How Much Do You Spend on Average for All Those "Big Boy" Toys?

That's another question I've had floating around in my head for a while now. It's also another one I decided to see if I could find some answers to.

I initially checked out a couple of online forums, which generally indicated that recreational bass anglers routinely spend $100 to $150 per month on their "toys." To save you from having to do the math, those figures translate into $1,200 to $1,800 per year.

It probably will come as no surprise to anyone that the vast majority of those forum members willing to "speak up" were quick to point out a common theme in all their comments: "The wife doesn't know how much I spend. I figure what she doesn't know won't hurt her."

"Imagine that!" I say with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

Then I turned to an item from the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, in which they estimated the typical fisherman spends roughly $1,000 annually on tackle. The same item noted that, on average, 30 million people apply for fishing licenses each year. To demonstrate the overall popularity of fishing, consider that it now ranks as the fourth most popular participation sport in the country, beating out bicycling, bowling, basketball, golf, jogging, baseball, softball, soccer, football, and skiing. In fact, fishing is more popular than golf and tennis combined. Only walking, swimming and camping are more popular.

My next Internet stop was the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's annual report, which lists the average angler's yearly expenditures on the sport at $1,261 (note that all sources generally put this figure in the same ballpark). The USFWS report also provided some other fishing facts I found interesting:

     * More than 44 million Americans 6 years of age and older enjoy a day of fishing every year.
     * 33.1 million Americans ages 16+ spend an average of 17 days fishing each year, adding up to an astounding 365 million freshwater-fishing days each year.
     * More than one-quarter (26.8 percent, to be exact) of all anglers are female. Fishing is the 10th most popular sport among women.
     * Recreational anglers spend a staggering $45 billion (and by some accounts, $50 billion) a year to fish, with $16 billion of this amount dedicated to bass fishing.
     * 98 percent of bass anglers nationwide make some kind of fishing-related purchase each year.
     * 56 percent of those anglers surveyed for the USFWS report have an annual household income of $50,000 or more, with nearly 16 percent bringing in more than $100,000 a year.
     * 77 percent of bass anglers use artificial lures and baits.

According to the USFWS report I reviewed, "If sport fishing were a corporation, it would place well (currently about 59th) on the Fortune 500 list of America's largest businesses." That's pretty "high cotton," if you ask me.