Back when I was a kid you could hit the tackle shop on the pier and buy a hand line for a buck and they’d throw in a few dead anchovies for free and you were in business. These days it’s a whole different story.
A while back I did a post on putting together a kit for fishing from sailboats and I got enough positive feedback to put together a sailboat fishing kit to save folks the hassle of putting one together themselves. The other driving force was since I knew all of the best deals on productive lures I thought I could come up with a much more affordable kit as well.
The problem I run into is that putting together an inexpensive kit that includes all one needs winds up being a lot more expensive than you’d think. The idea of a handline based fishing kit made to order including a handline, snubber, a bird or flasher, a basic set of rigged trolling lures and some miscellaneous extras for fifty dollars just seems nuts. That said, there are a few kits out there which are even more expensive albeit less complete so that $50 price point seems to be as frugal as possible.
Still that’s a long way from that dollar handline and a handful of dead anchovies.
Of course, if you think that’s interesting drop me a line with your cruising plans and I’d love to put together a kit based on what you want to catch.