I was talking to my neighbor a couple weeks ago and he said that a good tool for fishing is a pair of binoculars. Why?

you can spot birds and maybe minnows busting on the surface and such. also its useful to look for creeks flowing into your body of water.

There is all kinds of stuff to look at when you're out on the water. Binoculars help extend your range and look at stuff farther away. Lets say you got several acquaintences and their boats all look kind of alike at 300 to 400 yards away. Some of these guys you want to talk to and some of them you'd just as soon not. Binoculars help the identity process. I almost always keep a pair in my boat and I got a heavy duty waterproof Pelican case to keep them in. A $35 case to protect a $120 pair of binocularsmight be overkill, but I don't think so. I've had the same pair for going on 15 years now.

I'd also check back with your neighbor to see what he had in mind. Let us know if you do.

He said something compact and with a power of 3x.

I keep a pair of 10X50 in my boat'

Kelley