im using my vespa scooter during the week at 70 miles per gallon then my truck on the weekends for fishing!
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im using my vespa scooter during the week at 70 miles per gallon then my truck on the weekends for fishing!
Gas price coupled with having my first child getting ready to attend college this fall have put a major cramp on all spending. Haven't used the boat since last summer, but I have been able to get out to a little local lake 2 miles from home so that my daughter can learn how to fly fish.
Roy
Yes, first time in my life I have had to consider coast of fuel to go do something. Diesel at near $5 per gal costs me $10 to go get groceries and come home. Becker Lake costs me around $30 round trip. Several weeks back promised three different guys to fish Becker with them on three different days. Spent almost $100 to go fishing that week. Can't do that anymore. I can't afford to go fishing now unless to my little steam nearby. The bunch of lakes up here cost me to much to frequent. I need a houseboat....so I can just "stay" on the water a few days.
It hasn't caused me to cut back on fishing, but it has changed WHERE I fish. Instead of driving out to the mountains to fish some small streams and rivers for the day ( 150-250 mile roundtrip ), I've been fishing close to home on the South Fork ( 25-30 mile roundtrip ). Henry's Fork is another alternative ( somewhere between 50 and 100 miles roundtrip ), and there are several other good trout streams that I can fish as day trips ( 75 to 100 miles roundtrip ).
When run off ends and things settle down, I will spend the extra bucks to get out into the mountains, but I'll go for two or three days at a time to justify the added expense. Which is not a bad thing since I enjoy camping.
Tune-ups, air filters, tire pressure, etc. do make a difference. The BIGGEST difference probably comes from reducing your miles per hour. On cruise control at around 55 mph, my six cylinder automatic transmission Tacoma gets around 27-28 mpg, with an overall average for all driving of about 25-26 mpg. The few times I have run it at 70 mph or higher, the mileage has dropped down into the very low 20's - like 20-21 mpg.
Hi Perch,
Re: " What are your strategies to fish? "
Most of this has to do with multiple day trips and the savings that can be realized in other areas, that help to offset the cost of fuel. While camping is one option and it can be very affordable, it's not always a practical option for all destinations or people.
The car maintenance angle is a great first step. I've seen a solid gain in my m.p.g. since having both my vehicles tuned up earlier this year and at $4.70 per gallon, every little bit helps.
In no particular order:
1) We're hitting the warm and cold water lakes with greater frequency. Lakes offer anglers the chance to explore vast amounts of water while minimizing excess driving. Just park, launch and go. As is often the case with some rivers, you drive to one spot and fish it a while, then pull the plug and drive to another spot, etc., etc. those short hops eat up gas.
2) We're doing more float tubing. Two, three and four tubes can fit into a smaller vehicle ( improved m.p.g. ) with greater ease than larger water craft. They can be broken down quickly, inflated quickly and carried in on hikes. Also not having to transport them atop a vehicle ( which is not an option with some other vessels. ) on longer drives helps to promote better fuel efficiency. When two or more anglers are traveling together in one vehicle, especially on multiple day trips where each angler will have additional luggage, the smaller pack-able size of multiple tubes is a real space saver.
3) Rather than taking one or more day trips each week to destinations that require drives exceeding an hour, we now take single multiple day trips to the same locations every two weeks.
Swapping lodging costs for the excess fuel costs we previously incurred.
4) Shop your lodging options. If you can't control the costs of fuel, see if you can't make up the difference in being more selective about where you stay.
I've found lodging purveyors that have offered things like fifty dollars in fuel for a multiple day stay, heavy discounts on rooms - again for multiple day bookings. If you've picked up the tab for breakfast for two lately, you know the value of a free breakfast offered by a hotel or motel. So don't turn up your nose at those little perks. By themselves these monetary offsets may not seem to have much value, but spread over the duration of a trip, they really can add up.
Also if you're traveling with non-anglers, you might find that while the lodging you are considering is not offering anything you might be interested in directly. They do offer coupons, discounts, or co-op packages with other local businesses, etc. for activities or services that your traveling partner would utilize. If money is saved on a trip, does it matter who saved it?
5) When we hit the rivers, we tend to select areas that offer the largest uninterrupted access, ones that don't tempt us to pull up stakes and drive to another location.
6) Stay where you play. A motel room that costs you five dollars a night less, that also happens to be thirty miles farther from your fishing hole, than another costing five dollars more. Depending on your m.p.g. and the cost of ‘ destination station " fuel, that cheaper room might not be such a great deal after all.
7) Start looking at fishing with larger groups and renting modest vacation homes, cabins or condo's, rather than fishing with smaller groups and renting motel rooms. Dividing up the cost of a rental cabin over four, five or six anglers could be substantially less than two buddies splitting a motel room, plus with a larger group the idea of cooking and eating in might replace the necessity of always eating out.
8. ) Look at non-orthodox fishing lodging. Hotel Casino's, hostel's, guest ranches, all of these can be affordable alternatives to a vagabond anglers quest for a bed and a bath.
9) Bicycling to and from the water once you've reached your destination.
For those who don't ride, you might be surprised at the amount of water a Mt. Bike will open up to you. Now there's a swap that I know some folks could really benefit from, burning calories rather than petrol.
There are many lodging types that lend themselves to traveling anglers who bring along their bikes. Yet while booking with a destination lodge last week I posed the question, "Do you offer your guests bike lockers, cages or ( yes, they do exist ) bicycle valet parking at your facility?"
Their answer was " No, not currently, but you're about the fiftieth person that's has asked that question this month. ", she went on to offer her in-house alternatives.
For those of us who ride often and have bikes set up to carry all of our gear for a day - I see a day when there will be more bicycle friendly accommodations available.
10) For long range domestic travel, we're looking more seriously at fishing venues that are located nearer airports. In concert with those destinations, lodging, guide services, hotels or motels that offer airport shuttles and shuttles ( whether free or fee based ) to and from water access points are garnering most of our interest. We're looking at the costs of car rentals and fuel expenditures vs. shuttle fees.
Also, as unaccustomed to it as most Americans are today, train and bus travel to and from the destination. A couple of the nicest rivers in this state have either Greyhound or Amtrak service that pulls up within a couple of hundred yards of the water. What about you area? Are local shuttles available near public transportation stops?
How's this for an idea? A national registry of fisheries, their proximity to public transportation, local shuttles, lodging and eateries.
11) Open your home.
We're lucky enough to have several types of fisheries in our backyard and so we play host every year to some of our out of area angling friends and on occasion avail ourselves of their hospitality. You might start thinking about your local fisheries, your distant friends and their proximity to fishing waters.
While your local waters might not be the stuff of legends in you mind, to someone that's never experienced them before, they might just be a slice of heaven and visa versa.
There are all sorts of bonuses to this type of travel, like local knowledge from a trusted source. The camaraderie. Someone to ship your gear too in lieu of flying with it. The possibility of not needing to bring along anything ( other than your personal garb ) gear related. Real food served at a dinner table, rather than going out for " Brown, fried and too much". The list goes on.
Basically for us it boils down to this. Spend where you must and save where you can.
Dave
I normally skoot up to the lake on a day trip. It costs me $50.00 round trip now to my favorite lake. So instead of taking the truck with its big v8 engine I now take my Motorhome with the even bigger V8 engine in it. It costs more to drive but I now stay for a couple of weeks at a time. It sleeps 6 comfortably. So I take 3 or 4 of the guys with me. We split the costs. They fill the tank with gas at the start. I pay for the propane and other stuff needed to keep us comfy . Its a win win deal.
I fear However the trips to the two fish ins I go to is going to be a bit of a shock this year .
Because of where I live I cannot seem to find anyone to go with me to share the expenses.
The BC government has announced they are giving everone $100.00 to help offset this . $100.00 will no longer fill my truck.
I can remember us kids used to use purple gas in our cars at 7 cents a gallon. Orange gas was 12 cents. ( for farm use only ) It was a $5.00 fine if you got caught with dyed gas. ( never got caught )
I drove all the way across Canada from Vancouver to Halifax in 1966 on a yamaha 80cc trail bike with my buddy also on a 80 cc yamaha. Downhill with a tail wind 32 mph top speed. Took us all summer to go there and back. Cost us almost nothing as we worked our way from farm to farm a few days at a time. Great way to see the country. I fear those days are gone forever because now a days if you pulled into a farmers yard and asked for a couple days work for food and gas they would tell you to move on. That entire summer we were never turned down even once. Most the time the farmer would just give us something to eat , fill our tanks ( 3 gallons ) and send up on our way without even having to work for it. We fished every province and never bought a licence. We were 17 and just out of high school.
That Chicken fishing is starting to look more and more promising . Just need a coop in the back yard.
Well, I drove 5+ hrs to go fishing up in the Adirondacks last weekend...and I'm making the same trip this Thursday afternoon. Luckily my Altima gets over 30 mpg on the open road, so it's bearable...so far. Funny, I'm cutting down on my around-town trips but yet have no problem justifying 300 mile trips to go fishing. My ex-wife always said fisherman were nuts.
I agree gas prices are a concern, especially when it comes to commuting and businesses that have to consume large amounts of fuel.
With that said, I think it's easy to take this too far and become Moaning America. Realistically, how much MORE does that fishing trip cost you now vs. this time last year? $5? $10?
I mean it has to be taken in proportion. I don't hear about many guys selling thier collections of $400+++ rods so is gas being higher this year vs last really going to keep many people from fishing? We'll use it as an excuse for b!tching, that'd be for sure, but I'm doubting it will stop many people.
Sure, on my longest fishing trips it's costing me $70 for gas instead of $50 that it was last year. But in real terms that means my overall cost of fishing goes up about $100 this year vs last for my longer trips.
I mean sure, it's real money all right, but it isn't going to drive me to stop fishing. A guy's gotta have some fun , and if push comes to shove I'd think many of us could just NOT buy that new rod we don't need anyway rather than have to quit fishing becuase of the cost of gas.
Grouse
Yep, gas prices are hindering my fun. I not only visit the recreational property a lot less, I am mowing the lawn less. I use to cut over 6 hours with a rider and a 60" deck. Now we are down to less than 2 hours and if the neighbors don't like it tough.
Also I am fishing warm water species much more because they are closer to home.
Hey John,
Not so fro all vehicles. My Escort ZX2 at 55-65 mph gets 28-30 miles per gallon. At 70-75mph it gets 31-34 m.p.g. Fords notoriously develop their peak torque and peak horsepower at higher r.p.m. than most other manufacturers. They also tend to run a final drive ratio that puts highway cruising at 65-75 m.p.h. right in the strongest part of their power curve.
Not a knock on any particular manufacturer but just a fact. That is, after all, why we have different manufacturers. Gives us a great variety of choice for vehicles to do what we want.:)