If you're just looking at doing some trading, talking about baits, maybe some sales (no shopping cart needed) take a look at doing a blog-based site like blogger (
www.blogger.com) which is hosted by google. Very little actual web design involved and easy to get started, somewhat versatile.
www.confessionsofaplantgeek.com www.confessionsofafishgeek.blogspot.com &
www.bonelessvodka.blogspot.com are the blogs I author.
As far as hosting a website goes, most hosts are pretty similar. Godaddy is very popular. We are using justhost.com. Our website is designed using wordpress, which is free. It has lots of options for templates and setup/design is pretty easy but some knowledge of html coding, file systems, and excellent general computer knowledge is helpful.
www.botanophilia.com is our nursery website. Our shopping cart is zencart. It's a heck of a lot of work to set up a website like this, but not so much work maintaining it.