Capt. Tim Ramsey
I think we reached a milestone the other day. First, a disclaimer; I am not much of a bait fisherman. I know it is the best way to catch basically everything, but I’m just not big on it. Maybe I question why I would kill little fish to catch and release big fish, I don’t know. My wife likes to fish with shrimp-tipped jigs, but she is stuck in Panama due to the COVID lockdown, so I’ve been up to my normal plastic jig tail-on-a-bucktail preferred method; it works surprisingly well for me.
So, I took an old army buddy fishing and he asked if we should get some live shrimp. I figured if he were comfortable using them, I would grab some for him. I went to a local marina/bait shop/fishing pier (not going to tell you who or where) and ordered three dozen shrimp. When I got the bill, not only did we hit a milestone, my jaw hit the counter. $21 dollars plus tax. Holy smokes!
Reeling from the absurdity of $.58 cents each for the absolute peewees in the bucket, I numbly paid the bill and got back to the boat. Moving away from the dock, it dawned on me; my 8-foot Cracker cast net cost me $160 dollars four years ago. I bought dozens of shrimp at five-bucks a dozen over the last few years, so I paid for that net a few times over. If I bought a new net instead of $7 dollar-a-dozen shrimp, it would pay for itself in only nine trips (the net is $180 now).
This made me think about (and possibly question) my other tackle. Are the bucktail jigs I have used since they were $.99 cents still worth it at $3.50? Why do I have nearly fifty of them? Are the $25 bottles of Gulp baits still necessary? Why do I own 30 fishing rods? Why do I have extra reels? Is $35 braid something I need? How many hats can I wear? Do I need four cans of line and reel spray? How long would it take, using live bait, to pay for my next annual service? Why can’t bug spray come in a bigger can? Would I finally be able to get out of Bass Pro Shops without spending over three hundred dollars? Is my live bait attitude just silliness? If Cosmonauts are in the Cosmodrome, why aren’t Astronauts in the Astrodome? Wait. Skip that last one. Who knows? One thing is apparent; my cast net is worth its weight in gold.