How Far Are You Willing To Drive To Fish?

[eric1978]

but on the upside ....I am NOT a Didymo spreader

No, but I hear the herpabump is rampant among middle-aged women in the lake area.

I go when I can. I've all but given up on day trips since I'm about two hours from any river worth visiting, so I get a weekend every couple months and make the most of it. If it means driving across the state, so be it. Quality over quantity has become my mantra. I don't mind the driving, but the cost of gas is certainly prohibitive.

[Gavin]

Maybe 2.5 hours one way for a day trip...Anything longer than that and I'll stay for a couple of days...if its more than 8 hours of driving one way...It needs at least a week. Longer than that..forgetabout driving.

[sean c]

Fishing time has to at least equal window time. I live in Oklahoma so I always have a long drive to fish where I prefer to fish. I have broken this rule a few times when I just have to get out or the conditions are ideal.

[stlfisher]

3 hours one way for a full day of fishing is my max. If I drive that far I plan to fish sunrise to sunset. In the summer time that can be a long day since I usually leave about 3:30 in the morning and fish from 6:30am to 9:00pm and then drive back home. That is a long 21 hour day, but usually worth it. Once the days get shorter drives an 1 1/2 each way are more doable.

I would prefer to stay and fish a couple days, but the one day trip usually works out better and I can get a lot more of those in.

[Trout Commander]

I don't have a set rule for any sort of driving to fishing ratio. What it comes down to for me is is the fishing worth the drive? I'm probably not going to drive an hour to fish a farm pond for bluegills, no matter how long I could spend there. Would I drive an hour so my son could catch bluegills non stop for half an hour? You bet. Some trips I spend as much time driving as I do fishing but when a junkie needs a fix a junkie needs a fix!

Like Flysmallie said, getting there is just half the fun and that goes hand in hand with catching fish is only half the battle. The other half is making it home alive.

[Gilly]

For us it's the adventure, drive time included. We live just south of Omaha but we have a place in Stockton. Five hours + door to door if we stay on track.....but therein lies the adventure. The fishing is the goal but heck if we find a cafe or antique shop or whatever in between....who knows how long it might take. We usually plan a 4 day weekend several times a year. Around Omaha three hours can put us on good fishing just about any direction. Locally the NRD has some great puddles they keep stocked for grandkid fishing.

[Al Agnew]

I'll occasionally drive up to 2.5 hours for a one day trip, though I've got lots of water within 1.5 hours, so that's usually as far as I go. Anything farther than 2.5 hours out, I'll want to be fishing at least two days unless I've got other reasons for going. Most of the time if I'm driving across the state, for instance, it's usually for something else but I'll plan on taking an extra day to get in a fishing trip. Trips that take a full day or more of driving, I'll want to have friends along to make the drive easier and more fun.

Where my problem comes in is that if I have to drive more than 40 minutes or so, I want it to be an all day fishing trip. And, where I live now, my choices are limited when I only have time to fish for a couple hours. I've gotten spoiled with the place out in Montana being right on the river with lots of fishing water within 15 minutes' drive, so my wife and I are considering looking for a place in MO that's a lot closer to my favorite rivers. This is especially important to me in the cold weather months. All my best cold weather fishing spots are more than an hour away, and I'd really like to be a lot closer to them than that, so that I can go on days when the weather is iffy or when I can just fish the two or three best hours of the day without investing 3 hours or more of driving time.

[laker67]

I quite often drive 2hours to taney to fish 4 to 5 hrs and drive 2 more hours back in the same evening. I like to get to taney about 9 pm, fish until about 2 am, and return home. With the daytime crowds being in record numbers the past few seasons, I rarely stay over to fish the next day. This year has been exceptionally good for lunker rainbows. Since July, I have caught 52 fish, after dark, ranging from 3 to 12.5 lbs. In august and sept, no night time crowds and lots of fish. In october the night crowds have been pretty heavy. I make this trip several times from april to december.

[chambug]

For as long as I have been fishing Ozark streams the drive to the river has been part of the price to pay both in time and gas money. Over the years some general rules have evolved as far as how much distance/time and gas money I'm willing to spend. I try to spend at least twice as much time on the water as time in the truck. From my home base in Charley Town a two hour drive will allow me to do a single day trip most anywhere in the Meramec basin, four hours total time on the road equals 8 hours on the river. If I'm going to reach out to the Big Piney or Gasconade I need a day and a half on the water. That usual involves overnight camping on a gravel bar. Typically trips to Jacks fork, Eleven Point or North Fork of the White require two nights and two and a half day on the water. For big trips out west one week will allow me to reach northern New Mexico, most of Colorado and southeast Wyoming, Two week will get me to the Yellowstone area and most of Montana.

This weekend I'm violating my rule and packing for a balls to the walls single night trip to Eleven Point River. It will be about nine hour's total drive time for about twelve hours on the water.

I'm wonder how other folks look at the drive time vs. time on the water equation?

Thanks for any comments,

I'm in north Tx and have driven to Taneycomo many times, but we stay for a week most of the time. I get about 30 hours fishing for a 20 hour round trip.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I once drove from central Oklahoma to Cuidad Victoria in Mexico to fish.