Will High Gas Prices Affect Your Fishing?

[Captain Phil]

Some of us have been through this before.  Back in seventies, we had gas lines.  My wife filled up her car once and I siphoned it out to put in my boat.  I had to sleep on the couch for some time after that. ?

 

At least so far we can get gas.  During the second gas crisis in 1979, I paid the owner of Slim's Fish Camp in Okeechobee to keep my boat in a slip with the tank topped off.  I bought a VW Rabbit Diesel to drive back and forth to the lake. Funny thing is we have more oil in the ground now than we can use.  

[papajoe222]

I normally  make two 400mi. And one 250mi. trips pulling the boat. This year, one of the longer trips has already been scrubbed because of gas prices and the wife is already putting pressure to do so with one or the other remaining.  
The other lakes I fish are all within 100mi. and I feel fishing them is worth the expense.

One less reel, or rod purchase this season should even out fishing cost for me.

[NHBull]

I am sure some of us can remember in 79 being able to fill your car every other day based on your license plate.  Lucky for my family a couple gas stations opened for an hour or two at 1 AM  to get what you needed,  no questions asked.  Luck for us a Cadillac could fit 5 gas cans in the trunk, dad made his living on the road?

[schplurg]

4 minutes ago, papajoe222 said:

I normally  make two 400mi. And one 250mi. trips pulling the boat. This year, one of the longer trips has already been scrubbed because of gas prices and the wife is already putting pressure to do so with one or the other remaining.  
The other lakes I fish are all within 100mi. and I feel fishing them is worth the expense.

One less reel, or rod purchase this season should even out fishing cost for me.

 

There you go! I cut down on the beer!

[jbmaine]

The lakes we fish are around 35-40 miles from us and our 16' Lund \ 50HP Merc sips the gas. We'll pay more to keep fishing. Might try for a few trout to bring home and eat though.

[Junk Fisherman]

Not really.  

 

I have been picking up some extra work the last few months just for this very reason.  I also have not bought a couple things that I would have otherwise purchased.  Fishing is what makes me happy.  I take a couple 5 hour trips up north every summer and if they cost me a couple hundred dollars more, so be it.   YOLO!!  

 

Now locally, I will be more selective on when I go on Lake Michigan which has a $25 launch fee and I always run more out there.  Those days normally cost me $50 or so and now it'll probably be double that so I'll only go when it's perfect.  If I get really desperate I can find a fishing partner to help pay for expenses.   I might fish in my kayak a little more as well.  There is a decent lake a few miles from the house.  

[padlin]

I'm retired living on a fixed income and use no gas for either boat. Still, at $30 for the usual 2 hr round trip @ $4 I may well divert to a pond half as far if it starts to hurt. Of course the bass are half the size so maybe not.

 

Maybe I'll just stop cutting the lawn and use the gas in the truck.

[throttleplate]

To get to the dam on the ottertail river in minn is 132 miles round trip all hwy driving.

Honda civic with a packed trunk for bank fishing gets 39mpg hwy. Cost of gas is now at $4.09 in fargo nd for 87 reg. My cost for 1 trip for gas is $12.00.

 

I am now looking at weather patterns more to find the pre fronts, post fronts, cloudy days and even looking at the moon cycles to choose the best days.

I am retired and coud go everyday but want to maximize my trips.

This week is supposed to be cool so i am going to wait till this coming monday, partly cloudy, chance of rain.

 

 

[Bankbeater]

Most of the small lakes and ponds I fish are about 15 to 25 miles away so no I'm still going fishing.  I will be doing more fishing off of the bank, and to lighten the load, I have taken some of the fishing gear out of the trunk that doesn't get used that much.

[MN Fisher]

49 minutes ago, NHBull said:

I am sure some of us can remember in 79 being able to fill your car every other day based on your license plate.

And the difference between my earnings ($2.65/hr part-time) and the price of gas at the time ($1.35/gallon) was a lot slimmer than today....and I was driving a 73 Plymouth Cuda that got about 8MPG...and my girlfriend lived 14 miles from me.

 

You do the math

[GRiver]

I live on St John’s River, so travel to to river won’t change. My fishing boat is a 15ft, aluminum mod V with a 25 hp 4 stroke Yamaha. It is really easy on fuel, I feel I’m pretty lucky on that, but I still will be fishing closer to home. I’d rather go more often closer to home, than less farther away.

 

[throttleplate]

10 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

And the difference between my earnings ($2.65/hr part-time)

 If i made $ 2.65 an hr i maybe wouldnt have joined the military.

In 1979 after graduating high school i was making $1.10 full time in the summer working for Aamco transmissions.

Azz, grass or gas nobody rode for free.

[MN Fisher]

1 minute ago, throttleplate said:

I don't understand, in 1979 after graduating high school i was making $1.10 full time in the summer working for Aamco transmissions.

I was doing work-study at the college I was attending - they paid more than the commercial businesses at the time.

[DitchPanda]

I'm driving an 05 Silverado Z71...gets 16-17 mpg on the highway...lucky for me my two primary spots are about 1.5miles and 7 miles away. My other most frequent spot is about 35 miles away..for that drive ill take my secondary driver...a 2010 kia forte. It gets about 35 mpg so even at $6 a gallon a trip will only set me back $12. Also my work drive is 6 miles each way so about a gallon each day. I'm fortunate..even at $6 a gallon my personal gas budget will likely still be under $200 a month.

I will also add that the last time gas was high like this...I think back in 2008.. I only made like $11 an hour. That was tough to manage...fortunately I'm in a much better financial place now so should be able to weather it better.

[RDB]

6 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

Experts say we may have $6.00 a gallon gas by the end of the summer.  If so, will this change your fishing?

Didn’t you hear, inflation is transitory…Powell said so.

 

[scaleface]

yep . I'm trying to make a tank of gas last an entire week . 

[Bassin Bruce]

I live about 4 miles from the Delaware and a great tributary with all of its 3 reservoir are about 5 miles in the other direction...I'm set.

[T-Billy]

Not a bit. The house I just bought is 3 min from the ramp on the lake down the street, and it's only 15 min to either ramp on the neighboring lake. 16' Polar Kraft running a 20HP Suzuki only uses about a gallon per trip.

[J._Bricker]

7 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

Experts say we may have $6.00 a gallon gas by the end of the summer.  If so, will this change your fishing?

We’ve been paying over $6.00 a gallon for months now, a diesel is even higher ($6.79) as of this morning at the local Chevron station. I’m not gonna let the cost gas affect my fishing, I’m just happy I don’t have to pay $30 a gallon (bulk) for Optimax oil.

[Woody B]

7 hours ago, A-Jay said:

While the higher prices might not affect my fishing directly

 

Like A-Jay the gas prices won't affect my fishing directly but gas prices tripling affects everything in some way.   Diesel prices are up, and still going up even more than gas.  Pretty much everything we buy needs diesel fuel to get delivered.    We're not to the point, with gas prices or anything else at this point to slow down my fishing.  Who knows how high stuff will go.   

7 hours ago, A-Jay said:

While the higher prices might not affect my fishing directly

 

Like A-Jay the gas prices won't affect my fishing directly but gas prices tripling affects everything in some way.   Diesel prices are up, and still going up even more than gas.  Pretty much everything we buy needs diesel fuel to get delivered.    We're not to the point, with gas prices or anything else at this point to slow down my fishing.  Who knows how high stuff will go.   

[soflabasser]

Increased gas prices will affect those more who need to use boats to catch bass. Those that do well from the bank will not be affected as much.

7 hours ago, FishTank said:

We have noticed less bass boat traffic but the same,  if not more,  pleasure boaters. If anything, we won't be going flat out and the trolling motor will see a lot of work. 

It seems some people buy more gas when prices go up just like people bought more toilet paper in the beginning of the pandemic. Most people are extremely predictable, oil companies know this so they are making record profits from all the people buying more gas than ever now.

[crypt]

not at all.....

[Log Catcher]

It will make a difference for me. The lakes I like to fish the most are around 115 miles round trip. I will be fishing places closer to home most of the time. I have a 17' Bass Tracker with a 40 HP Mercury. It is very easy on gas so I will be okay. Gas is $4.29 here right now.

[TnRiver46]

3 hours ago, NHBull said:

I am sure some of us can remember in 79 being able to fill your car every other day based on your license plate.  Lucky for my family a couple gas stations opened for an hour or two at 1 AM  to get what you needed,  no questions asked.  Luck for us a Cadillac could fit 5 gas cans in the trunk, dad made his living on the road?

Mom was telling me about that the other day 

[ironbjorn]

Not really. Whether I go or not I still won't catch anything.