For all the friends and aquaintances that want to go fishing and don't have a clue as to costs. It always seems less expensive when the other guy pays.

Quick tally with gas for boat, truck and bait/tackle - $100.

How do the rest of you do?
How do you cut costs?
How do you get help with $$$.

Enjoy Life!

Wake-up Service: $5
Coffee: $5
Tansportation: $20-$50
Tackle: $50
Bait: $10
Technique: $75
Wader, boot rental $15
Fly gear (optional) $75
Photos: $15
Cost of spending time with a devoted fishing addict and responsible outdoorsman who understands the ecological systems and the importance of each of it members: INVALUABLE
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Total Cost: Their undying gratitude...

Fishing costs as much as you want it to. I remember as a kid riding my bicycle down to the river and catching fish with my $15 rod and reel combo. A couple spinners and I was good to go. Kind of miss those simple days.

Isn't that the truth.If I only knew what those trips to the creek with two rusty hooks and a package of leader were going to lead to
I find that the extra cost initially with the super braid lines saves me a lot in monofiliament.The super braids will hang in there for a season where I would end up respooling mono every few days of hard fishing!You also get more of your terminal tackle back.
If you fish hardware Remove all trebles and replace with singles you will lose alot less hardware!
When you are first starting out find a river that has fish in it as close to home as posible and learn it.This saves you from spending money chasing fish all over the state.Every river needs to be fished diferantly,figuring one or two at a time saves alot of money in gas,and shortens the learning curve!
Choose a method of fishing that you are confident with and learn it.Then choose another and learn it.This saves you from buying way more tackle than you need.Whether it is drift fishing,bobber jig fishing,spoon,plug,or fly,It is going to take alot more than a season to learn the finer part of the art!Choose one or two methods and stick with them!I think the confidence that the method will work is more important than the method itself!
Buy the highest Quality you can afford!Quality is not necessarilly defined by an outragous price tag!Quality will always save money in the long run!
Buy terminal tackle i.e swivels ,hooks etc, in bulk numbers when posible.
I sleep out of my rig on trips buy myself when I go out to the west end.I would rather end a day on the river around a camp fire than in front of the cable t.v of a hotel room.I also pack my cooler with grub out of my fridge instead of buying on the road.
I still can't make it around the horn to the west end without at least dropping a hundred dollar bill.Of course there are a couple of buisneses out there I make sure to spend my money in and this acounts for some of this bill.

I agree with the camping thing, I bought a conversion van and I'll bet it has almost paid for itself when you figure 2 night motel at 50 bucks a night four time a month. I also found that you can get good eats if you cook at home and vacuum pak your food. All thats needed is a sml burner and a pot full of water. The hard part is not spending the money you save on new gear!

Bill

Those days of hoppin on the bicycle and riding over to the pond that the F&W stocked yearly with trout and steelhead, wow, what great times. My first fishing pole was a hand-me-down 7' Eagle Claw that my dad had found in the mud on the Grande Ronde. He cleaned it up and re-wrapped the guides, re-did the cork and gave it to me for probably the earliest birthday that I could remember, toppped with a brand-new Mitchell 300 spinning reel, total cost in 1981: probably 50$. I used this pole and reel for about 10 years before taking a rod building class in high school that made me so proud of the fish I caught on a rod that I made. I probably caught 20-30 steelies and 100s of trout on those 2 poles until I joined the Army in 95. Now, with a good job, newly married, fishing costs as much as the wife will let it. I balance it with hunting tags and guns, so most of the expensive poles, reels, and other tackle fall on birthdays, Christmas, and special holidays. This is my calculation for a day's fishing in W WA if you are just starting out: Priceless. Whether it is an Eagle Claw or a Loomis, Calcutta or Mitchell, the money you spend on gear will soon go away when you get out on the river, in June or February. I will agree with the guy above, buy the best quality that you can, but don't NOT go fishing because you may not have what the pros say is the best. Like a fellow members quote reads: "A lot of people go fishing without really knowing that it isn't fish they are after".