How Often Do You Go Fishing?

[Al Agnew]

In another thread, somebody said that they wished they could spend as much time on the water as I do. Funny thing is, I wish I could spend as much time on the water as some others I know do. It seems to me that I really don't fish as often as some. So I thought it would be interesting to see how much everybody goes fishing.

My usual "goal" is to go at least one day a week, but it never quite works out that way. It's gotten closer (and different) since I now live part time right on the Yellowstone River in Montana. I can go out the door and on the water for an hour or so about anytime I want. In Missouri, I have a nice little pond full of bass and bluegill right next to the house, so if I need a quick fishing fix I can go out and spend a half hour fishing the pond.

But, in Missouri, I'm about 20 minutes from the nearest good wading stream, and at least a half hour away from the nearest stretch of floatable water. Most of my float trips take place on rivers an hour to two hours away. I never gave this a lot of thought until getting the place in Montana, where I have more than 50 miles of floatable water within 20 miles of the house, complete with always available shuttle services to float it all even if my wife can't shuttle me. Now, I'm really wanting to move a little closer to my favorite rivers to have a similar situation in Missouri.

Being in my business, or probably any self employed business, is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, I'm my own boss--well, actually my wife is kinda my boss as well --so I can take off and go anytime I want. On the other hand, if I took off anytime I wanted, I wouldn't get much work done. And it seems that a lot of times I want to go fishing but have deadlines to meet and can't.

So when I do get a chance to go, especially in Missouri, I want to maximize my time on the water, and since it always involves a drive, I want to be on the water all day.

All of which is a roundabout way of getting to how much time I'm actually on the water. I'd say I average about 6 or so days a year in cold season smallmouth fishing from the jetboat, about 12-15 all day float trips, 2 to 4 days a year fishing for trout or walleye in Missouri, and maybe 6 or so half day wading trips. In Montana, I go on about a dozen all day trips, maybe a dozen more half day trips, and an unknown but surprisingly small number of hours spent fishing right around the house for an hour or two. I usually have one outing a year where I go somewhere and fish for several days, and occasionally I get in a day of fishing when I'm somewhere on business. All in all, it usually comes to about 50-55 days total on the water per year if you don't include the little one hour or less bits of fishing I do around the house.

How about the rest of you?

[Gavin]

Its not like my single days....cant get 100+ days fishing anymore. Still get some time. Youngest is 3...oldest 5...two trips a month has been working lately. Day Trip, and one that is too far to drive at night...some 3-5 day fall, and winter annuals that are always on the calendar.

[ozark trout fisher]

It depends on how busy I am any given year. I'll get out anywhere from 30 or 40 days in a bad year to sometimes over a hundred.

[dgames]

The last couple of years I am getting in 2-3 days a month which is the most I have even been able to do. My kids are now college age, so I have more free time than I used to have. Most of my fishing is all day or half day trips to the lower Illinois which is 1hr 15 minutes from my house. A few times a year I get to MO or AR, usually to trout fish as well.

[laker67]

Before I retired this past january, I would make a weekly trip to taney starting in may and lasting through dec. Most holiday weekends, I would avoid , and any family event, I would reschedule the weekly trip with a sick day. Most, if not all of my taney trips, are a night/day combos. From dec to april I like to crappie fish here at loz. I can safely say that i spend 50 days on the water each year. Like Al, I am not counting those almost daily trips to the crappie dock.

[Ham]

Not enough. I'll make 80 or so fishing trips altogether. Too many of those would be less than a full day. Rough guess, I'll make 40 full day trips and 40 half day trips. I'd like to get that number up to 150 or so.

[Dutch]

80-100 most years

[moguy1973]

Before the baby and new job I was going 3-4 times a week to the local park pond after work, but I've only gotten in about 4-5 fishing chances since the baby came 2 months ago. Plus this relentless heat makes it hard to want to go after work. It would be close to a daily occurance if I were still single and didn't have a child...

[oneshot]

I'm Retierd and live next to Truman Lake so I fish at least 4 times a week.

oneshot

[Jerry Rapp]

good question Al. I use to be one who would go every chance I got. Now I am much more selective. In the past month I have only been twice because of the extreme heat. I am not a river rat like most of you (although I do wade the Black for about an hour every weekend when we take the dogs down for a cool swim). In the fall, winter and spring is when I do most of my lake fishing now. I have a couple of 100 acre semi private lakes within 10 minutes of the house which usually provide fun fishing in cooler times. This past winter I probably averaged 3 days a week on these little lakes or at Clearwater and Wappapello. As I get older (more mature?, LOL!), I sort of like to pick my days and I have a good ring of friends which helps us all keep abreast of what is going on where. So I would say 75 days a year, but a lot of them are 2 to 4 hour trips during peak times or on those days which you just know they are going to bite (funny though, that doesn't always work out as planned!)