‘Outflation’ Takes a Toll on Outdoors Fun

THE GOOD NEWS FIRST: Gas prices at the pump are getting back to pre-insanity levels (thankfully, not low enough to make Texas oilmen start biting their nails). Meanwhile, runaway inflation appears to be running out of steam.

The bad news is, inflation is still at a 40-year high and even when the rate drops to half its current level, it will still mean prices are going up faster than most people have seen in their lifetimes.

It costs more to buy, and do, just about everything now. The prospect of filling a boat’s gas tank probably killed more fishing trips these past two years than the worst weather patterns could have.

Fishing gear has been harder to find and more expensive.

Then, of course, there’s boats. Boats flew (sailed?) off dealer lots faster than builders could make them during Covid lockdowns. Great for dealers, not so great for shoppers looking for a deal. But with little else to spend money on, few quibbled. We just wanted to get out of the house and on the water. Then the lots emptied, and overseas shipping came to a halt. Sure, 99% of our type of boats are built in the USA… but motors and a boatload of components aren’t, and that created a bottleneck that still persists, along with higher pricing. Once rising interest rates elbowed their way into the inflation free-for-all, boat shopping got really fun.    

Supply shortages and hyper-inflation also hit hunters and sport shooters. Holy cow… for most of the pandemic months, ammo was harder to find than a Boone & Crockett buck. Now that supplies are showing back up on store shelves, they’re sporting shiny new inflated prices.

Meanwhile, anyone looking to buy—and finance—land for hunting, or a  place at a lake or on a beach, has had to endure interest rates that no one has had to pay since the Bush Administration. 

All other categories of spending related to hunting and fishing are also suffering the same experience as the general economy, with prices for everything from lures and deer corn to fishing shirts and hunting boot socks running a lot higher than a year ago. 

Still… it’s safe to say that life for all of us, as we enter this new year, is vastly improved over the pandemic-darkened days of 2020 and the political and economic turmoil of ‘21 and most of ‘22.

Yes, prices are higher. But as we’ve said, they have stopped skyrocketing, and gasoline has taken a sharp downward turn. And at least in the final weeks of 2022, those interest rates that were shooting for the sky all year have slowed their ascent.

An $80,000 bass boat is nice—who wouldn’t love scooting between hotspots at Autobahn speeds and spying on fish with NSA-level surveillance gear?­—but it’s not a requirement to enjoy a day of fishing. 

As for sporting in the field, day hunts are available all over for hog and varmints. Texas Parks & Wildlife has done a great job providing access to public land for all sorts of hunting, from birds to big game.

Outdoor inflation… “outflation” …may be a pain we all have to bear, but there’s still plenty of value in getting outdoors and finding ways to keep fishing and hunting.

E-mail Roy at rneves@fishgame.com and Ardia at aneves@fishgame.com

 

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