Day trips

[dillon]

I used to do a lot of day fishing trips. However, with more freedom in retirement I rarely do one. The length of driving time, including city traffic snarls getting back home in the dark just doesn't seem worth it any more. I have access to a riverside cabin 8+ weeks per year and do a 3 week camping road trip every summer. A few other over nighters round out my fishing year. However, I want to add another trip at least a week long to explore some unfished (by me) waters. I'm curious how other forum members feel about day trips.

 

[bob3700]

Dillon,

Not retired yet so the day trip is really not yet a reality. I have taken vacation days to make a two day trip or combine vacation days with a holiday to extend a"during the week" trip.

After next July, I will be on the list for trips during the week. An organization I belong to has a good group of retired folks who regularly do day trips and I look forward to getting in with them to expand my fishing time.

Bob

 

[gormaci]

One way 8 hours drive for w weekend fishing was nothing unusual. But as we are aging, 3 hours one way for a day trip or weekend is tougher and tougher... 10 rivers in 10 days + 3K miles is past. 3 h becoming my limit for short trip.
Once, twice a year the rod is still calling so I take my dog and I still drive, drive, drive, overnight, with endless coffees (and jet lags!).
As we aging, wearing waders, vest and all that unnecessary junk is less and less fun.
So in my life, days spent on flats becoming what I seek more and more. Trips becoming measured in prices of flight tickets and hours of sardine-like airline treatment.
(if i understood your post?)

 

[deceiverbob]

I'm lucky enough to live near my water. I can be at one boat ramp in 5 minutes to fish the local bay or run south and fish the barrier islands. A half hour drive and a half hour boat ride puts me in the Biloxi Marsh area which has great sight fishing for redfish

 

[karstopo]

Yea, I don’t much like windshield time or fighting traffic. A lot of folks around here do, though, it seems as they will drive hours someplace to go catch the same types of fish that could have been had in minutes and then turn around and drive back all in the same day. It all sounds exhausting to me and I turn down those type of trips myself.

I can envision when I’m retired going away some place for a chunk of time and doing some fishing at least part of the time. I still like to get away every now and then, but for a few days at least and generally not doing any fishing or minimal fishing while I’m away. I guess I scratch the fishing itch at home.

 

[dillon]

Gormaci,
Yes you understood. I had a much more detailed post almost written when it went poof. So, rewrote it. Hate when that frequently happens on the iPad.

Bob,
Sight fishing for redfish is on my list of new adventure. I'd like to hear more about your local fishing.

 

[deceiverbob]

Gormaci,
Yes you understood. I had a much more detailed post almost written when it went poof. So, rewrote it. Hate when that frequently happens on the iPad.

Bob,
Sight fishing for redfish is on my list of new adventure. I'd like to hear more about your local fishing.

I'm not a member there, but there are many post on the fly section of the microskiff forum.

 

[deceiverbob]

Some of the best fishing is when the silversides spawn in spring. This is not my video but it gives some idea of how the fishing can be in the right spot. Of course the spawning bait pulls in every red for quite a distance so if your not where the bait is you might think redfish went extinct. Most of the time the fish are more spread out. I have been lucky enough to catch the spawn 3 times. Spring weather can be fickle down here so it's not always possible to get out.

Glass Minnow Attack on Vimeo

 

[steveid]

I’m about 45 minutes from any type of fishing I would want to do, and it’s at a river that sees way too much action. The fishing I prefer to do is a 4 hour drive away, and I only get to make that trip a couple times per year.

I travel a lot for work, so I’m doing what I can to fit a fishing day into the trips now.

I did burn some skymiles and fished six days in Belize, and three in Holbox this year.

 

[flav]

I love day trips. I have never had the desire to fish from dawn to dusk. I have almost always made a point of living near fairly good fishing so I can easily escape for an hour or three, whenever there's a good chance of a hatch or the evening rise.

 

[lightline]

Day trips for me are to waters within two hours of home. I have a few good ones worth the drive, one only 45 minutes. Places 2-5 hours from home are long weekends or at least 3 days. For example, from southern Wyoming to northern Wyoming. Some of my annual haunts that are 6-10 hours from home are usually 10-40 day trips! Its a gamble to go that far for just a few days. Weather, bump in flows, etc. I take a month, twice a year, in ID and MT.

But its interesting, once I get to the "golden triangle" area, the "great" waters are all about 2 1/2 hours from each other, so sometimes there's day trips within the long vacation. I'm on the Fork, it slows or conditions crumble. Boom, a quick hop to the Beav. Or the creeks. I'm on the creeks, or the Beav., and need a change. Boom, 2 1/2 hours to the MO! Not to mention a few unmentionables in between. SW Montana to Silver Creek, easy to do in an evening. Silver to the Boise, or even the O, another short afternoon or evening depending on seasons. Ok, that's some name dropping, but I've done "day trips" from one river to another frequently. Madison to the Fork is under an hour, and I've been known to fish the Fork in the morning, take a nap and lunch, and then drive to fish the Maddy until dark. Return and repeat. Same with upper Fork and lower Fork, or the waters slightly southeast of that within sight of both sides the Tetons. Day trips from the destinations, to more or newer destinations.

But that's how I think of them. From my camp, "where am I going today?" Home based, ya, within two hours.

 

[steveid]

Day trips for me are to waters within two hours of home. I have a few good ones worth the drive, one only 45 minutes. Places 2-5 hours from home are long weekends or at least 3 days. For example, from southern Wyoming to northern Wyoming. Some of my annual haunts that are 6-10 hours from home are usually 10-40 day trips! Its a gamble to go that far for just a few days. Weather, bump in flows, etc. I take a month, twice a year, in ID and MT.

But its interesting, once I get to the "golden triangle" area, the "great" waters are all about 2 1/2 hours from each other, so sometimes there's day trips within the long vacation. I'm on the Fork, it slows or conditions crumble. Boom, a quick hop to the Beav. Or the creeks. I'm on the creeks, or the Beav., and need a change. Boom, 2 1/2 hours to the MO! Not to mention a few unmentionables in between. SW Montana to Silver Creek, easy to do in an evening. Silver to the Boise, or even the O, another short afternoon or evening depending on seasons. Ok, that's some name dropping, but I've done "day trips" from one river to another frequently. Madison to the Fork is under an hour, and I've been known to fish the Fork in the morning, take a nap and lunch, and then drive to fish the Maddy until dark. Return and repeat. Same with upper Fork and lower Fork, or the waters slightly southeast of that within sight of both sides the Tetons. Day trips from the destinations, to more or newer destinations.

But that's how I think of them. From my camp, "where am I going today?" Home based, ya, within two hours.

I used to live about 35 minutes from the O, maybe an hour and 15 to the SF Boise. Wasn’t regularly fly fishing when I lived there. Now I five and a half hours from there. *sigh*

 

[trout stalker]

I use to do a lot of day trips at one time. Back then a 2 1/2 hour drive one way felt like nothing. Now that I am older I tend to talk myself at of them.

 

[gpwhitejr]

I'm not sure what specifically is meant by "day trip." I can ride my bicycle to any almost any kind of fresh water fishing I want to do, I guess that is a day trip (usually though I drive, anywhere from 15-40 minutes, something like that). But for salt water I really need to make it an overnight trip.

 

[sweetandsalt]

I too have to drive 3 hours to preferred fishing including urban congestion. When younger, I did many a day trip and every time found returning in the dark to the City depressing. It's not just the travel time; it's that I want to relax with a whisky and burger with my friends after fishing...not drive for 3+ hours. Also there are seasonal and habitat limitations on both my 3 hours to the wild trout or saltwater locations that are my "home waters". Increasingly, the places I want to fish or have not and hope to explore involve airplane travel. This and destination costs render such fishing expensive sometimes too much so.

My current desire is to fly to New Orleans, drive south to a decent little hotel and hire a skilled redfish guide with a good skiff. May I request of those of you intimate with this fishing to make a location, guide and timing recommendation? Dillon, you want to come with me?

 

[bonefish41]

I'm semi-retired but I keep "skin" in the game for play money. I'm 5 hours from wild Michigan streams...I'm 2 hours from my private Bass lake but it's overnight 'cause I have to be social. Airfare and skiff guides Andros and Key West big money and save. East Cape Baja conventional likewise big money and save. What's close dirty river wade fishing for smallmouth lots of blind casting on the bottom loosing a dozen clousers and stumbling on bottom junk...get up before sun rise or wait until dusk wade with poppers dope up with deet...stumble about for two or three SMs 10-12 and hope for 15-18...in my 50s,60s ok once a month day trip with colleague but 70s no...just sit at home thinking about my next trip and how can I get the loot sooner...the day trip for me involves one day of preparation switching gears from salt/michigan wild to my dirty rivers wading and in my 77th year I am disinclined to risk stumble fall ...torque my bad knee or aggravate my left or right rotator cuff and now I'm back to PT and on the "beach" for 3 months or so...even if I got the loot to go...

 

[el jefe]

I mix it up, but my fishing vacations are typically 2-3 days, and just a 3-5 hour drive away.

There are three things about the day trips that appeal to me. First, in my area of the country, the scenery is a large part of the experience, the "getting there." The traffic is light, so the trip is convenient and therapeutic in its own right. Second, with 3 teenage girls, one of whom travels a lot for hockey (and I as her coach of one of her teams), and another of whom has serious health issues, the day trip is sometimes all I can squeeze in. It's like playing 9. Third, to take my girls fishing, the day trip is often the option available when the stars all align and our schedules mesh, and we can get out to the water together.

 

[trout trekker]

Location, location, re-location....

I live on a mostly rural plateau near the western portal of a National Forest. My home river can be reached by road in fifteen minutes or by mountain bike in twelve minutes. So day trips are more like spur of the moment trips, with zero planning involved. They might last an hour or most of what's left of that day. Yet I don't take the sections of my hometown stream nearest me all that seriously, but once I get above a certain mile marker, it's game on. The old " The grass is always greener " notion goes into effect and I get a whole lot more serious about my game.

Anyway, there are hundreds of miles of sierra streams, small rivers and a few noteworth lakes within a couple of hours radius of here and almost none of them require driving in anything aproaching urban or city traffic. Lots of winding two lane highways and county roads. There are a couple of rivers north of here on the western side that would require heading up one of the valleys highways and those would require driving through areas that I'm sure get congested at peak hours, but I've never driven through those areas at those times. No need to, I can make my own schedule and so I don't visit those locales when they're busy.

Having said all that, I wouldn't be in any big hurry to take a day trip that required more than five hours total driving time and if that meant bumper to bumper traffic, forget about it.... something like that would get at least a one night layover and a half day session the second day before the drive home. Time I've got, no need to rush through life.

Dave

 

[satyr]

Re: Location, location, re-location....

I don't do day trips. I know there is some fishing for dinks within an hour or so my me but there are usually too many people around to entice me there. So my fishing is at least 3 and often 5 hours away so I usually only go for a weekend. I have gone fishing for the weekend and the weather went to heck and drove home the same day but driving 9 hours in a day is not something that I do unless there aren't any options.

 

[gpwhitejr]

Re: Location, location, re-location....

I guess I am pretty lucky her in Vermont. When I pull out of my neighborhood, it is often a dilemma: do I turn right and drive 10 minute for bass fishing, or do I turn left and drive 10 minutes for trout fishing?