Not convinced I can fish two days in a row comfortably.

[Darth-Baiter]

I fished yesterday. 2:30 am wake-up, long drive, hot weather, long distance in a kayak, long commute home. 
 

I did wash my truck like knucklehead. (Not typical)

 

I slept 10 hours. Haha.  Two days in a row would involve an overnight stay at the lake. It would be tough.   I maybe if I fell asleep right when I got home.  I don’t think I can do back to back kayak days. 

[Cbump]

You can if you want to. 

I sleep at the lake all the time. 

[Susky River Rat]

Don’t risk it man. I used to work second shift sleep 3 hours get up and fish 8-12 hours. There was times I couldn’t even focus enough to back my trailer into the garage. My eyes would burn from being awake that much.

[TnRiver46]

I camp in a swamp in south alabama every year and fish 6 days straight . Wouldn’t miss it for the world 

[Captain Phil]

When I was young, I could fish 24/7 365.  Now, I am only good for a half day.  For two years in a row, two friends of mine towed a bass boat to Lake Erie.  We rented a house and fished solid for a week.  We would fish from dawn to 10 PM every evening. I was good for two days straight, but I had to take a day off every third day.  My buddies kidded me for staying home to rest, but I just couldn't physically keep up.  Your body is trying to tell you something, listen to it.  Don't even think about driving when you are tried.  That never ends well.

[DitchPanda]

I remember back when I worked nights several times working a 12hr shift, driving 2hrs then fishing all day. I'd be up from like 4pm until 10pm the next day, never thought twice about. Now days there is no way in he'll I'd consider it.

[Darth-Baiter]

I think I can in a boat.  I better. I have 6 days straight coming up.  I should probably lift some weights and do cardio. Dang. 

[TnRiver46]

19 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

I think I can in a boat.  I better. I have 6 days straight coming up.  I should probably lift some weights and do cardio. Dang. 

Good point, don’t think my legs would work after 6 days in a kayak haha. I’ve done multi day camp/ canoe trips many times but there’s some leg freedom there 

[WRB]

The heat now is well over 105 degrees and kicks anyone’s arsh.

Tom

[BrianMDTX]

A 1/2 day in my inflatable boat, in these temps, and I’m kaput. 

[GreenPig]

If you're home and not eating, prepping your boat/gear or ordering more gear/tackle then all serious fishermen know you're suppose to be sleeping. Right??

Safety over Fun. 

 

[Bird]

Nothing tires me more than fishing all day in the heat.

 

[Spankey]

Once or twice a season I do a bit of a road trip south of me. I spend the night. Easier all the way around. Like you on the first day I’m cutting out from home at 2:00-2:30 AM, get there and put in a full day fishing, that’s a big day. If I can get something decent for dinner and only a few hours of good sleep I’m ready to fish the next morning to just before midday. Leave to come home straight from the ramp. Have a good cooler. It can make or break a day or two of fishing. I recently had weather postpone a trip. I’ll go in August and September. July continues to look crazy on the weather front. 

[A-Jay]

I put quite a bit of time & effort into being the best version of me that I can be.  Yet despite having capacities I probably would not have if I chose a different path, I certainly have limitations that I didn’t have in years past.  The secret for me is to know them, be honest with myself (a work in progress) and to optimize my time on the water best I can.  So quality over quantity is the reward.

It doesn't last forever.

Stay Safe

A-Jay

[geo g]

All the young bucks will find out that the monkey climbs your back once you hit 70.  Cant do what I used to do on a regular basis, but still good for half a day, just do everything slower, and with more thought.  Never believed this would happen, but it's just part of mother natures way.  Just glad to still be in the game, many old friends are already gone.  Still love to fish, and do it at least 5 days a week.

[The Baron]

My trick is to do half days.  Fish the early morning until it gets hot/the bite slows down - say 5am-11am or so.  Then home for a shower and a glorious nap.  Family time in the late afternoon/early evening, then to bed early and do it again.  I can't do two marathon days back to back either and figure two 6-hour shifts at prime fishing time is better than a 12 hr. grind and missing the best part the next day.

[huZZah]

Nothing wrong with knowing your limits.
Previous job, I’d work 12-16 hr days with long 20-24 hour Friday nights to early Saturday morning, then a lot of Saturday’s have to be up again for something. In my 20s it didn’t faze me. 30s, I started to notice I was a little tired by Sunday.  Did it 16 years. 
 

Now I have a different job. ?.   Specially in a kayak alone, the last thing you wanna do is test limits.  Not worth being wrong to me. 

[N Florida Mike]

Our bass club tourneys started at daybreak , and lasted nearly to dark. We would sometimes be up at 4 to get to the ramp before daylight. Our trips home would usually be in the dark. As a young man, it didn’t bother me at all. 

I will even do it now if someone else drives. But only occasionally. Never back to back days. 

The 2 day camping/fishing  trips are probably a thing of the past for me now too. ?. 

If I’m fishing in a bass boat with seats , I can fish all day with no problem, although I won’t do it in the Florida summers. 

But if I’m in my bench-seat jon boat, my  back tells me it’s time to quit in a few hours…

[Crow Horse]

I could never do back to back fishing days, partly because I usually fish between 6-8 hours of hard fishing (read - not leisurely) and partly because I'd need to recheck gear (respool, sharpen hooks etc.) and charge batteries. I try to pay attention to detail and when I'm tired I'm going to make mistakes that could prove to be costly. I really wouldn't want to lose a PB fish or worse, turtle my yak.

[Catt]

I ain't as good as i once was
But I'm as good once, as I ever was!

 

19 hours ago, A-Jay said:

I certainly have limitations that I didn’t have in years past.  The secret for me is to know them, be honest with myself (a work in progress) and to optimize my time on the water best I can. 

 

I've accepted the fact I can not physically out fish my grandson Aiden but I can still out think him!

 

[gim]

The issue for me was driving home when I used to pull these ridiculous start times or night fishing trips.  An hour or more towing a boat when I was sleepy is borderline dangerous.  I did it for 10 years straight when I was in my 20's but even towards the tail end of that I would find myself starting to nod off a little bit.  Then I knew I shouldn't be doing it anymore.  I never fished in that type of heat either.  We went when it was about 50 degrees out on walleye opener here in mid May.  If I saw a high temp of 105 degrees I wouldn't even consider going fishing that day.

[TOXIC]

When I was guiding and still had my day job 3 consecutive days would kick my rear but I attributed that to the added stress of guiding and putting clients on fish.  Nowadays it’s still easy for me to do a sun up to sun down day but if it’s miserable hot I’ll cut it from sunup until about 3 in the afternoon.  I’m also still good with our week long trip to St Clair every year and we call that combat fishing.  It’s brutal but still the most fun ever.  Leading up to that trip in May, we spend as long and as many consecutive days on the water to get into “fishing shape” before the trip.  I also do a week long trip to Florida in January or February and we fish very hard on that trip.  I’m 66 and I refuse to let myself even consider that I “can’t” fish.  I’m sure at some point my body is going to overrule my brain but not if I can help it.  I can still hook up, tow, launch and recover my 21 foot glass boat and that’s all part of it.  

[casts_by_fly]

We wrecked the truck and boat a number of years ago due to fatigue.  We were fishing Erie all day which is a 2-2.5 hour drive.  We did it as a day trip and had done that and similar NEPA lakes plenty of times.  Part way home my dad asked me to drive so I started putting away all of my fly tying kit (I was tying on the front seat).  Before I finished he had drifted onto the gravel verge, woke up, and jerked the wheel to get the truck back onto the road.  Of course the boat didn't like that so it pulled the truck part sideways.  He compensated but the boat wagged the truck and we ended up 90 degrees to the road, went straight into the barrier and rolled.  the ball rolled out of the trailer and the boat popped straight up in the air in the fast lane.  We heard later from the nurse in the car behind us that it skidded down the fast lane like an airplane coming in for a landing.  The skeg was toast.  After losing the boat, the truck rolled two and a  half times to land on its roof in the slow lane.  He didn't have his seatbelt on because he never wears one (unless I'm driving).  I didn't have mine on because I had just taken it off to put stuff in the back seat and hadn't reach to put it on yet.  Luckily, I realized what was happening and grabbed the door handle and seatbelt buckle latch to hold myself down into the seat.  My dad drives with his legs so far up under the steering wheel that it held him in.  Luckily we got away with a few scrapes from crawling out of the window to get out.

 

All that's a long way of saying- pay attention to fatigue.  If you're doing long drives after fishing, consider a nap before you do it or even staying overnight.

 

As for me, I'm lucky to have a dozen lakes within 45 minutes and half are less than 30.  I'm more than happy to fish multiple days, though my limitations are either my shoulders or my back.  If I am power fishing with the big rods and heavy baits then that's a lot of casting and will make my shoulders sore.

[gim]

Good example of what can happen @casts_by_fly.  I am determined to never let that happen to me solely based on fatigue from fishing.  Consequences are real.  Quite honestly I'm surprised no one was seriously injured given the potential outcome that could have occurred.

[casts_by_fly]

2 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Good example of what can happen @casts_by_fly.  I am determined to never let that happen to me solely based on fatigue from fishing.  Consequences are real.  Quite honestly I'm surprised no one was seriously injured given the potential outcome that could have occurred.

 

completely.  The roads weren't crowded and the people behind us saw it in action so they slowed down traffic and stopped it.  The highway was shut for probably 2 hours.  Even more, when the truck went off the road it was an embankment that if we had gone over top of the barrier we would have gone 100-200 vertical feet down over a hill and stopped at a swamp.  Fortunately the barriers were the extra tall versions.  The front tow hook was what hit first and it hit so hard that the tow hook bent back over on itself.  I've never seen a bent towhook before let alone one bent in half.  Incredibly lucky.