Will High Gas Prices Affect Your Fishing?

[PhishLI]

Plenty of good lakes close to home, plus my waders get like a 1000 miles to the gallon.

[Way north bass guy]

Luckily for me I have literally hundreds of lakes within a 1/2 hour of me, so the truck won’t burn too much. Most of the lakes are small to med size, and even running way out on Georgian Bay my Suzuki sips the fuel, so I’m not too terribly worried about it. I will say, as a self employed stonemason, the price of fireplaces is going up, up, up! I love my job, but “thank you” doesn’t do you any good at the grocery store ?. 

[DogBone_384]

I doubt it.  At the most I'll take my kayak more than my boat.

[N Florida Mike]

4 hours ago, throttleplate said:

 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.

I was making 4.00 an hour on a farm then and thought that was bad…

It won’t affect me much, if any . Will fish mostly in the home lake and local ponds. I doubt if it will keep my friend with a bass boat and me from going on the occasional trip from 40-60 miles one way. He’s such a good friend he won’t let me give him any gas money.

Of course, that may change with these prices…

[Jmilburn76]

I kayak fish so only need fuel to get to the water and back home and my normal lake is about 15 miles away. I still will probably go less though if gas gets to $6.

[islandbass]

10 hours ago, WRB said:

Add .98 tax to your gas prices, that is what we pay in California.

It double the cost of traveling, pulling your rig and on the fuel used. However the high prices hasn’t reduced the traffic on the water or highways.

Tom

Ouch. I think WA states is about that give or take a few pennies. Some gas stations are bold enough to post these additional taxes. 
 

Because I tend to fish lakes within 12 miles of my home, I don’t think I’ll be too affected by the gas prices. Worse though is we’re nearly two months into the 2022-23 season and I still have not gotten my license and a small part of me ain’t “feeling” like renewing this year despite having a pretty good run last year. Even years are kinda blah for me fishing wise because the pink salmon don’t run in even years and for me it’s a lesser year.  

[FishTank]

I got gas for my wife's car at Costco today and saw something I have never seen before.  

 

I guy pulls up in a pick up truck with a Ranger bass boat attached. He fills both tanks of this truck, about 30 gallons. Then he fills his boat with 40+ gallons. Finally he had 12 five gallon gas containers he started to unload and the attendant stopped him. I am not sure what he said but he only filled one jug. If he had filled them all that would be over 130 gallons of gas and at $4.45 a gallon.  That's about $575.  

 

 

[schplurg]

7 hours ago, Junk Fisherman said:

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.  

 

Sounds like the answer is yes.  

[ATA]

14 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 been there and actually $6.50 plus is normal. Effect my fishing? Yes but in good way

[T-Billy]

8 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Mom was telling me about that the other day 

I was only 10 then, but I remember it. Long lines at the gas stations, high prices, gas rationing. My Grandpa went from driving a buick 225 with a 455 to a chevy chevette. 

[Hammer 4]

$ 6.80 per Gal. for diesel here in so. Cali. At those prices and on a limited retired budget, can't afford to make those 120 + mile treks to the big lake that I love, so I'll be sticking close to home, fishing the local city park ponds..sigh

[Captain Phil]

Fill it up!!

 

 

[Mobasser]

The two main smaller lakes I fish are close to home. I don't think it will affect me very much.  One of the lakes has some good bank fishing spots also, and I enjoy bank fishing too.

[Junk Fisherman]

7 hours ago, schplurg said:

 

Sounds like the answer is yes.  

 

If the question was "Will gas prices affect your life?"  Then the answer would be absolutely.  Hell, I just picked up an extra day and a half of work this morning so that the extra income could pay for gas so that my fishing would not be affected.  But I am not going to let high gas prices affect my big summer trips or how often I fish locally.  About the only thing it will change is I might go on Lake Michigan a few less times over the summer since that is pretty expensive.  But on those days I will go somewhere else.  So yeah- high gas prices will not really affect my fishing.  I'm not going to let it.  

[Zcoker]

There's no doubt about it, gas prices will effect everyone. And the more it climbs, the more people will turn to other alternatives. Last weekend I did about 300miles for fishing and must say that it didn't feel good at all filling my tank. Thank goodness I have a newer Ford Ranger that gets about 27 mpg. Regardless, I have been looking into those electric trucks but the waiting list and dealer markup is just insane. I was going to pre-order a Ford Lightening but Ford just recently cutoff all orders on its first 200k. So looks like next year is when they might start taking orders again, hopefully. Gas will probably be $10 gal by then lol 

[the reel ess]

I kayak, so no. And the place I usually fish is about 2 miles away so fuel for the truck isn't a big deal. I work from home. That alone has saved me about $1200/year for 9 years. But then my daughter went to the governor's high school for the arts about 2.5 hours away. We've spent more in the wife's car in the last school year.

[Zcoker]

Just a short time ago...those were the days!

 

 

[roadwarrior]

The cavalry is coming. 

[Happybeerbuzz]

For my financial situation, there is no way it can not curb many habits including fishing.  My wife and I used to spend about $50 a week on gas including for the boat.  Here in CA, we are easily spending twice that.  Unless prices come down, that is a $2600+ a year that is, poof, gone, if prices do not come down, or I do not curb my habits.  Now pile on all the other things that have gone up in price.  I have a family of four.  My two kids will never be young again.  I would rather not insist they sacrifice if possible.  I have been fishing before.  

[Trox]

The surplus of money I had from quitting my pack-a-day smoking habit last year [that went towards my fishing habit] now ends up in my gas tank... which is kind of sad. It was a good run.

[Catt]

I remember gas well under $1 a gallon, my budget was $10 for the boat & truck.

 

Improvise, adapt and overcome!

 

I could go back to  9.8 Merc no problem!

[Jigfishn10]

6 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

Fill it up!!

 

 

I think when you have something like that, you don't worry about gas prices.  

[J Francho]

3 minutes ago, Jigfishn10 said:

I think when you have something like that, you don't worry about gas prices.  

They are probably the people that are profiting from the high prices.

[Jigfishn10]

20 minutes ago, J Francho said:

They are probably the people that are profiting from the high prices.

That or something else that doesn't deserve high prices.

 

But we're not being cynical here...  

[J Francho]

Exactly.  Yeah, I wasn't speaking of just fuel. Infuriating.