Fees, Fees and more Fees!

[Fishin Fool]

Looking into doing a TX down in Alabama. Wow! Non-resident fees are $26 per person for 7 days. Maybe it's just me but is everyone getting money hungry? I haven't fished out of state because we have such a great fishery here, but what happened to a one day fee? By the time you gassed up the boat, put gas in the truck to pull it, pay your entry fee, and buy your license you have popped well over $150! We ain't even talked about buying food yet!
A 7 day license is like burning money, unless you are getting a motel room and staying for awhile. Just venting here, no need to take it serious, BUT Just strikes me as funny how things are. Example; They tell us to read more books and encourage the kids to, but then the price of a paperback goes to $7.99! Hrdbacks are $24.99 at the bottom of the scale. They tell us to eat right, but the price of lean healthy meats range from $4.99 per pound and up. Big Macs are a lot cheaper, expecially if you are parents trying to stretch from pay check to pay check with hungry kids to feed. They tell us to get preventive medical check up's (thats for the ones that can afford insurance) but a check up is waaaaaaay outta reach for most (mine being one of them) uninsured pockets. We are supposed to take care of our animals but most vets ($200 this week for a cat with a cold) want to rob you when walk in! Heck if you go to the dentist ($2600 last year) you better have finiancing, cause you're gonna need it! I'm sick to death of everyone chipping off a little piece. This is not political, I don't care who you vote or support, but something has to change sometime soon are we are all going to sink. The rich are getting richer and the middle class is getting eat up by debt and despair. I don't even want to mention the poor because the light is rapidly dimming for them. A lot of them work their butts off and are one pay check away from being homeless. Sorry about that, just had to vent a little. Again, it's not a political rant, so please don't make it into one, it's just the facts as they are. Sad that fishing is rapidly becoming a luxury instead of a tradition. Things are gonna have to change.

 

[SpurHunter]

Terry I can see you need to fish REALLY bad....you need the relaxation! You have told no lies though....

 

[DHaun]

All that is true and it can really get you down thinking about the complex economics of finite resources and increasing demand. One thing I can ensure if it helps is that there will be No fees for CFF - It's still Free! emoBigsmile

 

[Fishin Fool]

DHaun - 1/13/2008 11:13 PM

All that is true and it can really get you down thinking about the complex economics of finite resources and increasing demand. One thing I can ensure if it helps is that there will be No fees for CFF - It's still Free! emoBigsmile

Thanks for reminding me David. It is a blessing and a pleasure to be on CFF. The value of this site to me has been huge in the years I have been here!

 

[SpurHunter]

DHaun - 1/13/2008 11:13 PM All that is true and it can really get you down thinking about the complex economics of finite resources and increasing demand. One thing I can ensure if it helps is that there will be No fees for CFF - <u>It's still Free!</u> emoBigsmile

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[blazer]

i know,everything is going up except my paycheck.emoMad

 

[Bprice]

Just buy a year license for 17 bucks more and enjoy our lakes year round...

 

[SpurHunter]

Bprice - 1/14/2008 12:38 AM Just buy a year license for 17 bucks more and enjoy our lakes year round...

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Resident?</p>

 

[Bprice]

Out of state license is $46 a year to fish Alabama waters.

 

[Guest]

FF much of our problems are self induced. We don't "need" gas guzzling suv's but we have them. We don't "need" 20,30,40 50 thousand dollar boats to fish. We don't need the $100 to $400 rods and multiplied dozens of lures. We don't "need" to go out of state to fish. We have as good or better a fishery right at home. I totally agree that the poor have it hard but that is the way it has been since the beginning of time. The middle class is having a hard time because of trying to keep up with the Jones. Living beyond their means. We can eat healthy if we want to without breaking the bank. We don't have to go out to eat and we don't have to teach our children that we must go to McDonalds or wherever. Fishing is not becoming a luxury, we are making it a luxury. Lots of folks fish that don't owe a penny for their equipment and they have just as much fun as we do. Probably more because they don't have to worry about whether to make a boat payment or put gas in that boat.
I am not being political here either. I have 2 huge gas drinking vehicles that I make payments on. I have a boat that I make payments on and am wanting another that will have even higher payments. I have credit card bills that came because I wanted a new $200 rod or a new gun or scope or whatever. My wife and I go out to eat several times a month and eat at places that cost $50 plus for the 2 of us. What I am saying is that if there comes a time that I am struggling financially I have only one place to look. In the mirror!

 

[jon the fisherman]

All I have to say is....you only live once, so enjoy it while you can. If you want a new fishing rod and this makes you happy, then get it.

My dad worked his butt off, and when he was 62, and three years from retirement....he died. All that hard work and money saved did nothing for him.

 

[flip1up]

Everything yall said is so true. Thing is, just trying to stay at the level of life you were at not many years ago is very hard. Everthing has went up alot higher than the pay scale. I guess we just have to cut out what we can or will. Jim is right though, you only live once and you gotta try to enjoy life. I am feeling the pinch, think I'll have a beer and a smoke while I think about it

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[Guest]

I agree totally with Jim too. My point is that if the pinch comes it is no one's fault but mine and I look to no one to get me out of it.

 

[Fishin Fool]

Lot of truth here but the fact is a dollar buys a lot less now than it did a few years ago. That is a fact. I don't drive a gas guzzling SUV, I drive a v-6 pickup, but it costs me %50 more per year to keep it on the road. Lots of people are trying really, really hard and just not seeing wages go up, while prices and fees do. Sure we have SOME control over ourselves but I don't control the price of grocerys, gas, electricity,taxes, license fees, health care costs, insurance fees and so on and on......For many, many years this country had a thriving middle class that could aspire to an even better future. Now it seems that wealth is "handed down" rather than made with hard work. The rich are getting richer and the middle class (even the ones that try and keep up with the Jones) are having a much harder time of it. We can close our eyes and say it ain't so but that doesn't make it better, it just makes us blind.

 

[BackOnTheWater]

You're absolutely right, Terry.</p>

I've seen this occurring over the last couple of decades, and it IS nearing critical mass.</p>

I've tightened MY belt (I have no internet or telephone at home and just better than basic, non-digital cable) , but affording life is getting tougher by the day. Cost of living salary increase? The leaders of the company for which I work do not even like hearing the term, much less considering it!</p>

If I did not have health insurance (and my company pays 60% of mine) I'd be long in my grave by now.</p>

 

[2jigs]

We'll this is a realy diff. thread for me. I have meet or talked to everyone on this thread (so far), away from the forum ether on the phone or in pearson & think the world of you All!..............................</p>

 I was going along the other day & some one cut me off. Another was trying to out run me, so I stood on the gas & let her go. Right as I was about to give them a dirty look (or worse) I saw them smilling & waveing at me. It made me think of something Cheez had said about the garbage truck. I thought to my self that I could have slowed down & got behind them with a smile on my face & been in a hole lot better mood, so I did. If you don't worry about it or even think about it. In your own mind & in your own world it goes away. I guess what I'm saying is........

 Don't Worry Be Happy!........................................... 

                        Try it it works. </p>

 

[drumking]

Perception. Our world as "we" see it may not be the way that the world "really" is, but only how we perceive it to be. I hear the comments and I feel the pain, but put yourself in another part of the world. How would you perceive the world if you were a citizen of Mexico? Or if you were living in the mountains of Afganistan? Or on the plains of Africa? Or dwelling in a nomadic flapping tent in the Sahara desert?

We are so blessed in America, despite all these nagging little problems that we face in our day to day living. The joy is in the journey throughout this life. If we dwell on the negatives, we will never enjoy all the things that the good Lord has given to us. If life gives you lemons, then just make lemonade. Be thankful that we can pay $3.00 a gallon for gas. Be thankful that we have 30,000 dollar boats, 400 dollar rod/reels and the freedom to use them. Thank a soldier for risking/giving their lives so that we can sit over here in America and belong to the Mount Wilderness Church of murmurers and complainers. (I was being facetious in the last part of that comment).

I'm not being political or religious either. I'm just thankful that I have met so many of you guys/gals and everyone has been great. Now let's get back to fishing tales. emoBigsmile emoGeezer

 

[BackOnTheWater]

2jigs - 1/14/2008 3:29 PM

 Don't Worry Be Happy

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You know me, jigs...I don't worry...and I'm relatively happy, I think...but reality DOES set in every so often...

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Good to see you feel like posting again !

 been a while...</p>

 

[Fishin Fool]

Dickey I love you to death but we aren't real careful the folks in Bejing are going to be the ones doing the complaining in OUR place and we'll be the ones in the place of Mexico and other countries in the posting you made. Peception is relative to where you are. But it also relative to where you WERE. If we are content to allow ourselves the long slide down to where the rest of the world would like to see us without complaint, count me out. I thank God for what I have, but I sure ain't going to give what I DO have up without a fight.

One more thing while I am on the subject. More in more in this country there seems to be the idea that if everything is "ok" in YOUR world then everything is ok. That is not the case. When things aren't "ok", for example for 47 million of us without health insurance, then things won't be "ok" for everyone for long. If people begin to lose jobs and do without, things won't be "ok" in your world. If gas hits $8 a gallon your world won't be "ok" much longer. When the crash hit Wall Street things quickly became NOT "ok', but instead the Great Depression.

We are certainly blessed to live in a country where we can complain about these things, but it doesn't make us bad people to look at the world around us and try and preserve it. Neither does it say we are selfish. We as a people fought and clawed and worked our way to where we are. Are we spoiled? Sure we are. But if we aren't careful we won't have to worry about it, because it will be someone else eating the cream besides us. If Americans are content with that, then don't complain.

Dickey, I STILL think you are one of the best people I've ever met!

 

[SpurHunter]

  I thought this thread was about fishing licenses....