Scavenging
I have been collecting fishing gear on the cheap. One friend suggested I go to pawn shops, but I find few bargains. Yards sales have been more productive. Not every stop yields a good buy, but the occasional weekend brings a great value. Two of my last four yard sale expeditions were especially great.
Most recently I met an old basser that could no longer get into a boat. He had obviously gotten rid of his best equipment by the time of my afternoon arrival. Nevertheless, I traded forty dollars for an Ambassadeur 5600 CA, more than thirty vintage plugs (mostly arbogaster and heddon topwater types, like the hula popper and skitterbug), a dozen spinner baits, a universe of hooks, three tackle boxes (two in pretty bad shape), and a ten pound rainbow of plastic worms. I am still sorting through the haul three weeks later.
Two months ago I noticed a yard sale with fishing gear in the local classifieds. Arriving right on time, I snapped up an Ocean Kayak Scrambler XT (Angler Edition) with paddle, anchor, vest, spare seat, et cetera for $100! I left the ten-dollar canoe for someone else. For five dollars more I picked up about ten plug lures, an assortment of softbaits, 10 pounds of lead (pyramid and egg weights), assorted light tackle boxes, and a Penn Silver 130 spinning reel with a floppy bail. I fixed the reel with a 90-cent spring (five dollars for postage, of course) and it is very smooth.
I also watch ebay, but this requires a lot of trolling and discipline. Bidding frenzy is common, so I am careful to figure out my ultimate price (including shipping). I initially enter a bid slightly lower than my limit and if necessary increase the bid to my limit in the last minutes of the auction. I have bought fishing flies for half the tackle shop price, and purchased four nice rods (eight, nine and twelve feet and a six footer with roller tip,) for 50 bucks. Reels are hard find at a good price on ebay.
All told, I have saved thousands of dollars buying used gear. The fish have not seemed to notice that they were caught on the cheap.
