How far do you guys go to fish?

[YoTone]

The two or three of the bigger bodies of waters from me are about an hour drive. I do have some local spots but I wonder how many of you guys drive long distances to fish a body of water you fish frequently. 

[scaleface]

I usually drive 5 to 50 miles .  My most frequent spot is a 200 acre lake 30 miles away where the Conservation dept supplies 14 foot jon boats for free .

  I am set up to   fish local waters fast .A canoe for the streams , a plastic boat with built in wheels for small bodies with difficult access , Portable depth finder and trolling motor for lakes with rentals and my wifes deck boat for the big   lake . I slapped an 85 lb thrust trolling motor on it , two depth finders , butt seat and it has a livewell . The front half is mine , the back half hers .  

[A-Jay]

My waters range from 3 miles to about 100 miles away.

Travel time is relative to traffic & terrain. (and my version of traffic here is 2 or more vehicles at a stop sign )  

Don't necessarily have to go the distance to get the best action.

The decision of where to go is often dictated by the weather (mostly wind) and the season.

Early & late in the year has me beating up on the closer more local population.

For the heat of the Summer & night ops - anything goes. 

Sometimes the tipping point goes back to the fact that the bigger water routinely produces the bigger fish.

(None of this includes international fishing trip travel).

A-Jay

 

[NYWayfarer]

I drive less than a mile to get to my kayak fishing spot.

 

It's funny I am surrounded by water but have limited access to fish from shore. It seems you have to own a home on the river or lakes by me or machete your way through a forest to go fishing.

[Smokinal]

I'm blessed here in Maine with water everywhere. Countless ponds all within 1.5 hr drive and obviously tons more farther out. I typically stay within 1 hr drive though.

[DogBone_384]

I stay within an hour or so of home except the three or four trips a season I take to the Quabbin Reservoir that’s about 2 hours away.  I’ve got one good pond 20 minutes from home, but the best fishing near me is SE Mass and Cape Cod.

[Troy85]

As far as commonly fished area's, closest launch is 10 miles, furthest is about 50.

[senile1]

Typically, I don't travel more than 50 or 60 miles.  The closest lake to me is 17 miles away and is managed for bluegill.  All the bass there are tiny so I'm always traveling 20 - 25 miles minimum.  I occasionally travel over 100 miles to some excellent big bass fisheries just south of the Missouri/Iowa border, and then there are the two trips to Table Rock in the Spring and Fall which is 3.5 hours away.    

 

I obviously don't travel enough to whack a DD. . . . not yet anyway.  

[Scott F]

I spend 4-6 weeks every year fishing 2 places. One is 300 miles away and the other is 350 miles away. Once I get there, I spend 3 days to two weeks before I come home. I only fish other places when I can't get to one of my first two choices.

[Choporoz]

We measure distance in minutes around here....most days, I drive between 15 and 30 minutes.  Once or twice a month 90-180 minutes.

 

In June, I'm driving 1600 miles and flying in another 60 miles

[SDoolittle]

My fishing trips can be anywhere from 10 miles to 800 miles away from home, but the majority of my fishing is done on one of the several lakes in the 25-50 mile range. 

[Catt]

Closest is 50 steps out my from door

 

Farthest 121 miles or 2 hrs & 15 minutes 

 

I have taken trips as far as 750 miles, 10 hrs & 49 minutes to fish central Florida.

[2tall79]

Interesting thread.   My home lake is about 10 miles away, but it is a huge, gin clear, highly pressured urban lake.  If I want to fish a lake that has natural shoreline and less pressure, it's a 20 mile to 30 mile trip.  Having an 18 foot boat limits me as to the lakes with suitable launches.

[Pro Logcatcher]

I live right next to Lake Norman, so I fish there a lot.

[Todd2]

My normal lake is  30 mins away. I do have another smaller one about 5 mins that I hit sometimes.

 

Several other better lakes are all  about an hour and half and I try to hit those too a few times a year.

 

[Angry John]

In my kayak I stay about the one hour mark.  In the boat we fish a local tourney trail and the furthest out was about 2 hours.  I take the opportunity to fish my vacations or trips and currently I am in Austin a 12 hour trip from home.  I don't think that counts as a trip because I was here to visit her parents but I will take advantage.

[TOXIC]

I'm lookin at 50-65 miles to get to either a good lake or the Potomac river.  Those are the closest but there are a lot within 200 miles that I have fished.  I go to St Clair for a week which is 9-10 hours one-way and I go to Wisconsin which is 2 days (18 hours) each way.  It doesn't take much of a nudge to get me to go anywhere to any new water to fish.  That's part of the fun of fishing.  

[Troy85]

1 hour ago, Catt said:

Closest is 50 steps out my from door

 

Farthest 121 miles or 2 hrs & 15 minutes 

 

I have taken trips as far as 750 miles, 10 hrs & 49 minutes to fish central Florida.

To have a house on the water................one day......one day

[mattkenzer]

Closest water .... 10 min. - All Smallmouth

Farthest I travel .... 1-1/2 hrs. - All Largemouth

I also fish 6-8 lakes in between.

 

[desmobob]

It's 2 1/2 miles to my favorite launch.  I also have good fishing less than 1/2 mile from my door, and plenty within 15 miles.

 

I'm pretty much surrounded by water where I live.  Between the float tube, kayak and boat, I have a lot of opportunities very close to home.  It's a blessing.

 

Tight lines,

Bob

[38 Super Fan]

Nearly all the lakes I fish are 1.5-2 hours drive. (70-95 miles on these twisty roads here) It's pretty common for me to fish 6-8 times a month, so I spend quite a bit of time towing.

[shovelmouth83]

after i got out of the army in 2010. i lived in florida for a year and fished there almost everyday. then after my devoice i moved back home to Arkansas. i was fishing and then one day i packed my car and drove to north dakota for a month worth of fishing. 900 miles. 

[MIbassyaker]

For me time is the limiting factor rather than distance per se, and I can usually afford to spend one morning at a time fishing. So I stick to bodies of water within an hour's drive of my house. Within that range I have hundreds of places i can choose and pretty good diversity of water types -- natural lakes, impoundments, upper, middle and lower sections of several rivers and streams, drowned river mouths, swampy bayous, and old gravel pits. However, as most of these waters are small and about 1 million people live within that same 1 hour radius, avoiding crowds can be a problem at times.  So I spend most of my time on a couple dozen small waters that are a little out of the way or difficult to get to, rather than the ones that are closest/easiest/fastest to get on.

 

 

[Goldstar225]

I have one small (300 acre) lake about 30-40 away.  Two others that are a one hour drive.  Occasionally I'll drive 2-2 1/2 hours to fish.  I've set a goal to fish every publicly accessible lake in my state within the next two years so I've got some traveling to do.

[Scarborough817]

the lake i consider my home lake where i can boat and do most of my fishing is at my family cottage 2+ hours away up there as much as possible from opening weekend to closing