Boat ramp traffic way down and fewer boats on the water?

Everything over the last few years has just gotten crazy expensive. I'm only staying in Comifornia because two of my grandkids are still here. I think the middle class is just trying to keep a roof over there heads here in CA. There's no left over money for boating.

$1,400 month for Health insurance for wife and I (used to be $600)
$6K year Home and fire insurance (used to be $2,800)
$5.50 gallon gas
$600 month electricity
$250 month water (my friends tell me that's cheap)
$100 or more to take my wife to dinner
$62 year for CA fishing license
$22 to launch and fish on local lakes

I used to have larger boats because I fished the ocean. You'd burn through $300-400 in fuel going out for tuna. Now I just have my 16' Crestliner with a 40 hp and I love it. I can launch it on my own and there's pleanty of room for 2-3. AND, it's super cheap on fuel to fish our local lakes. I only go Mon-Fri and the lakes around here are pretty wide open with few boats. The weekend in San Diego is another story....

Boosh said:

Everything over the last few years has just gotten crazy expensive. I'm only staying in Comifornia because two of my grandkids are still here. I think the middle class is just trying to keep a roof over there heads here in CA. There's no left over money for boating.

$1,400 month for Health insurance for wife and I (used to be $600)
$6K year Home and fire insurance (used to be $2,800)
$5.50 gallon gas
$600 month electricity
$250 month water (my friends tell me that's cheap)
$100 or more to take my wife to dinner
$62 year for CA fishing license
$22 to launch and fish on local lakes

I used to have larger boats because I fished the ocean. You'd burn through $300-400 in fuel going out for tuna. Now I just have my 16' Crestliner with a 40 hp and I love it. I can launch it on my own and there's pleanty of room for 2-3. AND, it's super cheap on fuel to fish our local lakes. I only go Mon-Fri and the lakes around here are pretty wide open with few boats. The weekend in San Diego is another story....

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See your list of expenses we all have helps me understand how crazy it is out there, that’s a shame.
Best to you.

Boosh said:

Everything over the last few years has just gotten crazy expensive. I'm only staying in Comifornia because two of my grandkids are still here. I think the middle class is just trying to keep a roof over there heads here in CA. There's no left over money for boating.

$1,400 month for Health insurance for wife and I (used to be $600)
$6K year Home and fire insurance (used to be $2,800)
$5.50 gallon gas
$600 month electricity
$250 month water (my friends tell me that's cheap)
$100 or more to take my wife to dinner
$62 year for CA fishing license
$22 to launch and fish on local lakes

I used to have larger boats because I fished the ocean. You'd burn through $300-400 in fuel going out for tuna. Now I just have my 16' Crestliner with a 40 hp and I love it. I can launch it on my own and there's pleanty of room for 2-3. AND, it's super cheap on fuel to fish our local lakes. I only go Mon-Fri and the lakes around here are pretty wide open with few boats. The weekend in San Diego is another story....

Click to expand...

Its like that all over. I'm currently going through the task of trying to find a new homeowners policy, I've been dropped by four over the past four years. One won't insure me because I have a 'commercial' truck, (my F250 4x4 with a cap on it that tows my boats), another dropped me because I have trees in the back yard saying that they're an undo risk, another dropped me because they said my house is in need of 'renovation and updating'. Citing my roof is over 10 years old and my siding and windows haven't been replaced in the last 20 years.
The last one dropped me because they say my house looks neglected and that I need to remove shrubbery around the home and remove the rows of 'animal' cages in the back yard.
The 'animal' cages they refer to are my tomato cages, 18" round tubes that support my tomato plants, in a 20x10 patch of garden. It seems they're grasping at any excuse, and the only companies that'll insure me now want $8k a year to insure a house appraised at $80k.
My utilities are $450/mo, and being on a fixed income, I'm extremely careful about what I turn on.
Walmart here is worthless, they never have anything, fishing tackle or otherwise. Then they switched to the self checkout and things never ring up right, they scan higher than they were marked almost 100% of the time. The fishing tackle here is all crap, they have a few better rods and reels but noting really good, but their better stuff is double what I can buy it online for.
Not that I buy much tackle these days, I likely have everything I'll ever need and then some just from years of buying from estate sales and off CL. I just got a boat, 22 motors, and a crap load of tackle for free on Sat. (I made a separate post about it earlier).

The ramps here are still sort of empty, maybe 1/4 of the usual number of boat trailers there. None were out today at all. The older guys are suffering because SS doesn't cover their expenses these days. I was forced tor retire two years ago for health reasons and get only $800/mo and it'll never increase. The typical side hustle selling stuff on CL and FB is dead, the buyer went away two years ago. The only good thing I see is that there are a ton of really cheap boats out there to be had if you can afford to go get them or buy gas to run them.

I've cut way back on my time on the water too, as have most, at $3,83 gallon plus $30/gal for oil, its no longer a daily or even a weekly thing. My boat 16ft boat will use 12 gallons in a day on the river and my truck will burn another 10 getting there and back. Not counting the $300/mo in insurance on the truck. I'm lucky I've got a clean driving record, some are paying way more. Add in $200 oil changes and the truck is fast being left in the driveway more and more, as is the boat.

A number of years ago I had a friend that worked for Walmart in their regional office and warehouse. I was told that any given Walmart store's inventory is driven by its past sales.
Item are first stocked in quantities of 25 per store, if that sells within 30 days the number is doubled, if 50 do not sell the item is dropped. If the first 25 items linger and don't sell, its up to the store manager to either leave them or clearance them out to make use of that space for more productive items. If a particular store does not have a good selection of a certain item, its a fairly accurate tell-tale that the local customers are not interested in those items. The problem is it does not account for changes over time and it doesn't account for the fact that price may be the reason items aren't selling other than demand. They don't care either way since if it doesn't produce enough profit they won't continue to offer it.
The program for a Super Walmart is a bit different than the smaller original sized stores in which the store manager has a bit more control but they all work on the same basis.
This holds true for all items. Theft can also affect inventory, items which repeatedly get shoplifted are often dropped as well, the cost of added security generally exceeds the amount those items would produce in profit if they simply were not there in the first place.
One local WM here stopped selling bicycles because they lost 70% of them to theft, they did the same thing with higher priced cuts of beef. Rather than fix the real problem they just drop the item.

Its gotten to the point where the only fishing tackle that can be found lately is at the local fleamarkets. WM and the few local tackle shops are way too expensive.
What's even worse is that I now see tackle boxes, boats, motors, and hunting gear for free on CL all the time, there's a newish looking LARGE tackle box listed for free right now under S. Jersey.
I answered an ad there a few months back for four massive older Plano Phantom boxes listed with surf lures. There were over 300 minty clean lures. They were listed for over a month when I spotted it. When I picked them up, the guy gave me an aluminum Fish Mate surf cart too.
If you figure those lures are on average $8 each or so, and the cart at least $200, its makes no sense why they sat listed for so long. I sometimes feel like I'm the only one here who still fishes or owns a boat. That's reinforced lately when I'm often the only boat on the water all day.

While probably too little too late, I saw this about Bass Pro Shops last week:
Bass Pro - Rising Cost and Inflation
Better financing isn't going to give people more money to spend. BPS relies on folks with disposable income, and that's rapidly become a thing of the past in recent years.
Apparently no one can afford those fancy new high dollar boats or motors they sell, or anything else for that matter.
Although I always enjoyed visiting their stores when I get the chance or am near one, I can say I've rarely bought anything there. I think over my lifetime, I bought a pair of rod racks and one surf pole, all of which were on clearance. There just has always been a cheaper option.
The problem is that in this economy people can't even afford the cheaper options.

I went out for a bit yesterday morning, around 7am, normally I'd pass a few old timers out fishing and maybe a few commercial boats heading in or out but the river was devoid of any traffic until around 11am, when a few kids on jetskis flew by at wide open throttle up and back about a dozen times till I just called it quits and went in. No big boats, no tubers, no fishermen, no old couples cruising the water for fun. In the parking lot there's two old rusty flat tires just laying there, a massive oil stain where something dumped its guts, and two long gouges in the ramp from a prop or skeg that was recently dragged across it. There's a pile of slag from a torch or something hot in one parking spot nearest the water where someone was doing a lot of cutting. Someone probably lost a trailer over the weekend while out on the water.

MrGiggles said:

I could certainly see the big wake boat owners that might burn 20-30 gallons in a day hesitating a little bit. Gas is still cheap-ish here at $3.09 currently. Takes me about 3.5 gallons in the truck and close to that much in the boat to fish for an afternoon, not too expensive as far as hobbies go. Costs that much to go see a movie these days.

I did go out on Monday afternoon, there was plenty of traffic but not like I expected for a holiday weekend. The ramp was less than half full.

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About the same for me plus another 4-5 bucks for minnows, but....I am putting food on the table, with Perch and Walleye running around 20 bucks a lb for fillets....I can claim to make money going fishing !! Lol...

oilsmoke said:

A number of years ago I had a friend that worked for Walmart in their regional office and warehouse. I was told that any given Walmart store's inventory is driven by its past sales.
Item are first stocked in quantities of 25 per store, if that sells within 30 days the number is doubled, if 50 do not sell the item is dropped. If the first 25 items linger and don't sell, its up to the store manager to either leave them or clearance them out to make use of that space for more productive items. If a particular store does not have a good selection of a certain item, its a fairly accurate tell-tale that the local customers are not interested in those items. The problem is it does not account for changes over time and it doesn't account for the fact that price may be the reason items aren't selling other than demand. They don't care either way since if it doesn't produce enough profit they won't continue to offer it.
The program for a Super Walmart is a bit different than the smaller original sized stores in which the store manager has a bit more control but they all work on the same basis.
This holds true for all items. Theft can also affect inventory, items which repeatedly get shoplifted are often dropped as well, the cost of added security generally exceeds the amount those items would produce in profit if they simply were not there in the first place.
One local WM here stopped selling bicycles because they lost 70% of them to theft, they did the same thing with higher priced cuts of beef. Rather than fix the real problem they just drop the item.

Its gotten to the point where the only fishing tackle that can be found lately is at the local fleamarkets. WM and the few local tackle shops are way too expensive.
What's even worse is that I now see tackle boxes, boats, motors, and hunting gear for free on CL all the time, there's a newish looking LARGE tackle box listed for free right now under S. Jersey.
I answered an ad there a few months back for four massive older Plano Phantom boxes listed with surf lures. There were over 300 minty clean lures. They were listed for over a month when I spotted it. When I picked them up, the guy gave me an aluminum Fish Mate surf cart too.
If you figure those lures are on average $8 each or so, and the cart at least $200, its makes no sense why they sat listed for so long. I sometimes feel like I'm the only one here who still fishes or owns a boat. That's reinforced lately when I'm often the only boat on the water all day.

Click to expand...

I wish the same thing was happening where I live. I've always had salt water gear, so I've been looking for a loaded fresh water tackle box for the last couple of months in the San Diego area or outside and have it shipped to me. Haven't found one yet...but I'm also up in the air about what type of box I want. I THINK I want a pull out drawer type. I just think the old style drawers would be easier vs a bunch of individual flip top trays. I've been searching CL, Offer-up and Mercari. When I see something that fits my criteria, it seems like they're asking $400. The search goes on...for now I have a couple trays with some gear

Things have always been expensive in interior Alaska and inflation hurts here too but some of you guys sure have it worse. Those California prices make AK seem cheap.

We have a Conservative govt and voting population that keep taxes and some other expenses low, but the downside of that is decaying boat ramp/campground facilities due to loss of oil revenue (just my guess there..whatever the cause, they aren't maintaining things well).

It's just kinda slow and easy and shabby here...

We went out on what is usually a very busy stretch of river this afternoon and it was maybe 1/4 of what I was expecting. After being out there for about an hr we got checked by dnr and they gave my son a chik fil a gift card for having his life vest on. I have never seen dnr on this stretch of river ever so it was a bit surprising. Makes me wonder if a lot of folks got sent home earlier in the day for invalid registrations and such. Regardless we're enjoying a rather quiet night on the river.

flatheadsteve said:

We went out on what is usually a very busy stretch of river this afternoon and it was maybe 1/4 of what I was expecting. After being out there for about an hr we got checked by dnr and they gave mt son a child fil a gift cars for having his life vest on. I have never seen dnr on this stretch of river ever so it was a bit surprising. Makes me wonder if a lot of folks got sent home earlier in the day for invalid registrations and such. Regardless we're enjoying a rather quiet night on the river.

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I was out on a buddies boat on Thursday, about for miles from the dock we pasted a marine patrol boat stuck on a dredge pipe. My buddy was just going to buzz by and wave but I made him stop and come around to check on the guy. I"m not sure if he thought he'd skim right over the tube or if he just didn't see it but he was fully on top of the suction pipe. I told him to tilt his engines up and to hook a rope on both rear eye and I'll pull him back off it. I took the wheel and pulled him back off the pipe, tossed him his rope and made sure all was good before we left. I drove the rest of the day. Those guys don't bother use for the most part on the river, at least not the fisherman. That was the only other boat I passed all day but although it was clear and a bit breezy, the weather called for a chance of thunderstorms all day. The weather man was wrong and it stayed clear all day.

On Monday, June 10, 24 I took the boat to the lake for the first time this year.


The parking lot was empty, it was a beautiful day, and I was the only guy on the lake. Later on, a pontoon was idling around but that's it.

I trolled around the lake for a couple of hours and only caught this northern pike.

When it stops raining I'll head to different lake.

Stand Up said:

On Monday, June 10, 24 I took the boat to the lake for the first time this year.

View attachment 121101
The parking lot was empty, it was a beautiful day, and I was the only guy on the lake. Later on, a pontoon was idling around but that's it.
View attachment 121103View attachment 121102
I trolled around the lake for a couple of hours and only caught this northern pike.
View attachment 121104View attachment 121105
When it stops raining I'll head to different lake.

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Pretty good size snake right there. And on a dardevle I see

Hate to admit it, but haven't made it out yet this year. Sometimes life gets complicated. Hope to rectify the situation soon. Went by the ramp and saw only two trailers on this slightly choppy, but warm and sunny morning.

I just got in from a fishing trip on Sunday, have only been out a handful of times this year.

The plan was to stop in Des Moines Wed-Fri to fish and meet up with family in Minneapolis Sat-Sun.

Fishing was really slow on Wednesday afternoon with showers off and on. Thursday morning, definitely better, had a few crappie to show for my efforts. 35mph winds the rest of the day, again slow fishing. Friday morning was slower but I did catch a couple. Happened to meet a local guide at the ramp while loading, he was loading up Musky gear and getting ready to go back out solo for walleye, and asked if I wanted to go. Of course I did. We didn't catch any, but I learned a lot about that particular lake and everything I was doing wrong. I'd really like to go back this winter and fish it through the ice.

Nothing really relevant to this thread, but even during the week there was a dozen or more boats on that little lake at any given time. Tons of bank access and people were taking advantage of it. I'm sure quite a bit of that has to do with being one of the few lakes right next to a big city.

The Airbnb owners were kind enough to let me leave my boat in their driveway for the weekend, and since I would've only had the chance to fish the one afternoon in Minnesota, I opted to just lock it up, leave it, and pick it up on the way home. Saved some gas money.

I was in the grocery store yesterday and was shaking my head (FoodMax, not Whole Foods). Food prices are still crazy high and seem even higher than a month ago. Then >20% more for rents and gaso prices are literally up >50% since the great disaster of 2020. A lot of families can't afford previous leisure activities. It is a darn shame when a married couple each working decent jobs can't afford to put anything into savings.

I'm also thinking that a lot of people who could afford to go out on their boats are being forced to sell them to pay for necessities, which at least in my area seem to be flooding the market with bargain boats.

Was in the grocery store yesterday. A pack of Pringles is 4 bucks now. You like Cheetos? 7 bucks! No more than 2 years ago Pringles were a buck a can and Cheetos were like 3.

Was thinking of buying a chicken. Used to get them for a buck or two, now they are like 9 dollars. For chicken? At least steaks are still cheap, not sure why, but I'm not paying that much for chickens when 20 oz Tbones are the same price if not a little less. OK sorry about the rant and getting off track.

Disaster of 2020 is right. The nuts are running the asylum.

LaqueRatt said:

I'm also thinking that a lot of people who could afford to go out on their boats are being forced to sell them to pay for necessities, which at least in my area seem to be flooding the market with bargain boats.

Was in the grocery store yesterday. A pack of Pringles is 4 bucks now. You like Cheetos? 7 bucks! No more than 2 years ago Pringles were a buck a can and Cheetos were like 3.

Was thinking of buying a chicken. Used to get them for a buck or two, now they are like 9 dollars. For chicken? At least steaks are still cheap, not sure why, but I'm not paying that much for chickens when 20 oz Tbones are the same price if not a little less. OK sorry about the rant and getting off track.

Disaster of 2020 is right. The nuts are running the asylum.

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Something i can't figure out is how if you go to a farm auction, they get $10-$15 for a meat chicken, but i can buy one all cleaned, seasoned, and roasted for $9 at the super market.

Things are super screwed up, the number of dirt cheap boats has amazed me, I grabbed this one this morning after driving past it for a week or more. The guy had a sign on it that read "FOR SALE - $300 OBO".
I stopped just to look thinking maybe there's a reason it hadn't found any takers but the thing is spotless with a title and papers for the trailer too. Even the trailer lights work.
I stopped and was looking it over when the farmer came riding up on his tractor. He tells me he's got a motor for it too, a small transom trolling motor. I asked him how long he had it and he said he bought it new in 1994 for $1,200 with the trolling motor and trailer at the local tackle shop. Its a 1994 Starcraft SF-16DLX with the step through middle bench and live well in the rear bench seat. Its got a built in battery tray, bilge pump, and wood deck from the first full bench to the front of the last bench.
He told me the local pond started charging $20 to launch now and then $5 per fish you keep.
He said if he wanted to buy fish he'd go to the fish market.
I told the guy I was only looking, I have a similar boat myself. He then asks me if it was for me or if I was just looking to resell it, I told him there's no market for boats right now, and that either I'd or a buddy would end up with it but I doubt any of them have any cash these days. He asked if I had a $100 on me, I said yes, he said I just bought a boat.

This makes the second one this week, and its likely a keeper, I highly doubt its been anywhere but one small pond there and its turn key, he even gave me a year old deep cycle battery with it.





On the way home I stopped off and was going to dunk it to check for leaks in one local pond but found that the state decided to fill in the ramp and close it for good to boat access. That comes only about 8 years after the Army Corps of Engineers supposedly spent millions building a new ramp and parking area there only to have it closed for good after a storm damaged the old dam and they decided not to repair the dam, so they let nature take it back over and turn it into a snake infested swamp instead.
It wasn't much the way it was but it was good for leak testing a boat.
Not no more.

We lost about 7 lakes for freshwater fishing and about a good many saltwater ramps are now membership or pay only ramps. The few free ramps are dangerous to leave your truck at.
Your almost guaranteed a break in or theft at those.

The waterways have been devoid of boats on all but some Saturdays but it seems the Memorial day rush was just that, its been pretty quiet since then.
The good part is that the fish populations are booming lately.

What really sucks is that I called for an appointment at the DMV to transfer the title over and register this thing and the trailer and was told the next appointment is in late August unless I want to drive all the way up north about 110 miles to a different regional office, they have an opening the first week of August.
When I asked if I could renew my other boat at the same time I was told that will require I get an appointment just for that at a different office. No wonder there are no boats out there and the few that are all have old registration stickers on them.
For some reason this guy removed the hull numbers, but that's not uncommon, I can still read the outline of them and that matches the title too. I may just hand paint them on vs. wasting money on decals. Paint looks better anyway.

Seafarer said:

We lost about 7 lakes for freshwater fishing and about a good many saltwater ramps are now membership or pay only ramps. The few free ramps are dangerous to leave your truck at.
Your almost guaranteed a break in or theft at those

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That's a heck of a deal on a nice little boat. May I ask what state you are in?

Yes sir! Great for that boat.

I don’t know how we can keep going in this direction with the price of everything. It all boils down to greed, false shortages, and the current state of our government. My truck had a quarter tank in it when I filled it last week, still cost me 83$ to top it off. Totally nuts that just gas cuts into a budget that much. It’s just my wife and I and 2 dogs and our grocery bill hovers around 200$ a week. Don’t even get me started on taxes, the American taxpayer is taking it up the rear end from every angle. It’s a shame when illegal “immigrants” get better health care at no cost than a lot of working taxpayers, and then you have the multigenerational welfare bums. Plus congress that doesn’t do jack squat working a few weeks a year sucking down our money for life Sorry for the rant.

Seafarer said:

Something i can't figure out is how if you go to a farm auction, they get $10-$15 for a meat chicken, but i can buy one all cleaned, seasoned, and roasted for $9 at the super market.

Things are super screwed up, the number of dirt cheap boats has amazed me, I grabbed this one this morning after driving past it for a week or more. The guy had a sign on it that read "FOR SALE - $300 OBO".
I stopped just to look thinking maybe there's a reason it hadn't found any takers but the thing is spotless with a title and papers for the trailer too. Even the trailer lights work.
I stopped and was looking it over when the farmer came riding up on his tractor. He tells me he's got a motor for it too, a small transom trolling motor. I asked him how long he had it and he said he bought it new in 1994 for $1,200 with the trolling motor and trailer at the local tackle shop. Its a 1994 Starcraft SF-16DLX with the step through middle bench and live well in the rear bench seat. Its got a built in battery tray, bilge pump, and wood deck from the first full bench to the front of the last bench.
He told me the local pond started charging $20 to launch now and then $5 per fish you keep.
He said if he wanted to buy fish he'd go to the fish market.
I told the guy I was only looking, I have a similar boat myself. He then asks me if it was for me or if I was just looking to resell it, I told him there's no market for boats right now, and that either I'd or a buddy would end up with it but I doubt any of them have any cash these days. He asked if I had a $100 on me, I said yes, he said I just bought a boat.

This makes the second one this week, and its likely a keeper, I highly doubt its been anywhere but one small pond there and its turn key, he even gave me a year old deep cycle battery with it.



View attachment 121154View attachment 121153

On the way home I stopped off and was going to dunk it to check for leaks in one local pond but found that the state decided to fill in the ramp and close it for good to boat access. That comes only about 8 years after the Army Corps of Engineers supposedly spent millions building a new ramp and parking area there only to have it closed for good after a storm damaged the old dam and they decided not to repair the dam, so they let nature take it back over and turn it into a snake infested swamp instead.
It wasn't much the way it was but it was good for leak testing a boat.
Not no more.

We lost about 7 lakes for freshwater fishing and about a good many saltwater ramps are now membership or pay only ramps. The few free ramps are dangerous to leave your truck at.
Your almost guaranteed a break in or theft at those.

The waterways have been devoid of boats on all but some Saturdays but it seems the Memorial day rush was just that, its been pretty quiet since then.
The good part is that the fish populations are booming lately.

What really sucks is that I called for an appointment at the DMV to transfer the title over and register this thing and the trailer and was told the next appointment is in late August unless I want to drive all the way up north about 110 miles to a different regional office, they have an opening the first week of August.
When I asked if I could renew my other boat at the same time I was told that will require I get an appointment just for that at a different office. No wonder there are no boats out there and the few that are all have old registration stickers on them.
For some reason this guy removed the hull numbers, but that's not uncommon, I can still read the outline of them and that matches the title too. I may just hand paint them on vs. wasting money on decals. Paint looks better anyway.

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Your first couple sentences says it all....roasted chicken now over 9 bucks, three years ago they were 4.99 or less...**** near doubled along with everything else. Glad my boating is cheap or I would have to give that up being retired on fixed income. Living close to lake erie, there are lots of boat owners around here, but many are in poor condition, just sitting out in the weather not moved for years.