Gas prices

[smokepole]

Has the price of gas had an effect on your fishing trips? In Middle Tennessee gas is 359.9 a gallon up .10 sence 7:30 this morning.

[btcprince]

well.....its affected what i will potentially buy, motorwise. i have gone from maybe a 40 hp to 'well i could use a 25 just fine', to 'yeah a 9.9 will do me right'.

i still laugh thinking about on roland martins show where he was promoting a 250hp optimax i think....he said 'its great and fuel efficient...gets about 4mpg'.

[simplejoe]

gas price here is $3.72 gallon here Western Pa and I don't travel too far to fish but I did cut down on going up to camp from every weekend to every other and now I only pull my boat up there once a month :'( :'(   too many hills going there so it sucks the gas down

[w4svc]

Here in Kansas it's 3.51. The price doesn't change my fishing much last 5 trips only burned 6 gallons for all. Glad Opec can't charge for running the trolling motor.

[bassdocktor]

Not sure how much fishing on Lake Michigan I'll get to do. Average price is Chicago is probably close to $3.95 and the station on the corner is up to $3.99

However, in Michigan this past weekend it was under $3.80

Looks like more closer and smaller lakes.

[stuart]

I cant remember exact numbers but during the Clinton years gas only went up like 20 cents and with Bush well you know..  It all means I will fish closer to the house and really not get to go to places with the bigger fish.. At least I still get to fish...

[lknbassman]

Yes, it's having an effect.  I run a 21ft Triton with a 250 Pro XS and it uses gas, lots of gas.  Oh yeah so does my V8 pickup that I pull it with....  At $3.65/ga it's cutting down on a lot of my fishing fun...  I'm not all that happy about it either... >

[Brian_Reeves]

My truck gets 25mph and my canoe uses ZERO.  Gas prices have affected my fishing boat plans though.  It went from 20ft Skeeter, to 17ft Xpress, to the canoe that I settled for.  I'm upgrading soon though to a 13ft kayak with a depthfinder and GPS complete with a home made livewell.  Here is the company's link (minus a few upgrades I'm planning on when I get it) http://www.malibukayaks.com/kayak_x13.asp

[TyTy]

Gas prices affected me.  I decided to stay within an hour of my house for fishing unless the conditions on intellicast.com looked perfect to make a longer run to say the Stick Marsh.

Last year this time I was running all over central florida trying everywhere I could out just to see new water and try fishing it.

[wagn]

Gas hasn't really effected me much. With a 25hp on the back of my 15ft grizzly, I really don't use that much gas at all anyway. Mostly just run to a part of the lake and troll all day.

[BassChump]

So far, fuel prices aren't having any affect on me. I live in a town on the coast of Oregon that has some of the best bass fishing in Oregon. There are 25 lakes within 20 minutes of town and my favorite lake is withing a mile of my office so I consider pretty lucky to have everything so close.

Also, my truck is a Ford Ranger 4x4 so that gets reasonable mileage and the boat has turned out to be a godsend.

It's a 1984 Trophy bass boat with all the stuff and it's in pretty good shape. It isn't fancy but it does everything all the big dollar boats do. The engine is an 85 horse so it has enough power and speed for me and it's very economical. I haven't limited my fishing expeditions one bit. I filled the tank last summer and I'm still running on the same tank.

As a matter of fact, I'm going more now than ever.

 I'm very thankful for the way things turned out.

[Kevin Davis]

so far i havent slowed down but im new to the sport (again). I have a glass boat 17' with a 135hp merc older model. havent had to refill the tank yet but will soon due to a four day trip comming up on a very large lake.

I look at it like this, I only live once so why not have fun while doing it.

[Triton20XSD]

Defintely has affected me.  My club has a tournament in July in upstate NY and I probably will not be going.  1st tournament I will miss in the last 6 years.  Just got back from CT and after $40 entry fee and $150 in gas, let's just say I will be fishing closer to home for the next few months...............Gas is around $3.69-$3.75 here in PA and it was $3.97 in CT over the weekend.

[T-Bone]

It has affected me.  I used to drive around looking for new ponds to fish but now I stick to the ones close by.  And to think, I was planning on saving for a boat this summer, but all the extra money I would be making will probably be going to gas. :'(

[zo6fisherman]

I don't know about most people but i do well money wise although i still budget myself.  And fishing is one of those things that i love to do so i will sacrifice in other departments to be able to do that and still be in my budget.  Maybe a little less beer, quit chewing so much copenhagen even though it think it is a great chum seen many a bluegill come up and eat it when i threw it in the water.  So basically no gas prices won't change my fishing habits.  might change other things that i do but not fishing.

[miked62]

$5.20 a gallon here in Australia boys. And we sometimes travell over 1000 miles round trip for a tournament. Might be time to quit the tour and fish the local I think.

Mike

[Popeye]

Yes and no. I've decided to use my ProCraft sparingly and use this when I want to fish alone (it gets great gas mileage, uh, I mean leg mileage) )

[jhoffman]

Im planning to buy a nitro this coming winter (wait till the 09's come out buy an 08). I have a bass john I just completed in April, it has the little dink 5hp briggs that came on it. It doesnt run bad at all, especially with just me in it. Ive filled its three gallon tank 1 time and fished 8 trips so far. When i get the new nitro, I will keep the john for when i fish alone and for the rivers. I was looking at exactly what I want to get and the motor options had me wanting the biggest available. Then reality hit and i figured... a 50hp would be plenty with gas prices. I dont need to go an extra 10mph for the price of gas and the extra cost of the motor. Really not worth it.

[fishfordollars]

Gas is 355.9 in Houston this morning. I am leaving Thursday to fish a tournament on the noth end of Toledo Bend and it is a 3 1/2 hour drive one way. It will take at least two tanks of gas for the tow up and back and another 60 gal. for the boat. Sucks, but I will not quit.

[Ranger461]

Gas this morning in Frankfort Kentucky was 3.95 so I am like the rest of you will be fishing a lot closer to home

[Daniel My Brother]

I fish from a jon on a few 10hp lakes under within an hour of home, so gas hasn't affected my fishing much.

I am going to put a hitch on my Mercury Sable to pull the jon boat, it gets much better mileage than the van I've been using, and the jon doesn't weigh much at all.

[brgbassmaster]

well guys here in alamogordo the closest lake that has bass in it. is well 2hrs away. so i have to drive 2 hrs everytime i want to fish. i can go over there on one tank and fill up when i come home still tahts 80$. i loved it when i lived in michigan and there were 3 2,000 acre lakes within 30 minutes or i could go to the smaller 250 acre lakes within 15 minutes. they need to send me to a better base to satisfy my fishing needs. 3.69 cheapest gas here right now. on base 3.75.

[ZEN BASSIN]

Good thing we don't have big lakes up here >. The state managed ones are 10hp or under. Gas is $3.85 gal. It hurts towing the boat with my F250 super duty. Not to mention home heating oil is $4.45 gal try filling a 500 gal tank, no can do for me. :'( But I still go fishing.

[Branuss04]

Gas has just recently started affecting my fishing now that it is over 4 bucks.  I will probably just start going to lakes within an hour instead of traveling over an hour.  Or I was thinking of moving closer to the big bass lakes in the state ;D

[The Next KVD]

In Minnesota gas is currently 3.739 where i live.  This year I won't be doing as much prefishing and I'm going to use the trolling motor more and resist the urge to crank up the 90hp Yamaha and run around the lake.