I hear you on the kitchen sink approach.  I hate using live bait, unless I know that I have to.  Usually in the spring, plastics work, but not so much this spring...  
 
Of course, the only day that I can get out is tomorrow.  Kids activities are somehow early morning only and not smack in the middle of a weekend day for once.  I probably should be working on my pool deck, but lumber prices have me thinking to wait.  I am hearing mixed info.  Prices could drop in a month or so, or they can stay this way forever...  Probably going to have to bite the bullet and just suck up the additional $300-$400 in costs.  It is at least a convenient excuse to go fishing!  
 
I'm at a bunch of clients next week, so if I do get out during the week, it will be going after meetings.  Meetings can be 2 hours or could be 7 hours.  Really depends on what comes up on sites, how many people and how intricate they want to be.  So can't really 
 
 

Bite the bullet and get composite. Our deck looks like the day they built it. We had a huge one attached to the old house that was wood. I think I stained it 4 times in 12 years. That Treks is one and done...

It is going to be composite to match our main deck.  It is $300-$400 difference on the framing lumber alone.  Pine has skyrocketed in price.
 
Trex hasn't changed much in price.  Although, that may end up changing soon if more people start switching to it.  I probably should get my Trex now, just in case it does.

Next time your com'upere, you'll havta to swing by and check it out.

Struck out today. Got on the lake around 11. Water temp around 55. Fished a few of my favorite spots around the lake. Couldn't buy a bite but I figured it was a long shot with the high pressure system setting in. May have had better luck with bait. Talked to a few other guys on the water and all reported pretty much the same.

Going back tomorrow AM so may take some bait to dust off the skunk. Dusted off the boat though and it's always good to get out on the water. Anybody else having any luck?

Report that Pymie was a bust today also. 51° .

Northeast Ohio Crappie Tournament today on Arthur...20 teams...8 fish...1st place 10.34 lbs...big fish 2.25 lbs...most teams caught 8 fish bags...fish caught anywhere from 5ft to 12ft...minnows and plastic...was a good day fishing

Porktown
It is going to be composite to match our main deck.  It is $300-$400 difference on the framing lumber alone.  Pine has skyrocketed in price.
 
Trex hasn't changed much in price.  Although, that may end up changing soon if more people start switching to it.  I probably should get my Trex now, just in case it does.

Trex eh? Sheesh. You guys bitcoin billionaires or something?
I got a quote i think 4 years back, 24x12 deck on the back side of the house. Was well over 12k. Trex is nice, just couldn't justify the price. 

I'm gonna pull my boat out of storage shortly, looking to go waste time and gas, will likely hit the Dead Sea. With how bad my last season was, I might just sit under the 422 bridge with chicken liver for 12 hours. 

The original deck on my house was pine professionally built. I was too cheap to do composite then. Last year, I went to replace 2-3 decking boards and ended up finding rot on over half the decking boards as well as half of the joists. If you have a dog, be sure to go through each board seem and make sure it is clear of hair and other debris or water will puddle and rot your boards/joists... After having to do that and having to power wash and stain every 3-4 years, the cost of composite is well worth it. Especially doing the work yourself. I replaced half of my joists and all of my deck boards on my main deck last year. I made sure to put joist tape down too.

This deck that I am building is under 4’ high, so framing on my own is an option. After replacing half of my frame last year, I saw that it wasn’t all that complex. YouTube has thousands of videos to help. My neighbor hired a contractor to frame his and he did the decking since his was higher. He said it was about the same price of paying them to use pine. Installing the decking alone isn’t too hard. Tedious, but not too hard. If you picture frame, you add a bunch of steps, but looks nicer IMO.

Pretty much what Tim said☝☝. Zero maintenance, zero upkeep. We have a hot water faucet outside, so even washing it once a year is pretty painless. With the price of lumber being what it is, I'd guess that the difference is smaller than when we built in '16. I learned that upfront money always outweighs anything spent on the backend. After the build, there were almost 2 dozen 16footers left. I've built a couple raised bed gardens, I used them for border around the big garden and we also used them to replace the bunks on a boat trailer. I think I still have a few left out back. My point is, if you have the money to spend, it's well worth the expense.