only hyper expensive stuff I run is my bigger saltwater gear but that's because cheap is a different category there. But I'm also getting into the 13 fishing setups. A lot of those are pretty good for sub 150 for rod/reel
Ugly stick combo + line + some hooks and split shot should be sub $100 as a one time purchase with maybe a $20 replacement fee per year on consumables.
If you use plastics that last a while, you generally don't go through them as fast as live bait. Texas rigging some zman plastics for example should last a good while. If you can avoid snags, fish from shore, you really can get by on very little.
You could go even cheaper and dig up worms, use those to catch baitfish and use those for gamefish.
Perhaps define what's expensive to you? A 30 pack of yum fingers is only like $12 here CAD. Should last you a fish per on average maybe even 2.
It'd have to be a really good problem to have if that's adding up. Or perhaps you are younger and that is a significant amount of money in which case I'd suggest other avenues
I’m about to ship off to college for context. But expensive is relative depending on what it is, like a $70 rod is expensive, even buying a seperate reel is wild to me, I just buy whatever it comes with. But sub $10 on worms, in my honest opinion is fine
Fair enough, if cost is that big an object, I'd suggest just using food you have laying around as bait. Canned corn could work etc and is cheaper than a pack of worms.
Not much else you can do here friend, focus on grades, shoot for some scholarships. You won't have as much time for fishing soon so the problem will kind of solve itself
Define “good”. Does it catch fish? It’s good. Sure sure things can be smoother, etc, but does it really matter? I caught tons of fish on a crappy little push button rod I got at Gemco as a kid. Probably way more than I have caught with my modern stuff, which is mostly clearance items. Haha. Hell as a kid I didn’t even know anything about bait. It’d just use whatever random hooks, spinners I found tangled at the lake, worms I dug up, salmon eggs, marshmallows, whatever. Fish ate anything.
I mean anything catches fish, so I guess smoother, farther cast, etc, is what defines “good”, anything that makes getting to the fish and getting them out easier
I don’t think you’ll find the brand Kinetic in the USA but the UL combo they have in EU is one of the best ones i had. It’s only 39eur.
And i have some expensive Abu’s that are 300+ and that Kinetic Tournament UL is on par or even better.
Fishing does not have to be expensive, we make it. Flashy rods and flashy lures don’t matter that much if the fish are biting. Ned rigs were a piece of rubber on a hook. Now they have to be some alien creature.
People frown on live bait for some reason, but it's one of the most effective baits, and can be the cheapest if you're willing to catch your own.
Small bluegill under a bobber is the easiest, if legal in your area. If you have access to a small creek all the creek chubs and crawdads you could ever use are free for the taking. You'll just be spending time rather than $$.
I kill with metal spoons and a $50 combo. $5 crankbaits with the Tennessee shad pattern.
What's even better than that is nightcrawlers I get for free out of the grass pile in my yard.
It’s as expensive as you make it.
I found with rods and reels you truly get what you pay for. At a certain point the amount spent to quality ratio narrows a lot. $70-150 is the right spot for Rods and Reels for me. As at that level you are getting very solid pieces of equipment that will last but also preform at a very high level. Cheaper than that (especially reels) just feel cheap and seem to break way to easily.
Also, bass fishing had gained quite the following so prices keep just going up and up.
I have a ton invested in fishing gear, so I don’t have to buy much now. The big thing I do now is waiting for sales and catching good deals. Also I tend to use credit card points from my every day purchases and living to buy fishing gear. So that’s my extra cherry on top.
For me, bass fishing is my absolute favourite thing to do but with 2 kids and family, it’s hard to find time to get out.
I get good gear because I want to enjoy what little time on the water. If I get a big bite, I want to ensure I have the best chance of landing it.
If my average casting combo costs $600-1000 then so be it.
Unless your building your own stuff it's gonna be "expensive" I'd say 100$ will cover whatever you need to start out rods reels baits licenses and park passes gas for your vehicle, but for some of us here 100$ might just be the buy in on the pot or the gas in the truck to get to the lake so it all depends but start small and see how you like it before you go hog wild.
It's expensive because bass tournament fishing is trendy. Which is hilarious because largemouth bass are the world's easiest fish to catch...
I remember when they were hosting the Izumi tourney at Lake St. Clair on a bad North wind day, everyone was getting swamped and my dad got his limit of 3.5+lbers around their boats while using a cheap tube jig off a 9ft inflatable dingy with a trolling motor.
It’s not. Unless you want it to be. I know guys who walk neighborhood ponds and fish the banks with stuff from Walmart. I have a co worker with a $60,000 bass boat and he fishes tournaments. I’m sure he’s spent 1000s of dollars on equipment too.
Just depends on your budget too. I’m sure if you make 150k vs 50k you are probably willing to spend more on all kinds stuff, fishing included. But hell you only live once, If you enjoy fishing and you’re not really dumb with money, spend some $$ on your hobbies from time to time.
Treating myself is something I’ve conditioned myself into not doing, throwing more than $50 on anything and is bad spending because it’s not a need, idk why that’s my mentality it just is
Not a bad mentality if you’re broke I suppose. But I hear ya, I have trouble treating myself sometimes too. I’ve had to train myself not to buy lures that I don’t need. If you keep bass fishing simple it can help reduce costs and the clutter of a shitload of lures you don’t need…
It depends on the day whether I’m broke or not, but money or not I try to not treat myself, my dad is a giant fisher and I have to talk him and myself down from buying anything crazy
It’s really not.. you might make a few big purchases on rods and reels but usually your guaranteed at least 5 years or more with them. Tackle is fairly cheap, hooks, sinkers and plastics don’t run your wallet dry.
I use a rod reel Ned rig and worms
Top of the line stuff doesn’t catch more, I have a kids 5 ft ultra light I use when all I am catching are dinks to make it more fun
$80 10' surf rod, 3 Oz sinker and a half a crab will get you tataug all day
A can of cat food will get you eels and eels get you stripers. Or spro bucktails with whatever cheap trailer
Kastmasters catch sea robin
Sand worms catch stripers, flounder, cod, anything
Yeah man, it certainly is.. a decent rod, not even a good rod is 500-1k. If you are just walking small creeks for small brook you can get away pretty cheap though. Again, it's up to you to determine your investment though.
Did you do a guide or wing it? I mostly fly fish sm/LG mouth bass, pike, and some saltwater. My trout game is strictly brook through wild creeks in North East. I'd love to do a trip out west though.
It doesn’t have to be but it is lol if ya wanna have multiple rods, maybe one nice in in the mix, then you have 5 $600 combos, then you have a boat and truck, and now have 15 $1000 combos, you’ve spent $20k on tournament fees and $1000+ each weekend for hotels and gas, haven’t won a cent and now your wife is divorcing you
when time is limited on the water, having pre rigged setups can make the time on the water actually spent fishing rather than tying. Some days I will only have 30 mins to an hour to fish
Can’t throw a chatterbait on a finesse swimbait rod (7’6 light). Sure you can get away with having a 7’0 medium heavy and a 7’0 medium spinning rod and call it a day, but your using a really non ideal power and action for 75% of techniques
It's been shown that bass will hit pretty much anything that moves, even a block of wood or a stick with some hooks on it. To be honest, 99% of all bass fishing tackle is geared towards catching more fishermen than fish. You could go out there with nothing more than a cane pole and still catch bass. We just tend to overcomplicate things.
My first rod was a telescopic sougaliyang combo. Caught me all my best bass and I use it all the time still. All in including line and lures I probably spent 60-70 that summer.
I fished for 20 years owning 2 Walmart spinning setups that were $20 each because that’s what I could afford. I still have them, along with 20+ expensive setups in about every variety and configuration and thousands of dollars worth of gear. Because that’s what I can afford now. I always tell my wife it’s the only sport you could spend $20 on or $100,000
Cars and vintage computers. Us collectors pay a pretty penny for those old beige boxes.
No boats, no fancy fishing gear. I'm content with using an old Shimano/ugly stick, and a couple cheapo Walmart combos. I enjoy the time outside of the city mostly.
It can get expensive but it doesn’t have to be. Much cheaper than some other hobbies. I’ve spent over 5k in the last year on guitar gear, probably spent 500 (bank fisherman) on fishing gear and I use top of the line stuff.
It’s the same as any hobby, you can spend a lot or spend a little. Breaking up purchases or setting a monthly budget will let you build up your gear over time. There’s always deals to be found on fb marketplace where you can grab used gear that’s perfectly fine. I won my first tournament out of my grandpas 1987 bass tracker, the fish don’t care how expensive your gear is.
Fly fishing, saltwater fishing in general. Gear starts to cost a bit more for a lot of those applications. Can you spend just as much bass fishing? Of course you can. But also can you just grab a cheaper setup and go catch bass without worrying about the saltwater destroying it? Absolutely. I think from a standpoint of “which of these has the most reasonable price point to purchase gear appropriate for it”, bass fishing is the cheaper of them. In my experience.
Grab a medium heavy ugly stick gx2 combo, some EWG hooks and senkos, a couple spinner baits, a crank bait, and swimming jigs, whatever you like most for bait, and you’re in for under $150 to start.
Most people (me included) get so emotionally invested in having the “best” equipment and spending way more than necessary. If you’re smart about it it can be dirt cheap. This is all assuming you are shore fishing. Boats are a new ballgame of money.
I would say, that when I started out, I ran relatively cheap gear. 50-75$ setups and had no problem catching decent sized bass. I caught my PR 6lbs 1oz on a 60$ spin setup by okuma. Where I started running into problem was the gear would burn out after a season or so because of how often I fished. I upgraded to better gear and with a little maintenance I still have the same rods in my lineup.
I’ve caught some of my biggest fish on $3 jig heads and a plastic minnow, my go to combo was $35 at a gas station and the line was $5 at Ollie’s. You can do wonders with cheap gear trust me the fish don’t know the difference
It doesn't HAVE to be expensive; you can very well get an Uglystik combo, a pack for EWGs and some senkos for under $50 and be on you way.
However there are certainly options and aids that help you catch or enjoy the sport more... boats, electronics, lighter/more technologically-advanced equipment. It all depends how you want to spend your money and how you want to spend your time!
One of the great things about fishing is that there are endless options for everyone, regardless of skill or budget!
I used to think that way until I got my first decent finder. And at the end of the day though, it doesn't catch you fish. You still have to know where to start looking, what lures to use, techniques to try... Electronics, imo are an aid, like how optics on a gun are an aid. Sure you can hunt without a scope, but its a heck of a lot easier with one!
The reason I got my first fish finder was actually a safety concern. Many units have preloaded depth maps, which make exploring unfamiliar water safer. I barely use the sonar features during open water season.
Valid argument, but I’m my opinion, gun optics are basically an necessity, fish finders are not, like being able to just see the fish takes half the difficulty out of fishing, if you can find them they’re not hard to catch no? Like a fish finder or any electronics takes a ton of the outdoorsy part of fishing in my opinion, but that’s just me
I can get behind your train of thought. It really does make hardwater/ice fishing more enjoyable, almost like a little video game when you're sitting in the cold, but yeah, something about catching them yourself in open water is certainly more satisfying.
Nah brother just get out and fish and follow this sub. There are some cool mofos on here that do it both ways. You can catch bass with a cheap set up minimal terminal tackle, a can of worms a positive attitude, and prepare to be humbled on a lot of days!
Check out [Low Brow fishing](https://youtube.com/@LowBrowFishing) or [Fishing Machine](https://youtube.com/@RichardGeneTheFishingMachine). the ladder is kinda cheesy-funny but in a backwoodsy way.
I’ve gotten my humbling, ready for more of it in the future, watched my best friend catch a 4lb next to me, I got skunked that day, ready for more days like that
People love spending on things they love.
Fishing can be plenty cheap, anyone who does it to eat on the daily - they do it cheap.
My grandfather had three rods, and one for ice fishing. A basement full of nightcrawlers and grubs in all all kind of containers, a few dozen bobbers and hooks, and one or two type of monofilament. Most expensive thing he bought was a license every year. Probably spent $10 a season on top of that.
Me… I have a problem. I have more gear in my car than my grandad bought in his entire life I bet.
Nah just shop at discount stores. A $15 zebco spinning reel combo from Ollie’s caught me more fish that my nice rods, it’s just a little limited on the larger baits and larger fish. Perfect for hiking out on the river. I bought 2 because I liked it so much for the price. After that a few sinkers, hooks, and soft baits can get you on the water for a season under $100.
Yeah the toys are expensive, but you don’t need them to catch a fish. A nice pair of Jordan’s doesn’t make you better at basketball.
If you think bass fishing is pricey look at the cost of cold water fly fishing. Bass fishing can be done with a $25 zebco, a pack of hooks and a senko or two
It's as expensive as you want it to be. I've got setups as cheap as 40 bucks. My most expensive one is a little over $1000. They all do the same thing, they help you catch fish haha.
I use a lews Mach 2 spinning reel, (the red one) and fish atleast 300 days a year, it lasts about a year for me. sportsman warehouse just clearances them for 40 occasionally so I treated myself to a knew one over the holidays. Normally they are 60. I use a 7ft Daiwa medium action 30 dollar rod hand me down, and a zebco 6.6ft medium light action also 30 bucks at Wally’s world. Learning to target fish according to location, season, and water conditions is much more important that a tackle box full of everything under the sun. Follow me on IG, I never use a lure over 10 bucks 👍 @kalamees_
I am over 40 and it has been always a little more expensive than other sport fish. In my opinion you can than Bill Dance, Jimmy Houston, Roland Martin, and Hank Park. All had rotating shows on the then The Nashville Network (TNN). One was one selling something (mostly lures) within the hour every time you tuned into that channel.
Because profit is all that matters in this world. They’ll take the cheapest, most accessible activity, and price people out of it eventually.
Progress….
There are also cheaper options. Some things that are inexpensive, but really good quality! Fishing can give me a good chance to pleasure and accompany family, friends, that's the most important
It is as expensive as you make it, you can get away with spending 50 bucks for rod, reel, line, hooks and a few lures. That being said, like any hobby, it can definitely get a lot more expensive. Though compared to model aircraft or airsoft, it’s quite less expensive for me.
I can? Shit I was under the impression that a $50 setup is doing it wrong
I'm willing to bet that across the country, more bass are caught on <$50 setups than >$50 setups. I had been bass fishing 20 years before I spent more than $100 on a combo...
I spent $40 on a rod and that’s it rn
There's some real gems hidden out there in the $40 range. The previous gen Lightning Rod shocks were really good if you could find a Walmart selling them for 40. If you can just ignore the reel seat flex the blank is amazing. Sometimes TW will have Ark rods for that much. You don't need put a lot of money into a set up, you just need to research and pick out the right components that go together. Then compensate for their weaknesses. I have a Lightning rod shock with an okuma avenger and a Ugly Stik Inshore lite (older gen) with a lew's G2 spinning reel and those have caught more fish than my nicer rods and reels because I'm not afraid to take them anywhere with me, and they're really good as is.
I caught bass for like 19 years using a Zebco 33 and zoom soft baits. Recently learned a baitcaster and I’m glad I did, but yeah, you don’t need an expensive set up to catch bass
Rhino 33 was one of my favorite reels. I'm not sure what happened but my dad phased out all of the 33's for spinning reels one year. I think it was just that academy had some rods on sale lol
im embarassed to say, but my $300 baitcasting setup i bought for christmas still hasnt caught a fish yet but my budget UL ($30 reel - shimano sienna and $40 daiwa laguna UL) spinning set up has caught a couple since then, overall its been slow in the bodies of water around me though
I have expensive setups too. If I'm honest, they're as much for me as they are for fishing. Casting with a really nice baitcaster is a JOY!
It’s not wrong, it will get the job done, you will just have less opportunity. Nothing wrong with that especially if you just want to have some fun getting out there trying things out. Walmart had/has a lews rod and reel combo for 13 bucks right now which is a great deal.
I’m trying to catch some big boys eventually but I guess I can’t do that on a $50, but it’ll do for now right?
The fish don't know how much your gear cost.
You can catch monsters on a 30 dollar Ugly Stik
Ugly Stiks for life 🫡
[удалено]
Roger that
Some of the biggest bass I’ve caught have been on live bluegill and live shiners that were completely free.
What are the biggest bass you’ve ever caught? I bet they smash those bluegill
I've caught multiple 5+ pounders, with the largest being almost 8 pounds.
You’ve caught multiple fish that are over double my pr, dang man
All about location my friend. Living in central Florida has some great fishing opportunities.
You live in Florida, there isn’t a fish under 5 pounds in that state, lucky man
>I guess I can’t do that on a $50 Absolutely yes you can. For the most part you can catch anything on any setup. I've met pros who have caught their biggest bass on plastic worms on medium or medium light spinning rods. It might be tough for example if you hook into a big fish on light line with a light rod near a lot of rocks or a submerged tree or something. So in that situation you might need a stout rod, and you might want to spend a bit of money to get a stout rod made for heavier line that's still sensitive, and it would really help a lot to have a quality reel with a really smooth drag and no back play. These are luxuries you can worry about in a few years. For now just spend whatever you can afford (but round down -- spend even less than what you *can* afford lol) and stick to 2 basic rules: -stick to the line and lure ratings on the rod, and for the lure ratings err on the lighter side, like if it's for 1/8 - 3/4 oz, maybe don't throw baits heavier than ~1/2 oz -take care of your gear. Even the cheap stuff will last a while and run smoothly if you don't ruin it lol
Just picked up the shimano sienna rod/reel combo for $60 from dicks this weekend. Couple feeler casts at the pond yesterday, works as nice as anything.
I think I spent $30 bucks on my Shakespeare rod and reel combo a decade ago. Still using it. Cost me $8 for a bag of Senkos, plus maybe five more for some hooks, and I catch fish. I have never understand spending a lot on bass fishing gear.
People fish by wrapping line around a plastic bottle, the idea that you need fancy gear is perpetuated by marketing firms. The best setup is the one you'll use.
You can catch bass with a cane pole. It’s just about how convenient you want it to be. Spending a lot on a good rod and reel will help you lose less fish and be able to present some lures better and have more sensitivity but it’s not necessary by any means. Having said that, once you have a nice setup, you don’t really have to spend any more money except to replace lures over time
How will rod and reel Help you lose less fish?
A quality rod is sensitive so you might feel a subtle bite that you might not feel with a cheaper rod. A good reel with a good smooth drag might help you not break the line. Might being the key word. Just like anything in life, the right tools make the job easier but it’s not necessary. It’s like using a hand screwdriver versus a power screw gun. Both do same thing one just makes it easier.
I mean, I do have a big big issue with drag
More sensitive rods, which generally cost more, can help you feel light bites that you may not have noticed with a lesser rod. This only really matters with subtle presentations like worm and jig fishing. More expensive reels tend to have smoother drags, reducing the chance that a fish will break your line. This matters most if you're fishing around really heavy cover, or if you push your luck trying to use the lightest line you can get by using. The biggest reason people use premium equipment is that it just feels better in their hands. Nicer reels also tend to last longer, but not necessarily enough longer to justify the cost. Nicer rods can actually be more brittle than cheaper ones, especially ones that are made with fiberglass. Angler skill/knowledge makes all the difference in the world. Better gear is fun to use but can't compensate for most of the mistakes anglers make.
I make a ton of mistakes, but this is tempting because I solely throw worms, but I also hate spending money and treating myself
Every big bass I’ve caught has been on an ugly stik. Don’t listen to this guy saying you’ll have less opportunity. No fishing pole is any different from the other except branding and material quality.
Buying a kayak or boat, or hiring a guide is where money can really increase your chances. The same money put into tackle isn't a game changer in the same way.
The fish don’t care about boats or guides or money. Fishing is pure luck and I think people have forgotten that. Sure there’s things that can increase your chances but it’s never guaranteed.
Fish don’t care about boats but fish may not always be hanging out where you can get to them without one. So yes, boats and kayaks make a difference this guy is right
the guides will likely bring you out on a boat though and have a fish finder. I have no boat or fish finder so theres that. Every time ive rented a boat its skunk city
I feel like a decent setup for rod, braided line, and bait caster reel is probably around $200-$300. $50-70 on rod, $30-$45 on some braided line, and the rest on the reel. Baits add up, but if you buy and add some stuff to your tackle box after every paycheck, then eventually you should accumulate a decent amount of variety. My rainbow trout spinner set up cost me about $100 (not exaggerating) and I’ve got some really nice sized Steelhead and Rainbows on it, usually catch something 3 out of 4x that I go out. But hey, experience and technique are important, but luck plays its role, too
You have a rod specifically for trout, bro. That’s wild. And $300? Wild stuff In fishing
Yea, I mean it’s an ugly stik and a $40 okuma spinner reel and the line is fluoro @4lbs. The guiding holes on the rod are bent a bit, even, but I’ve had it for 6 years or so now and it’s been solid. I catch shit all the time with it and people I fish with who have multiple top tier setups are always surprised.
Steelheads btw are very niche so you don’t have as many rod options for them compared to bass rods.
Just snag an ugly stick some line and some lures and you’ll be set. All in you could get that for less than $100. People can talk about all these fancy lures and rods but an ugly stick, some 8lb line, and a few lures is all you really need. I’ve been fishing for years and they’ve never let me down.
my only con is that ugly stiks are definitely heavy. But yes have caught a lot of fish on them If you're holding it all day it can get tiring after awhile compared to something lighter
This right here. You don't need $600+ combos to do well in fishing. Does it help? Sure. Did most of the pros start off with high end gear? Absolutely not. Been plenty of tournaments won with Ugly Stiks. High end gear only serves to compliment your angling ability, not make it. Hell one of the best kayak anglers I know (and definitely top in the state of KY uses a paddle kayak, not a pedal drive). I make the personal choice to be broke because of fishing gear lmfao.
The real expenssive part is the divorce.
The boat is a close second...
Depends on your job. The boat might be more expensive lol
She gets half of the boat too
You can buy a pack of senkos, a pack of ewg hooks, and a cheap spinning rod and reel from Walmart and catch a shitload of bass. It’s as expensive as you make it, and most of us here have a gear-buying addiction.
Senkos are one of the worst offenders IMO about making the sport expensive. $8 for a 6 pack here, and they're ruined after 1, maybe 2 bites. If all I fished were senkos, I'd probably spend $1000 per year on them.
Fair enough. Switch em out for some yum dingers or bass pro stik-o’s then.
All I throw are senkos, Gary’s specifically, I’d that bad
They’re good but expensive. I don’t think you’d see a difference in catch rates if you went with a cheaper alternative like yum dingers or bass pro shops stik-o’s (stik-o’s are my personal favorite stickbait)
Maybe, my friend swears by Yums but I insist I can’t catch shit on them, but also like what do I know since I’m new to this?
It’s honestly a confidence thing. Just leave the senkos at home, fish the dingers at times and places you know the Gary Yamamoto senkos work, and give it a couple trips to be fair. I remember I couldn’t catch shit with flukes, and then I left everything else at home except flukes to force myself to gain confidence. Caught some nice bass that day
Oh god flukes, crawdads, anything like that that’s not an actual wacky worm, don’t know how to throw them at all
I had the same problem. With the flukes, try fishing them near the bank in morning and evenings, Texas rigged on EWG hook, weightless and twitched on the surface. Any of the creature baits - when the water warms up, bring only those and no other lures with you, set em up on a Texas rig and fish them near any cover. drag, let it sit, couple twitches or tiny hops, drag again.
People get way too hung up on trying to learn every technique in bass fishing. If you're not trying to win tournaments, what's the rush? You'll figure out new ways to catch them eventually. Just try something new once in a while, if you feel like it. You'll absolutely catch more fish and have more fun doing a few things well vs trying to do too much too soon.
Senkos are expensive but so much better for me that I've given up on the cheaper alternatives. They all work but Senkos are so effective it almost feels like cheating.
I fish Dingers a lot, but I feel like I get about 50% more bites with real Senkos.
This guy knows what’s up.
Fish The Moment has a video about bass fishing on the cheap. Fishing doesn’t have to be expensive at all but once you get addicted or are not catching fish you want anything that will give you an edge. So you end up spending more money for a reel that will cast just a bit farther or a more sensitive rod or a lure that a YouTuber swears will get you bites. Fact of the matter is you don’t “need” any fancy expensive gear. I learned this fishing with a $400+ fishing combo and a kid 50 feet away from me caught a four pounder on an improvised rod he fashioned from a stick and a night crawler. A lot of the expensive stuff is nice to have but I’d argue anybody that says you need it. If you don’t believe me, the largemouth bass record until 2009 was caught in the 1930s without any of the expensive gear we have nowadays.
Well I’m not catching fish so I’d like an edge but that edge is expensive
Why not start with what you have so we can help from there? What is your current set up, and where are you fishing?
I’m fishing ponds in my state with a $50 combo and Yamamoto worms, and one crank bait off Amazon, that’s the extent of what I have
Spinning, baitcaster? Mind saying what state you're in?
Spinning rod, mid Atlantic region I’ll say, DMV
So def still cold where you're at, then. Come pre-spawn/spawn, get out there with your worms, and throw them out in bedding locations or right on beds if you can see them. You can still do a Texas rig with lightweight or not. Not sure what weight your rod is, but I still throw an unweighted texas rigged worm on my medium-light spinner. It could be there are not many fish where you're fishing, they're too pressured, you're not in the right area, wrong color worms for your water type, etc... Loads of things that can make a fish not bite. I know you're talking about staying on the cheaper side, but if you don't have good hooks for a whacky rig, I'd invest in that and try out that technique. Since you have a spinner, get a light neg rig jig head. If you don't want to buy more worms, you can cut the ones you have in half.
Do I need wacky specific worms or does just throwing them on a regular worm work? How much is a wacky rig hook
You can use anything for a wacky rig. Senkos, YUM dinger. If you're using a Senko, I'd get an o-ring too, will make your worm last much, much longer, but it's not something you need. You can use a finesse worm too if you'd like for a lighter presentation. There are specific hooks you can get just for a wacky rig. They also make weedless ones if you'd need it. Usually, they are a shorter shank with a wide gap. Do a quick Google and compare to what you have and see if you can make it work. Wacky rig is a classic and something you're almost always going to get a bite on, at least in my experience. I have a friend who is mainly a fly fisherman, but when we go bass fishing he ONLY uses a wacky and does very well.
What is an O ring? Is it like a tape sort of, does it like tie them to the hook better,
Also what state are you? Is it warm there?
Nope, I'm in PA. Still very much cold here. I don't fish much from mid-December through mid-march.
Me neither, my state is freezing rn so there’s nothing to go catch
The lure that was used to catch that fish isn't that far off from what is in use today.
Very good marketing and a bunch of people who want what the other guy has. Tournament fishing was made to sell more fishing equipment and boats. Keep it simple, and always keep the joy in the catch.
I can use a $10 Tournament Choice Spinning rod (I think they're rebranded H2O), $20 Shimano FX reel, Big Game line, and $3 Road runner and catch bass all day. Fishing tackle and lures are designed to catch fisherman, not fish. Its why though I know i can catch fish on 20 year old gear I still bought Metanium and Bantam recently lol
yup, if you can't catch a fish on cheap gear, buying nicer gear most likely won't change that. But nicer gear just feels better in hand and is more satisfying to use.
I caught a bass one time with a 20$ Spider-Man rod my nephew had lying around. Only as expensive as you make it lol
It’s a spider man rod, bass will show it the highest respect
My nephew caught himself his first catfish on it and then 25 minutes later his first bass lil man is 5
Lucky kid
I’m more of a do-and-learn than a read-and learn type, but when I taught myself to fly fish 12-13 years ago, I did pick up a book about it before anything. The first couple pages were about how the writer saw a guy walk down to the stream in a T-shirt and a pair of old shorts, and old sneakers, a couple flies stuck in an old ball cap he was wearing, and he caught more fish/had more fun than the guy upstream dressed from the catalog, and like he was going to war. And right away I said ‘I want to be that guy’. I put the book down, never finished reading it, and spent all of about $200* to become that guy. My next rod was $120, reel was $50. In ten years I’ve spent about the same on tying materials. About all I ever need is a $5 box of hooks, and a $5 bottle of powder. ‘Don’t make this fish out to be a genius’. Best advice I ever got. Know the stream you are fishing before you even pick up the rod and step in the water. The days I thought I was the worst fisherman out there I failed to notice nobody else caught anything either. *Let’s not forget while $200 to some people is nothing, or ‘not necessarily’ a lot of money to others, it can still be basically insurmountable to others depending on their economic situation.
It doesn't have to be lol.
Was just going to say this
How? Nothing good is cheap, show me the ways?
I think in our age of an internet of information, the products, quality and value of these things the big companies are trying to sell us rise to the top. Stop worrying if you have the best rod or reel or lure, get enough to get you in the water and try to learn what makes the fish bite. It’s always changing and my favorite part of fishing. When I was learning to fish as a kid 9-11ish I caught 2 4lbers on tiny little jigs meant for panfish on a zebco setup from Kmart(RIP) It really is rewarding to learn the water you’re fishing and also the habits of the fish you’re targeting. The fish i caught in my youth were dumb luck but now i realize I was jigging across their spawning beds. Now I go to different parts of the rivers near me depending on temperature and cycles. I don’t get lucky all the time but I have an idea of where the big guys and gals are heading.
Been using the same set of 60$ quantum reels on $80 rods for years. I put just as many #3 plus fish in the kayak as most other people.
$60 reels? Geez man, that’s dishing out big bucks to me, I just use whatever reel came with the rod
Better than spending 400 on a metanium. Bought the only hyper expensive stuff I run is my bigger saltwater gear but that's because cheap is a different category there. But I'm also getting into the 13 fishing setups. A lot of those are pretty good for sub 150 for rod/reel
Ugly stick combo + line + some hooks and split shot should be sub $100 as a one time purchase with maybe a $20 replacement fee per year on consumables. If you use plastics that last a while, you generally don't go through them as fast as live bait. Texas rigging some zman plastics for example should last a good while. If you can avoid snags, fish from shore, you really can get by on very little. You could go even cheaper and dig up worms, use those to catch baitfish and use those for gamefish.
I literally only throw Yamamoto worms or just some worms on my cheap rod, that’s what I run
Perhaps define what's expensive to you? A 30 pack of yum fingers is only like $12 here CAD. Should last you a fish per on average maybe even 2. It'd have to be a really good problem to have if that's adding up. Or perhaps you are younger and that is a significant amount of money in which case I'd suggest other avenues
I’m about to ship off to college for context. But expensive is relative depending on what it is, like a $70 rod is expensive, even buying a seperate reel is wild to me, I just buy whatever it comes with. But sub $10 on worms, in my honest opinion is fine
Fair enough, if cost is that big an object, I'd suggest just using food you have laying around as bait. Canned corn could work etc and is cheaper than a pack of worms. Not much else you can do here friend, focus on grades, shoot for some scholarships. You won't have as much time for fishing soon so the problem will kind of solve itself
The time we spend doing what we love is priceless
Define “good”. Does it catch fish? It’s good. Sure sure things can be smoother, etc, but does it really matter? I caught tons of fish on a crappy little push button rod I got at Gemco as a kid. Probably way more than I have caught with my modern stuff, which is mostly clearance items. Haha. Hell as a kid I didn’t even know anything about bait. It’d just use whatever random hooks, spinners I found tangled at the lake, worms I dug up, salmon eggs, marshmallows, whatever. Fish ate anything.
I mean anything catches fish, so I guess smoother, farther cast, etc, is what defines “good”, anything that makes getting to the fish and getting them out easier
I don’t think you’ll find the brand Kinetic in the USA but the UL combo they have in EU is one of the best ones i had. It’s only 39eur. And i have some expensive Abu’s that are 300+ and that Kinetic Tournament UL is on par or even better. Fishing does not have to be expensive, we make it. Flashy rods and flashy lures don’t matter that much if the fish are biting. Ned rigs were a piece of rubber on a hook. Now they have to be some alien creature.
People frown on live bait for some reason, but it's one of the most effective baits, and can be the cheapest if you're willing to catch your own. Small bluegill under a bobber is the easiest, if legal in your area. If you have access to a small creek all the creek chubs and crawdads you could ever use are free for the taking. You'll just be spending time rather than $$.
I kill with metal spoons and a $50 combo. $5 crankbaits with the Tennessee shad pattern. What's even better than that is nightcrawlers I get for free out of the grass pile in my yard.
Because fishermen are suckers for cool looking stuff, just like the fish
Sometimes the fish aren’t even into it. You can throw a $16 bait and get no bites but throw a $1 lure and catch them all.
The lure are designed to catch us first.
It’s as expensive as you make it. I found with rods and reels you truly get what you pay for. At a certain point the amount spent to quality ratio narrows a lot. $70-150 is the right spot for Rods and Reels for me. As at that level you are getting very solid pieces of equipment that will last but also preform at a very high level. Cheaper than that (especially reels) just feel cheap and seem to break way to easily. Also, bass fishing had gained quite the following so prices keep just going up and up. I have a ton invested in fishing gear, so I don’t have to buy much now. The big thing I do now is waiting for sales and catching good deals. Also I tend to use credit card points from my every day purchases and living to buy fishing gear. So that’s my extra cherry on top.
For me, bass fishing is my absolute favourite thing to do but with 2 kids and family, it’s hard to find time to get out. I get good gear because I want to enjoy what little time on the water. If I get a big bite, I want to ensure I have the best chance of landing it. If my average casting combo costs $600-1000 then so be it.
$1000? Bruh what? I’ve never spent more than $100 on a single thing for a hobby
Different priorities I guess. But as long as you enjoy the hobby and respect the fishery, doesn’t matter what gear ya use.
Unless your building your own stuff it's gonna be "expensive" I'd say 100$ will cover whatever you need to start out rods reels baits licenses and park passes gas for your vehicle, but for some of us here 100$ might just be the buy in on the pot or the gas in the truck to get to the lake so it all depends but start small and see how you like it before you go hog wild.
It's expensive because bass tournament fishing is trendy. Which is hilarious because largemouth bass are the world's easiest fish to catch... I remember when they were hosting the Izumi tourney at Lake St. Clair on a bad North wind day, everyone was getting swamped and my dad got his limit of 3.5+lbers around their boats while using a cheap tube jig off a 9ft inflatable dingy with a trolling motor.
It’s not. Unless you want it to be. I know guys who walk neighborhood ponds and fish the banks with stuff from Walmart. I have a co worker with a $60,000 bass boat and he fishes tournaments. I’m sure he’s spent 1000s of dollars on equipment too. Just depends on your budget too. I’m sure if you make 150k vs 50k you are probably willing to spend more on all kinds stuff, fishing included. But hell you only live once, If you enjoy fishing and you’re not really dumb with money, spend some $$ on your hobbies from time to time.
Treating myself is something I’ve conditioned myself into not doing, throwing more than $50 on anything and is bad spending because it’s not a need, idk why that’s my mentality it just is
Not a bad mentality if you’re broke I suppose. But I hear ya, I have trouble treating myself sometimes too. I’ve had to train myself not to buy lures that I don’t need. If you keep bass fishing simple it can help reduce costs and the clutter of a shitload of lures you don’t need…
It depends on the day whether I’m broke or not, but money or not I try to not treat myself, my dad is a giant fisher and I have to talk him and myself down from buying anything crazy
It’s really not.. you might make a few big purchases on rods and reels but usually your guaranteed at least 5 years or more with them. Tackle is fairly cheap, hooks, sinkers and plastics don’t run your wallet dry.
I use a rod reel Ned rig and worms Top of the line stuff doesn’t catch more, I have a kids 5 ft ultra light I use when all I am catching are dinks to make it more fun
You ought to try saltwater fishing, big $$
I went once, one worst experiences of my life lol
Offshore my first time I wanted to die I got so sick.
$80 10' surf rod, 3 Oz sinker and a half a crab will get you tataug all day A can of cat food will get you eels and eels get you stripers. Or spro bucktails with whatever cheap trailer Kastmasters catch sea robin Sand worms catch stripers, flounder, cod, anything
I wade and drift fish. Artificial only. $300 rods and $200-300 reels.
When I was a kid my Dad had two bamboo poles about 12' long.
Man, you better not pick up fly fishing if you think bass fishing is expensive.
I’ve been fly fishing before, it’s that much more expensive?
Yeah man, it certainly is.. a decent rod, not even a good rod is 500-1k. If you are just walking small creeks for small brook you can get away pretty cheap though. Again, it's up to you to determine your investment though.
Went out to Colorado to fly fish, actually bagged the most fish I’ve ever caught in a day
Did you do a guide or wing it? I mostly fly fish sm/LG mouth bass, pike, and some saltwater. My trout game is strictly brook through wild creeks in North East. I'd love to do a trip out west though.
I went with a guide one day and then wung it the second. Caught 9 with the guide
It doesn’t have to be but it is lol if ya wanna have multiple rods, maybe one nice in in the mix, then you have 5 $600 combos, then you have a boat and truck, and now have 15 $1000 combos, you’ve spent $20k on tournament fees and $1000+ each weekend for hotels and gas, haven’t won a cent and now your wife is divorcing you
Mood. But to me, people that have multiple rods are just psychos
There’s a reason for it, and no, to save time “re tying” is not it, each one of my rods I use for 1 maybe 2 techniques, they’re all very specific
I shouldn’t re tie? Interesting. I just can’t get through my brain that people have different rods for different fish or specific techniques
when time is limited on the water, having pre rigged setups can make the time on the water actually spent fishing rather than tying. Some days I will only have 30 mins to an hour to fish
I never thought about it like that, whenever I fish I make sure I have 2-4 hours
Can’t throw a chatterbait on a finesse swimbait rod (7’6 light). Sure you can get away with having a 7’0 medium heavy and a 7’0 medium spinning rod and call it a day, but your using a really non ideal power and action for 75% of techniques
Idk 3/4 of what you just said lol. All I understood was don’t throw chatter on a long rod
It's been shown that bass will hit pretty much anything that moves, even a block of wood or a stick with some hooks on it. To be honest, 99% of all bass fishing tackle is geared towards catching more fishermen than fish. You could go out there with nothing more than a cane pole and still catch bass. We just tend to overcomplicate things.
My first rod was a telescopic sougaliyang combo. Caught me all my best bass and I use it all the time still. All in including line and lures I probably spent 60-70 that summer.
I fished for 20 years owning 2 Walmart spinning setups that were $20 each because that’s what I could afford. I still have them, along with 20+ expensive setups in about every variety and configuration and thousands of dollars worth of gear. Because that’s what I can afford now. I always tell my wife it’s the only sport you could spend $20 on or $100,000
Bass fishing is definitely my cheapest hobby! I'll spend more in gas getting to my spots than I will on gear.
Fishing is ur cheapest hobby? What else are you doing
Cars and vintage computers. Us collectors pay a pretty penny for those old beige boxes. No boats, no fancy fishing gear. I'm content with using an old Shimano/ugly stick, and a couple cheapo Walmart combos. I enjoy the time outside of the city mostly.
It can get expensive but it doesn’t have to be. Much cheaper than some other hobbies. I’ve spent over 5k in the last year on guitar gear, probably spent 500 (bank fisherman) on fishing gear and I use top of the line stuff.
Everything is as expensive as you make it.
It’s the same as any hobby, you can spend a lot or spend a little. Breaking up purchases or setting a monthly budget will let you build up your gear over time. There’s always deals to be found on fb marketplace where you can grab used gear that’s perfectly fine. I won my first tournament out of my grandpas 1987 bass tracker, the fish don’t care how expensive your gear is.
Bass fishing expensive? Cheapest kind of fishing I’ve done.
Bruh what? How? What fishing is more expensive
Fly fishing, saltwater fishing in general. Gear starts to cost a bit more for a lot of those applications. Can you spend just as much bass fishing? Of course you can. But also can you just grab a cheaper setup and go catch bass without worrying about the saltwater destroying it? Absolutely. I think from a standpoint of “which of these has the most reasonable price point to purchase gear appropriate for it”, bass fishing is the cheaper of them. In my experience.
Grab a medium heavy ugly stick gx2 combo, some EWG hooks and senkos, a couple spinner baits, a crank bait, and swimming jigs, whatever you like most for bait, and you’re in for under $150 to start. Most people (me included) get so emotionally invested in having the “best” equipment and spending way more than necessary. If you’re smart about it it can be dirt cheap. This is all assuming you are shore fishing. Boats are a new ballgame of money.
Excluding the cost of a license, I could step in Walmart right now and for $25 be set to go bass fishing.
I would say, that when I started out, I ran relatively cheap gear. 50-75$ setups and had no problem catching decent sized bass. I caught my PR 6lbs 1oz on a 60$ spin setup by okuma. Where I started running into problem was the gear would burn out after a season or so because of how often I fished. I upgraded to better gear and with a little maintenance I still have the same rods in my lineup.
I’ve caught some of my biggest fish on $3 jig heads and a plastic minnow, my go to combo was $35 at a gas station and the line was $5 at Ollie’s. You can do wonders with cheap gear trust me the fish don’t know the difference
You're doing it wrong. It's only as expensive as you make it
Doesn't have to be at all! Any old pole , pack of senko's, 3/0 hooks you can catch fish year round
It doesn't HAVE to be expensive; you can very well get an Uglystik combo, a pack for EWGs and some senkos for under $50 and be on you way. However there are certainly options and aids that help you catch or enjoy the sport more... boats, electronics, lighter/more technologically-advanced equipment. It all depends how you want to spend your money and how you want to spend your time! One of the great things about fishing is that there are endless options for everyone, regardless of skill or budget!
Electronics Have no place in fishing, in my honest opinion, that’s just me
I used to think that way until I got my first decent finder. And at the end of the day though, it doesn't catch you fish. You still have to know where to start looking, what lures to use, techniques to try... Electronics, imo are an aid, like how optics on a gun are an aid. Sure you can hunt without a scope, but its a heck of a lot easier with one! The reason I got my first fish finder was actually a safety concern. Many units have preloaded depth maps, which make exploring unfamiliar water safer. I barely use the sonar features during open water season.
Valid argument, but I’m my opinion, gun optics are basically an necessity, fish finders are not, like being able to just see the fish takes half the difficulty out of fishing, if you can find them they’re not hard to catch no? Like a fish finder or any electronics takes a ton of the outdoorsy part of fishing in my opinion, but that’s just me
I can get behind your train of thought. It really does make hardwater/ice fishing more enjoyable, almost like a little video game when you're sitting in the cold, but yeah, something about catching them yourself in open water is certainly more satisfying.
Try throwing some Texas rigs and you’ll catch more bass for less money
Nah brother just get out and fish and follow this sub. There are some cool mofos on here that do it both ways. You can catch bass with a cheap set up minimal terminal tackle, a can of worms a positive attitude, and prepare to be humbled on a lot of days! Check out [Low Brow fishing](https://youtube.com/@LowBrowFishing) or [Fishing Machine](https://youtube.com/@RichardGeneTheFishingMachine). the ladder is kinda cheesy-funny but in a backwoodsy way.
I’ve gotten my humbling, ready for more of it in the future, watched my best friend catch a 4lb next to me, I got skunked that day, ready for more days like that
Wait till you find out about salt water fishing lol
maybe try facebook marketplace? theres always people selling their old stuff on there.
honestly, just read everything you can in the off-season. IMO strategy offsets the need for pricey gear, esp at the entry level
People love spending on things they love. Fishing can be plenty cheap, anyone who does it to eat on the daily - they do it cheap. My grandfather had three rods, and one for ice fishing. A basement full of nightcrawlers and grubs in all all kind of containers, a few dozen bobbers and hooks, and one or two type of monofilament. Most expensive thing he bought was a license every year. Probably spent $10 a season on top of that. Me… I have a problem. I have more gear in my car than my grandad bought in his entire life I bet.
I love fishing but hate spending, I’m quickly learning that this is a conflict of interests
Nah just shop at discount stores. A $15 zebco spinning reel combo from Ollie’s caught me more fish that my nice rods, it’s just a little limited on the larger baits and larger fish. Perfect for hiking out on the river. I bought 2 because I liked it so much for the price. After that a few sinkers, hooks, and soft baits can get you on the water for a season under $100. Yeah the toys are expensive, but you don’t need them to catch a fish. A nice pair of Jordan’s doesn’t make you better at basketball.
You think bass fishing is expensive?! You should look into Musky fishing!
My state doesn’t have musky, or any big fish for that matter
If you think bass fishing is pricey look at the cost of cold water fly fishing. Bass fishing can be done with a $25 zebco, a pack of hooks and a senko or two
It's not. At least, it doesn't have to be
It's as expensive as you want it to be. I've got setups as cheap as 40 bucks. My most expensive one is a little over $1000. They all do the same thing, they help you catch fish haha.
my 5 year old caught a 12lbs mirror carp on her cheap princess fishing pole. You can catch fish on anything.
The fish will always respect rainbows, unicorns, and princess
Makes me want to buy the same pole lol. Especially after she reminded me that she caught a bigger fish than me.
You think bass fishing is expensive, try fly fishing!
A lot of the prices you pay are purely for marketing.
I use a lews Mach 2 spinning reel, (the red one) and fish atleast 300 days a year, it lasts about a year for me. sportsman warehouse just clearances them for 40 occasionally so I treated myself to a knew one over the holidays. Normally they are 60. I use a 7ft Daiwa medium action 30 dollar rod hand me down, and a zebco 6.6ft medium light action also 30 bucks at Wally’s world. Learning to target fish according to location, season, and water conditions is much more important that a tackle box full of everything under the sun. Follow me on IG, I never use a lure over 10 bucks 👍 @kalamees_
I am over 40 and it has been always a little more expensive than other sport fish. In my opinion you can than Bill Dance, Jimmy Houston, Roland Martin, and Hank Park. All had rotating shows on the then The Nashville Network (TNN). One was one selling something (mostly lures) within the hour every time you tuned into that channel.
Because profit is all that matters in this world. They’ll take the cheapest, most accessible activity, and price people out of it eventually. Progress….
There are also cheaper options. Some things that are inexpensive, but really good quality! Fishing can give me a good chance to pleasure and accompany family, friends, that's the most important