The two activities that keep me busy when I’m not writing columns or enjoying good times with Barb are remarkably similar in their appetite for my discretionary spending.

The activities are fishing and golf. While I do catch a bunch of bass and hole out a few pars and the occasional birdie, I am not especially talented at either fishing or golf, especially when I compare what I spend to the results that I achieve.

In business, one measure of performance is ROI — return on investment. CEOs can be fired when ROI disappoints stockholders or receive big bonuses when the return rockets up the charts.

So with ROI as a yardstick, I guess I’d be canned if I were CEO of my fishing or golfing enterprise. I can envision the board of directors asking for the umpteenth time, “Do you really need another dozen crankbaits and, by the way, whatever happened to the two dozen Bridgestones you bought last week?”

I was reminded of this last week when a friend sent me a picture of the bucket of 100 recycled golf balls he’d just purchased, with the note, “These should get me through my next round of golf!”

It got me thinking about my proclivity to stock up on lures. I believe you cannot ever have too much of a good thing. Some people can’t rest easy unless they have triplicates of everything stockpiled in their pantry. I don’t keep six-packs of ketchup in the cupboard, but I can’t go to the lake without a dozen crankbaits in my preferred colors and a hundred-pack of my favorite plastic worms.

Because of this proclivity — a nice word for sickness — I can be found between fishing trips sitting in the Bass Cat in the garage, sorting through my tackle to make sure I have enough of the requisite essentials.

I do feel more secure when I go to Mosquito Lake with at least a half-dozen white and chartreuse Chatterbaits or blast off for the United Way Bass Classic at Pine Lake with 10 bags of Okeechobee craw Sweet Beavers.

I never leave the dock at Chautauqua Lake with fewer than 100 chartreuse-tipped green pumpkin Senkos or Yum Dingers. You’ll never find me on the Ohio River with a shortage of bright chartreuse square-bill crankbaits.

Ample supplies of lures are security blankets for me and for most anglers.

This is not to say I’m a hoarder.

I keep back-ups for the back-ups in the event I am victimized by saw-tooth northern pike at Mosquito, line-snapping bigmouths under Chautauqua’s docks or mussel-crusted rocks in the mighty Ohio. You never want to be caught short when the fish are biting the bait you just lost.

What’s more, shopping for the lures is good therapy when actually going fishing is not on the day’s schedule. It’s fun to stroll the aisles at Fisherman’s Central, Fin Feather Fur and Bass Pro Shops and fill the basket with the stuff I know will be put to good use in the near future.

It’s like grabbing that 12-pack of canned green beans at Sam’s Club. It just feels right.

So I will continue to drop a few bucks when I spy a hot-looking lure or an exquisite rod and reel.

They may not put more fish in the boat. But the satisfaction they provide is priceless. And that’s bonus enough for me.

Jack Wollitz is the author of “The Common Angler,” a book about the “why” that attracts anglers to the water. He likes readers’ emails, jackbbaass@gmail.com.