How Close to Home is "Good" Fishing?

[stenacron]

Having grown up in Easton, PA I didn't realize how spoiled I was (until I moved to Utah) with respect to how close "good fishing" was to home. I had four (4) Class A trout streams with 15-20 minutes of home - including Bushkill Creek which was less than a 5 minute drive. Not to mention the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers with all of the warmwater glory that they brought to the party.

So now I have about a 30 minute drive to places that aren't exactly my 1st (or 2nd) choices... and my preferred spot (so far) is almost exactly one (1) hour from door to parking lot, with everything else out past that. Not a killer drive by any stretch, but I no longer hit the Sulphur hatch on a whim... I actually have to plan things now. :icon_mrgr

How about everyone else?

 

[Davo]

Got the Snake River running right through town. Plus Flat Creek, the Hoback and the Gros Ventre with in minutes of town. With in an hour or two the list just gets better, Henrys Fork, South Fork, Green, New Fork, Salt and Greys Rivers and an unlimited number of small creeks. Jackson is an awesome fishing spot!!

 

[fire instructor]

I have any number of "warm water" spots and one decent trout stream close by. Within an hour and a half, I can be in "trophy" water for any number of species. I just need to figure out how to get more time to GET to those waters!!!

 

[ak allen]

I have the local slough about 5 minutes away, but it is kinda like a city pond. It's to crowded and overfished like crazy. But within a 1/2 hour or so there are several good rivers, the Lower Chena, Upper Chena, Chatanika, & Tanana. And within about six hours I have everything you could want, the Copper river, bristol bay, Russian river, Tolovana river, the Yukon, Minto flats.

 

[Flyfisher for men]

Warmwater is very close. Backyard or 20-30 minutes.

Trout are another matter altogether. 3.5 hours to get to any of it, 5 for trophy waters (Taneycomo in Missouri).

 

[kayo]

define "good fishing"?

 

[mcnerney]

I have the New Fork running through town, but the issue is it is all private so you have to float it, the Green is about 15 minutes from town, then there are a number of lakes just north of town, then the Hoback is about an hour west, then the Snake and South Fork are about an hour and a half.

 

[pa dave]

Five minutes to my home river, which is passable smallmouth fishing. Twenty minutes to the Susquehanna River which was a fantastic smallmouth river up until a few years ago when the population crashed.

For trout I have to drive a minimum of 30 minutes to get to anything remotely like good fishing.

 

[FISHN50]

I'm in the middle of it I guess. Basically if I turn right at the end of the street I can got to the Muskenectcong river for trout, passing 2 other rivers & a few good lakes. If I turn left I'm heading to the Shore. Sandy Hook or Gateway national park for striped bass ( not strippers) or blues if their in. Both are within 45 min to a little over an hour to get to.

 

[siskiyoublues]

Purtiest tailwater fishery on the West coast 15 minutes from the front door.
Upper Sac 15 minutes in the other direction. Klamath an hour north.
So about as good is it gets basically.

 

[comeonavs]

For me I put 2-3 hours. I live in Longmont Colorado so I can be in RMNP in a hour which is my home away from home at the end of summer for some epic dry fly action on 9-12" fish with an occasional 14" thrown in. I can be up the poudre in a hour and 45 but if I want to go fish N Platte , S Platte, Colorado , Eagle or any other water it it 2-3hrs. I usually do those trips 3-4x per year.

 

[littledavid123]

The Little Red is 10 minutes from my home and 10 hours from work. :faint:

Dave

 

[Rip Tide]

There's a trout stream across the street from my house, but I wouldn't consider it a 'good" one. The same with the other 2 trout streams in town. There's also 22 accessible ponds right here in town and depending on what you're fishing for some of those can be pretty good.
My favorite local trout stream and the closest one where you might be unlucky enough to run into a guide is about 25 minutes. So that's the one I'm counting, but in this area there are many small trout streams to explore.
I can be fishing in salt water in 45 minutes but my favorite spots are an hour or more.

 

[dhayden]

Too far..

The Gallatin, is just over a mile
Madison (lower), 15-18 miles depending on what strech to float
Madison (upper), 45
Yellowstone, 40 minutes
Paradise Valley - almost 50 minutes
Jefferson - 45 minutes
Beaverhead, Bighole: 1.5 hours
Missouri - 2 hours

Sweet!

 

[theboz]

Although it's a 1/2 hour to the Delaware and same to the Susquehanna it's nice to have several streams and lakes within a stones throw of my house. Makes it nice when you get the itch to be fishing that quickly without any driving time!

 

[stenacron]

define "good fishing"?

Excellent question Kayo, with no easy answers. I guess the definition for "good fishing" would be quite different from one angler to the next - personal criteria certainly plays a role here.

I can offer up these three (3) examples based on my current situation in Sandy, Utah;

-1) The closest stream to my house is American Fork. It’s a smallish stream (15-20 feet wide) set in a beautiful canyon and it's about 35-40 minutes from home to where I like to fish it. It's got a lot of small (<10") wild browns and quite a few stocked rainbows. The major drawbacks for me is that it runs through several heavily used campgrounds, so in addition to the areas of channelization and "urban" structure, it gets incredible amounts of rubbish thrown into it. Plus I have to pay $6 (entry fee) every time I want to fish it.

-2) The next closest is Lower Provo River – a world class tailwater fishery about 45-50 minutes away with world class detractions for me. The fish are there to be sure (some quite large), but it sits far too close to 2.5 million people so there is quite a bit of crowding. On top of that, a highway runs right next to it so you're never really removed from urban sprawl and the highway noise. And thirdly (during the summer) there is a non-stop parade of tubers, rafters, kayaks, boaters coming down the river.

-3) So the middle section of the Provo River (Midway, UT) is the closest trout river that fulfils my needs. It's removed enough to feel wild and although it gets used heavily, there always seems to be room to get away from people, and it's got a fantastic trout population with terrific hatches. The area I fish is an hour to 1:10 away from home (barring traffic issues). Next "preferred" option would be middle Weber River (1:30 drive) for all the same reasons.

So you see, for some (maybe "most") the first two may be perfectly acceptable… in fact #2 (lower Provo) is actually a destination river in some fly-fishing circles. I personally can't stand it and only wind up there if I happen to be fishing with someone else that absolutely has to be there. But I can easily see someone listing the lower Provo as their favorite trout river… it's just not for me.

Having said all that, I'm still fairly new to the area so maybe this is all subject to change with more local experience gained with time, but that's how it sits now.

 

[attila]

I got trout stream about a quarter mile in front of my house and another one less than 200 yards from my backdoor :wavetowel

 

[angelo1987]

Living in South Jersey (Vineland) I have some great pond's and lakes to fish within a 15min drive. But the stream's are hard since there all 2-3hrs away ken lockwood gorge , big flat brook , even the some pa stream's are about the same distance.

 

[especkrx]

Redding, CA baby! 0.7 miles from my house to the Sacramento River. Many other great fisheries within 15 minutes. Gotta love it!

 

[fredaevans]

Redding, CA baby! 0.7 miles from my house to the Sacramento River. Many other great fisheries within 15 minutes. Gotta love it!

I hear ya. Upper Rogue River is less than 6 miles from the front door. Almost takes as much time to 'load' two old Doggies in the back of the Jeep as it takes to drive there.

fae