More's the pity, because there are few things more gratifying than catching fish on tackle you made all by yourself!
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I suppose you could call it either "evolution" or "intelligent design optimization", but I started as a whole-hog bass fisherman - complete with broomstick-stiff "worm rods" and lines that could tow a Freightliner. And, I spent many hours, "playing 'tacklebox'" -- swapping lures from a tacklebox with so many fold-outs that I had to open it lengthwise of the boat. And I caught fish -- lots of 'em.
Then I discovered the beautiful, gin-clear stream on my F-I-L's place in the Texas Hill country -- and bought my first ultralight stuff for wade-fishing there.
One day out on the lake, the bass "developed lockjaw", so I picked up the UL to "play with the bream" I could hear snapping in the bushes -- and I started catching big bass!
The worm rods and bass tackle were in our garage when it burned -- and I have never missed 'em!
Nowadays, my "heavy" stuff uses 6-lb line, (which with a steady pull, can usually straighten a hung-up #6 hook) and I can about carry a day's worth of terminal tackle in my vest pocket. Even better, I've learned to make the spring of the graphite/boron rods do most of the casting work -- and I catch more fish!!!
Probably the best testament to my new "laid-back" fishing technique was the comment from a guy who was fishing the opposite side of the large lily pad patch where my teenage daughter and I were catching crappie:
" I bet you taught that young lady to cast so effortlessly. I've been watching, and I've just seen you make ten casts -- and hook nine fish -- without ever lifting your elbow off of your knee!"
That's a "fur piece" from my old days of flailing with that worm rod -- and setting the hook so hard I probably stretched the fish out a couple of inches! LOL!!
If you are wade fishing or canoe fishing for stream bass in Texas, you need to go to Arkansas.
Yes it is a pity. I liked to build things out of wood. Made cabinets and furniture. You could easily go down to a thrift store, pick up an old worn out piece with an oak frame for pennies, reupholster it and have a near new sofa for cheap. Our living room has a circular couch made just that way, cost $50 for the massive oak frame, and beautiful upholstered covering. But now the fabric, good fabric, costs an arm and leg, you can buy cheapo new for less than the fabric cost.
Used to make wood casting plugs. But the cost of the good wood, Alaskan White Cedar, is so high today, the paint choices so limited, that I just quit.
Now it’s only jigs, and I liked to gussie them way up, eyes and all, to pimp the fish. Yet the white ones with the unpainted heads work just as good as any, and are much easier to make. Recently I have switched to a bare kook with unpainted lead head and a piece of surgical tubing pushed on the end. Surprisingly, it imitates a shrimp and catches near everything that swims. Cheap and quantity is all that matters anymore.
Surprisingly like you, we seldom go out in the boat anymore, since we discovered the catfish bonanza right off the dock. When the tide is right, WOW. Fried catfish, tops when it comes to fresh fish. Cleaning, not so good, ugh. AND they strike jigs, big time. We seem to have an endless supply of 5 pounders, if we manage it right, like don’t make a scene when spotters are around — LOL.
Making things with your hands is becoming a last art. The craft stores no longer carry ‘the good(expensive) stuff’ and the made by hand has a bad name. The rich man’s sport of fly tying is about all that is left ... times change.