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Yes, fishing is hard.
It costs $ for bait/lures/tackle (rods reels line). money that I got from working hard. A vehicle will set you back a few bucks (4WD ?) with all appropriate beach licences
It cost time and hard work to figure out the right knots to use, the right leaders, swivels, hooks. How tight to set the drag,
Its hard to figure which lures to use (plugs,rubber,bait,jigs, eels...)
Its hard to figure out which line to use (braid/mono) and how heavy (20 pound mono? 15? 30? or braid 50/65) and then is your rod and reel "braid friendly"
Its hard to take time to go to your spots, all times of day and night to see what and when they will bite.
Surfcasting can be physically tireing. Your whipping a 8-13 foot long rod with a 1-5 ounce lure and trying to cast to far out areas. You hope the fish are there and will take what you offer.
You must learn to read the water. Where are the sloughs.bars,rips,holes and eddies that might hold fish, thats kind of hard, something that can't be learned without repeated observation, trial and error. You leave to go at 10:00 P.M. drive an hour or 2 to get there when the tide is right, Go out into the darkness hoping that something will be there when you should be home sleeping comfortably beside your mate. After doing that, you might drive home to do it all the next day (even if you didn't catch anything the first night you went).
If you do happen to hook a fish, you now have a battle on your hands. If its a decent fish you have to "play" it so the hook doesn't come loose or whatever in the fishes instinct does that causes a fish to come loose and get away. How many of us have "dropped" a good fish or 5 ? I think everyone has (just part of the work involved).
So, now you have $1000 invested in rod,reel,lures/tackle,waders, plug and eel bags, maybe a bicycle.
And your vehicle has rod holders and a cooler (more investment of your hard work)/ Do you need a gaff ? a scale to weigh it ?
How about a lamp or flashlight ? red/green lens ?
So. now that you actually caught a fish, you need a tape measure to see if it's 28" and the decision wether to keep it or release it.
If you keep it, you'll need a good knife and whetstone and will need to learn how to clean/fillet your prize. Learning to fillet fish correctly is always fun and a little work.
Now, what do you do with the rack and carcas ? Do you clean the fish at the beach or drag it home ? Alot of work
Or, do you release it ? Do you know how to remove a hook without causing harm to the fish ? If you hold the fish and remove the slime, the fish will probably die after release. Again, alot of work. Do you have a hook disgorger and a pair of fishing plyers ?
Do you like climbing dangerous rocks (canal/Rockport/Newport ) or walking distances on a soft sand beach in your waders? Got a wader belt ? Is the place you fish rocky ? do you need Korkers (spiked shoes) so you don't slip and kill yourself while walking over "black rock" (algea covered rock) or rockweed. Again, just the physicality of striper fishing is alot of work.
So now you come home, have cleaned your fish (or released it). You want to wash your clothes and wash down your equipment. Did you back off the drag on your reels (don't want to compress the drag washers). How much tackle did you loose ? lures snapped off ? Work. work, work
I haven't said anything about boat fishing..talk about work
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