How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

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Morten

How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#1

Post by Morten »

Just thought about how far you are willing to drive, to spend a single day on a favorite fishing destination. Personally, my personal limit is somehow 280 miles in a single day.

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chsparkman
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#2

Post by chsparkman »

Presently, I consider about 200 miles my limit for a one-dayer. When I was young I would regularly drive from Riverside, CA to Bridgeport in the eastern Sierras, fish a few hours, then drive back. It was 350 miles each way but I usually had a friend to share the driving.

One crazy weekend we drove from Riverside to southern Colorado and fished the Dolores then over to the Conejos, then drove home. 48 hours with no sleep. I'm way too old for something like that now. That was 36 hours of driving.
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JabaliHunter
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#3

Post by JabaliHunter »

My current fishing is a 160 mile round-trip.

PYochim
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#4

Post by PYochim »

For me it is about two hours. I can be in the Bighorns in a little over an hour. In two hours I can be in Fort Smith, MT and put up with the crowds on the 'Horn. I haven't done that this year and probably won't. The flows are too high for wade fishing.

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Gnome
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#5

Post by Gnome »

windshield time must be 50% or less of fishing time. 1 days drive must equal 2 days fishing

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Big Pine
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#6

Post by Big Pine »

Grad school has landed me in northwest Indiana. There’s some very good smallmouth and steelhead fishing nearby, but if I want to trout fish or just go for walk in the woods with my dogs, I need to drive.

Eight hours puts me in my native woods south of Lake Superior, and I’ll make a weekend out of it if I can leave on Friday morning. For day trips, I’ll go anywhere from ninety minutes to three and half hours north into Michigan, or about 70-225 miles each way. Audiobooks, podcasts, coffee, and an efficient car help a lot, but I reckon I can’t do this forever.

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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#7

Post by SpringCreek »

These days about 150 miles each way is about my limit, and that is on rare occasion. I've done as much as 275 miles each way back in my 20's just to fish coho on a coastal stream in Washington. About 10 hours in the car that day, but it was worth it.
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Lancer21
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#8

Post by Lancer21 »

Apart from the times I fished while on a professional trip abroad, my record must be around the 180-200 mile mark, as we'd drive a lot with my father around Kansas to find good fishing spots... but he loves to drive and we always veered off to see something interesting, to visit a small town we'd never seen before, things like that. It would have been a 70 to 80 mile trip with someone else, but at least, now, I know a good third of the state like the back of my hand!

But now, I might shorten - or lengthen - the length of the usual fishing trip... My wife and I had been considering buying one of these houses in Greece for the holidays, and we were looking at one that'd be close to the sea or to a small lake in the mountains.

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twistedtippet
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#9

Post by twistedtippet »

Six miles to the Farmington River TMA for me. :wave

tt
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Mister Bill
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#10

Post by Mister Bill »

About one hour for me.

I used to do those all day affairs.

The older I get (75), the shorter the commute. It is not age related, just the way I feel.

tcorfey
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#11

Post by tcorfey »

Fairly regularly will travel 300 miles one-way for the day. If I can I will make it an overnight. But I get up at 3am leave by 4am on the river by 8am fish until 8pm home again around midnight or 1am. At 59 years of age now, but can't wait until I retire and don't have to be on such a tight schedule. Note: will usually take a brief 1 hour nap in the middle of the day after lunch.

Havana
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#12

Post by Havana »

I recently drove twelve hours from VA to ME for a day and half of fishing. However, my wife says I'm crazy, your results may vary. I think it's worthwhile to get somewhere where my mobile phone won't work.
Some days I fish, the rest are wasted

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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#13

Post by Shrimpman »

My favorite freestone stream requires a round trip of about four hours out of the day to drive there and back. On my last visit, nearing the end of a long hike and several very nice Rainbows on dries, a 17" beauty absolutely attacked the fly out of a tough-to-reach slick, lodged behind a couple of boulders, took me downstream in haste, and generally fought like a mad Scotsman. When it shot like a rocket back into the current, I figured I will happily make the trip for one such fish in a beautiful stream.
Kean

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Taleone
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#14

Post by Taleone »

This summer I was on vacation in Italy with my friends. And one Friday we decided to go fishing. We were in Rome at that time. So we drove 650 km one way and same back just to be able to go fishing in a famous lake Como. It literally took us 7 hours one way. But it was worth it! Best place to be in my opinion. Plus we stayed a night in this property in lake Como.

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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#15

Post by Bee »

I live in the S E US with a bunch of good tailwater fisheries within 30 minutes to three hours away. Many are year round fisheries. Its just a matter of picking the right one daily. I've driven 350 round trip to one tailwater 7 times this summer. It was worth it about three out of the seven trips .

When I considered buying a place in the west many years ago I realized how seasonal many of the rivers and streams were in the target area. My close and experienced fishing friends who live there were driving 200 plus miles each way to fish from their homes and they lived in supposedly the middle of the perceived " best trout fishing in the country. " Hint--its not the "best trout fishing in the country".....

adrien schnee
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#16

Post by adrien schnee »

If you include driving, fishing and driving home within the same day I max out at about 7 hours of driving, so 3 1/2 hours each way. I have done this on a number of occasions, but not much further.

To fish for a day I have driven about 1000 miles, then 1000 back again after a few hours fishing and some exploring as I wanted to see a couple of rivers near the Yukon territory. But this involved a couple of hotel nights.

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weiliwen
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#17

Post by weiliwen »

I live in Chicago, so the closest decent fishing starts about 2 hours away, west of Madison, but to get to the Heart of the Driftless takes 4 hours.

I now live in Madison during the week, so all of that becomes much closer. I am able to fish after work these days, 30 minutes from my office.

red 1
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#18

Post by red 1 »

twistedtippet wrote:Six miles to the Farmington River TMA for me. :wave

tt
Nice it used to be 10 miles for me to the Farmington, now it is 30. However, it’s less than 5 to the Housatonic! Nuck, Nuck, Nuck....
I want to be buried with my favorite rod.
I hear the Styx River has Fish.

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16parachuteadams
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#19

Post by 16parachuteadams »

My current range is about an hour and a half. That encompasses six tailwater fisheries and all of the Great Smokie Mt NP, Slickrock Wilderness, and Pisgah. The Little River runs through the back yard which makes it almost too easy.
I can be lured from my range but it's not easy.

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tunafart
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Re: How far are you willing to drive, for a days fishing.

#20

Post by tunafart »

Back in the day -this was the mid 80's mind you, w/ $1&change gas-
I conducted a 2-month / 140 angler-economics survey on the Colorado Front Range, post spring runoff.
As I recall this same question ('for a day's fishing') averaged a '25-to-40 mile' response from fly fishermen.

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