When is enough enough? (long winded)

[USMCbassman]

I have been asking myself this question lately and interested on others thoughts and feelings toward this and as with everything else the responses will be different:

Quick background on where I'm coming from; at one point and time I had a Plano tackle box that had a 3 drawer system in it and the top opened where it had a spinnerbait "box" and a few slots for sinkers, hooks, etc. I had one spinning rod and Zebco 33 combo that stood the test of time. When I left for the military I left it in my dads garage and then the garage burnt down and I lost everything. Simple, effective and got the job done even in tournaments.

I didn't fish for years as I didn't have the gear and didn't have a whole lot of time. In late 2008 early 2009 I decided it was time to start fishing again. I went to BPS in Mobile, AL (I was living in MS at the time) bought a BPS baitcaster combo and scored a killer deal on a Browning tackle bag that had four 3700 boxes, a front and 2 side pouches. At this time I didn't have any tackle, but picked up a few things here and there. The monkey was on my back and I couldn't shake him. I'd take off work early to go fishing, run over to BPS and pick up a few things, read, eat and sleep fishing.

2010 rolls around and I'm back in SoCal; fished here and there, between field ops and deploying. The monkey would punch me in the face as I'd walk through the garage and see my fishing gear setting there. Fished when I could at my local lakes (there are 2 on base) and never really ventured out to the surrounding areas, although I'd always heard about the big CA bass.

May 19th, 2012: National Bass West hosted their 5th annual Wounded Warrior tournament and it's a sweet deal. Volunteer anglers donate their time, boat, gas and equipment (yes they open their tackle boxes and pull out their rods and reels for us and they fish with us as I would hope they would). I'm the type of guy if I have my gear I'll use it; however, I greatly appreciate their generosity. That's their gear and they worked hard for it. Hell I felt guilty because I was on someone else's boat and the guy wouldn't accept anything in return for his resources that I was utilizing. I was very grateful for that, I didn't offend the guy by offering I am just fortunate to be in a position where I could. Not all military members are able to do that, own their own equipment, etc. God Bless them for what they did for us. I just wanted to fish and have a good time and I did. This was first I'd ever heard about it and I hope one day I can do the same thing in return for someone else. After this tournament the monkey was back and on crack.

This leads me up to now: I am buying rods and reels as money allows. I research gear, equipment and tackle. I'm looking for a boat, I want to join a local bass club and I want to fish whenever I can. However, I feel like I'm not fully equipped for a bass club or tournament fishing. I am a competitive person and I believe the proper gear/quality gear makes all the difference. I build carts all the time to get an idea of where I'll be when I get my "allowance" and place another order. I still use my Browning tackle bag; however, I have out grown it. My 4 boxes are full and my pouches are bulging at the seams with plastic baits, drop shot gear, etc.

Here's where I see fall short: I don't have any creature baits, I have 2 selections for jig trailers, I have a couple of spinners that just sit as I have no confidence in them, a few crankbaits and some jigs. I run through my plastic baits use what I like (which is most of them). If I had it my way though I'd drop a 100 bucks or better every couple of weeks on new tackle or save it for another rod and reel, etc. I'm always scouring eBay and CL's looking for that killer deal on another piece of equipment.

This got me to thinking; where do you draw the line, where do I draw the line? When is enough enough? How many plastic baits does one really need. Jigs, spinners, crankbaits, terminal tackle, etc all fall in line with this question. I've been eyeballing a tackle bag that hold (7) 3700 boxes, I want it and I could fill it, but then I ask myself, "is it really necessary, is that going overboard?"

I went and dropped XX amount of dollars the other day on some smelly jelly, a couple bags of senkos and a few other items. I went through all my "extra" spools of line and discarded about 5 or so spools with not enough line to do anything with. I thought to myself, "wow, I just spent XX amount of money on this stuff, I'm throwing this away this, I still need a spinning reel for my dropshot rod, I need to find a way to better organize my plastics, etc; where does it end?"

This is not a post to show the amount of money I can spend or spend or to "brag" about what I have. For those that frequent the board I think we can all relate to a certain degree. So, I'm curious where do you draw the line? Do you draw the line and it slides forward so you never cross it? In YOUR OPINION what do you feel is enough?

Here's how I break it down: There is a suggested rod and reel ratio for every style of fishing. Each style has certain terminal tackle, baits, line, etc, etc, etc for that particular style of fishing. There's a million and one different colors for each bait, they come in a myriad of different lengths, weights, hook sizes, etc. You all know what I'm talking about, none of you are new to this. Do you just focus on one style until you feel you're well equipped with it and then move on to the next style that you want to master or build confidence in or are you all over the map?

Long winded I know and I went down a couple of rabbit trails, hopefully though you all can see what I'm trying to get at.

So- When is enough enough?