The economy’s down, and it’s time to watch expenses. But if you’re dedicated to your sport, cutting back on gear is a hard sell. Here’s how I managed to gear up and enjoy a winter full of fly-fishing while holding on to enough money for gas and beer.

eBay:

For me, last winter was almost entirely “The Season of the Spey.” That’s because, between November and February, I purchased my first two-handed rods, and I managed to pay less than $800 for them … total.

My first was a Spey rod, TFO Professional 13’ 9” 9 /10 #. I’ll admit I didn’t know much about Spey rods when I bought this one, and it proved to be a little big for some of the water I fish close to home. I made my choice mostly because, like a lot of people lately, I had been recently introduced to Spey casting, and I was an immediate addict. With a $169 eBay price tag, this rod represented itself as a cheap fix. When I mentioned my new Spey rod to my friends, who didn’t hesitate asking pointed questions – Don’t you think that’s a little big for around here? – I began to feel a little ashamed about my bubble-gum junkie ways, almost as if I had fallen in love with a one-night-stand, only to later find out that she made her living as a dime-bag prostitute. Later, as I learned more about the brand – that it’s run by world-renowned fly angler Lefty Kreh and that I was paying $100 off retail for a new rod with a warranty card – I began to feel more at ease about my purchase. A week after the rod arrived, I paid another $100 for a buddy’s used Pflueger reel, and then paid $85 for a new Skagit body.

My second two-handed rod was a custom-built Virgin River 11’ 6” 6/7# switch rod, assembled by Wayne of Angler’s Habitat in Cardwell, Idaho. As with the first rod, I bought it on eBay. For this purchase, however, I had a little more knowledge about what I wanted and what I could afford, and I was all about waiting for the right item to come along. It didn’t take long for me to find an attractive specimen. During the first weekend of my search, I found this beauty for $229, and it took all my willpower to not pull the PayPal trigger right then and there. I restrained myself from the purchase because I wanted a reel to match the rod before I found myself with either a reel or a rod but not both. So, with the Virgin River rod listing tucked away in my “watched listings,” I embarked on my reel search. That evening I found a new but discontinued Sage 1680 for $99, offered with half-price line – from the same seller. But I still wasn’t pulling that trigger just yet; there were still some questions that needed answering. I needed to know the proper Skagit line weight for the rod, 375-gr. (Thanks, Simon at Rio!), and I needed to know if Angler’s Habitat could get that line for me. When Wayne wrote to say that getting the line was no problem, I logged on that afternoon and finished the deal.

Unlike my Spey rod, my switch has proven itself to be just about right for my local rivers. More like dating the girl next door who’s had a chance to see me sober, my relationship with this rod has been comfortable from the start. And with a deep blue finish and matching guides and reel seat (which Wayne added free of charge), the Virgin River is easy on the eyes. If you’re looking for a nice lightweight switch rod that can dance the dance and throw a decent streamer, I highly suggest you call Anglers Habitat.

Craigslist:

Believe it or not, you can actually find stuff to buy on Craigslist. Next time you’re there, pull your head away from the screen and blink for a few seconds. After your eyes readjust, you will find a little-known section entitled “For Sale.” If you need help finding it, it lies just right of “Personals” and just left of “Jobs.”

But if you’re a serious buyer prospecting on CL, I recommend bypassing the subheadings in this section, because often you will find that the subheading you have in mind for an item is not the one the seller has in mind. Example: there are just as many rafts under “Sporting” as there are under “Boats.” You can get to the punch by typing your search term into the input box in the left-hand column,” with the drop-down menu set to “For Sale.”

It was in just this way that I found a $150 full-day guided Kalama River Steelhead Trip while searching for a drift boat in the Portland, Oregon, area. I knew I couldn’t afford a drift boat, though they are much cheaper there than where I live, but I also knew I could have a fun if I scored the guided trip and spent some time with my sister on my way back. I’d never been on a guided trip before, but I know that the same trip here in Montana goes for around three times as much, so it made sense to pay to learn what might take weeks of trial and error to learn on my own. Then if I had time, I could hone that knowledge if I squeaked in any fishing during the rest of the trip.

So I booked the trip, and two weeks later proceeded to drive for twelve hours through some of the most god-awful slush and ice-rutted highway to get to my motel room on time. Portland-area drivers are crazy, by the way. Anyone who drives an’ 80s Cutlass eighty-five miles an hour around an icy freeway curve deserves to be given a wide berth. In the morning I awoke to find the Kalama running like a chocolate, stick, alder-leaf sundae after a post-storm landslide clogged the river above the five-mile point. The only steelhead I saw was a dead one, its carcass foating sideways in an impassable side-channel. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable trip, especially since I hadn’t spent and arm and a leg for it.

As a further word of advice when searching for gear on CL: stick to local listings, particularly for small-ticket items. The reason being that CL lacks any semblance of the buyer/seller feedback you find on eBay, and therefore, scams run amok. Furthermore, people are a lot more willing to do business with someone when they know they can meet face to face. For large-ticket items, like a drift boat, it’s more acceptable to search out of town. However, if you do find something in another town, and you are fully serious in learning more about it, you should head off any potential unease by explaining your intentions in your first email. It should go something along the lines of, but probably not in verbatim with, Hi, Frugalius Farquar here. Found your ad on Craigslist. I’m writing from Pennsyltucky. I was searching for a boat down there in Arkabama because I can’t find nothin’ up here, but I plan on doin’ some bird huntin’ in your area and will be visiting real soon. Was hopin’ to chat you up on the phone and talk turkey.

Bargain Basement:

This fall, I found myself darting around town like an egg-hungry sculpin as I sought out a fly shop with waders at 50 percent off. I knew there was such a store, because I saw their ad in the local paper, but that was a few days before and I couldn’t remember exactly which shop it was. As I sauntered into the second shop that afternoon, I fetched a greeting from behind the counter, followed by “Can I help you find something?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m looking for the fly shop with waders on sale.”

“Hmm. Can’t help you there, but we do have some good used rentals we’re trying to get rid of.”

He led me over to a pile of gray Simms waders, each bearing Sharpie ink identifying them as rentals. “These look good,” I said. “How much?” I turned a pair inside-out to examine the stitching and to look for even the slightest tear.

“Seventy-five,” he replied.

“Well, I just paid seventy-five for a pair of new waders, and they started leaking after two trips,” I said, slipping on the neoprene socks. “Of course, they weren’t Simms.” As I slid the waders up to my chest, I crouched down to the floor and witnessed something I’d never experienced with other waders. An air-tight seal formed around my mid-section, and the waders around my legs puffed up like the Pillsbury Doughboy (this is now my litmus test to see if a given set of waders will hold water). I looked up from the puffy plasticky material surround my legs. “Sold.” That was the best fishing investment I ever made. Believe me, during a cold Montana February, having warm, dry feet is priceless.

Flea Markets and Gun Shows:

While these might seem like unlikely places to find great gear, you should never underestimate the power of a flea market or gun show to land you big savings. Just this weekend, I got a tip from someone who helped set up a booth for a local annual flea market called Garagarama. “There’s a shit-ton of Simms stuff there. I saw new boots for forty dollars.”

“I already have enough gear,” I told him, trying to sell myself on the lie that anyone can actually have enough gear. But when eight a.m. rolled around, there I was, herding myself into the fairground pavilion with all the other flea market sheep. Once inside, I bee-lined it for the Simms gear. By the time I got there, a good crowd had already formed. How could that be, I wondered. It just opened. They must have known beforehand which building it was in.

I used my shoulder to pry my way to the wader rack. I wasn’t really looking for anything, mind you, but it never hurts to see what they’ve got, and what I could be paying for it. Okay, that’s another lie to be told by a gear-freak. Truth be told, within thirty-seconds I found myself pleading with a friend for a ten-spot – like a junkie with a lead on a good fix. Like a good junkie-buddy, he lent me the cash, and five minutes later I found myself locked in my pickup cab huffing in the sweet GORE-TEX freshness of my brand new Simms L2’s. Price: $80, less than a third of retail. So what if I had just bought a pair of waders a few months before. These were new GORE-TEX. Again, sold.

Thus ends my cash supply and the story of how I scored cheap gear last year. I hope you learned a trick or two, or at least got the gist that often times the best way to save money is by being creative and patient. Sometimes finding cheap gear is like deciphering a complex hatch: until you figure it out, leave no stone unturned.