Just Some Thoughts On Fishing
My wife and I are rewarded ourselves recently for our gastric-bypass surgery weight loss by purchasing new fishing rod and reel combos. We plan on going fishing when it cools off later this month. We actually got some nice combos at Crum’s Mini-Mall in Panacea, FL (which, in my humble opinion, has the best selection of fishing gear in this area – they even beat all the places in Tallahassee). We’ve scoped out several good public freshwater and saltwater fishing spots in the region and we plan on starting at a public pier in Panacea at Woolley Park. We used to go fishing a lot when we dated and while we were newly married but weight gain made it harder and harder to walk the distances to get to fishing spots and more difficult to stand for long periods of time. Eventually we quit going and left the gear in the garage. When we decided to start fishing again, I checked the old rods and reels and found that the years in storage weren’t kind to them. I had this gear since I was in high school so they are almost 40 years old and even though they were some of the better gear at that time, the years in storage had caused enough damage to force us to go ahead and buy new gear. Rather than try some new brands we didn’t know much about, we went with what we knew and trusted, Shakespeare rods and Zebco 888 spincast reels. Good, all-purpose gear for us. We can use them for both saltwater and freshwater fishing. I know purists will decry our choice of using a close spincast reel for saltwater fishing but frankly, neither I nor my wife have the ability to cast with any open faced reel. The backlash (or birdnests) we would create would cause too much frustration for our time to be enjoyable. We don’t even know where to go to be taught. Anyway, I’ve used closed reels in saltwater conditions for years and years growing up and into adulthood and as long as it’s rinsed off with freshwater and allowed to dry thoroughly before storage it suffers no ill effects. I just make sure to lubricate the parts periodically.
Now with that said, here’s the reason I was inspired to write this; I was looking online at fishing rods and came across some that were offered for sale at a mere $450. That’s right, $450! That blew me away. Both of ours cost only a fraction of that (about 7% each) and are probably just as good. I cannot see spending $450 on a factory made fishing rod even with Bill Gates’ income. It just doesn’t make sense.