Fishing is very much like diving.

The more something becomes popular the more it becomes costly.

I too started fishing with an old tomato stick, dodged hand reel and used wire staples as my guides and yeah, mamaged to catch bream, flathead and mudcrab when I was 14.

when I was 16 I gained my PADI Openwater diver qualification at a cost of $68.00, I thought that was damn expensive, I went as far as Divemaster Qualified. Now, some many years later the same beginners course cost anywhere from $240.00 to $380.00 depending who teaches it.

Nothing has changed in that course except the Dive Repitition table for Decompression / Deep Dives..

As more and more peop;e are attracted to it then katching, katching, the dollars go up, up, and up.

The other motto is same as Brownie from Coastwatch which is "don't destoy what you came to enjoy".

Thats my look on life at a realistic view. Peter