Gas Price Questions

[MikeAxsom]

We are all complaining about the price of gas and expecting it to have some impact on travel and vacation plans this season. But I’d like to hear from you guys, and gals, about real impacts. Have you actually cancelled any travel plans for camping, boating, fishing etc.? I’d like to hear specifics about these cancelled, altered or shortened trip plans. Where were you going? How did you make the decision to cancel? Did you go someplace closer to home instead? What was your distance limit before the present fuel price hikes? What is your distance limit now? Have you calculated the real cost increase for your recreation plans from the gas prices?

All this information is important to me as a manager, and I’d hope it would be important to other managers as well. So how about it folks? Give us the real story about your recreation pursuits and gas prices.

By the way, I just returend from a trip myself that covered nine states from Indiana to Wyoming and several routes between. The only place I found gas prices over $4.00 was in Indiana. Other places I paid a little as $3.73. What's up with that?

[wkerber]

I just moved from Indy to South Carolina and when I did I sold my boat. I've postponed getting a new bass boat because I watched a show where a couple of analysts stated that gas could go to $10 a gallon in the next 2 years, if supplies don't increase substantially. Instead I bought a SOT Kayak and am going to fish some rivers for a while, which is big down here, until I see what happens.

On another note, I did visit some boat retailers down here to see their inventory and prepare for the future. I asked each if they were seeing sales going more towards smaller motors and they said not as yet.

I do have a pontoon boat stored at a lake 20 minutes away and just didn't want two motors to feed right now. So for me, I'm staying close to home for a while and see how this plays out. A $120 an outing is too rich for me right now.

[rw02kr43]

my wife and I went to a lot of car races last year and the year before. this year we are staying much closer to home. I live in greenwood and I think anything farther than eagle creek or johnson county park is too far and too expensive to drive. Probably will be a reason I'll never catch a fish bigger than a small bluegill. For specifics, we went to camp a lot at brown county and some places in OH the past 2 years. This year we will be spending most of the time at home. We both would love to get some kayaks to fish from, but with the lack of places to use them here, it's just bank fishing for us.

Jason

[Tobias]

Mike,

I've just bought a small 14ft boat w/ a 9.9 so I can fish the river and some small lakes close to home! I've still got my bass boat but when it costs a 100 dollar bill to go fishin for the day it's a hard pill to swallow. Sad thing is I don't have kids and alot of the other expenses that some do. I can actually afford to go do alot of things I've always done but simply refuse to do so!

I'll go to the river, catch a abunch of smallies, and go home happy only spending a few $$$$$!!!

I've cut my tournaments in half.........my big boat hasn't moved in over a month!

[Tobias]

Jason,

If you live in Greenwood you've got alot of great places w/in a half hour of you to fish out of a kayak! Do some research..........lots of great "moving" water close to you w/ some good fishin!

[rw02kr43]

yeah there might be. I just don't know where it is. I'm still very new to fishing so I never really looked at the places around to fish.

Jason

[firstrock]

yeah there might be. I just don't know where it is. I'm still very new to fishing so I never really looked at the places around to fish.

Jason

Jason~

Check out http://indianasmallmouthalliance.org/ as there are plenty of folks fishing moving water in your area and all over the state. I live in Wanamaker and I can tell you that there are big fish real close to you!

As for the topic of this thread, I had been pondering buying a small jon boat for the bigger rivers but with gas prices I will continue to yak my way around the state. The high gas prices have cut my trips short this year as well. Hard to justify driving more than 20 or 30 miles one way at 12 mpg! Last weekend I drove from Indy to Madison and it cost me $70!!! I guess that's what I get for driving a Chevy with a 350!!!

John Bunner

[idbefishing]

I don't fish any tournament trail anymore, haven't fish any of my club tourny either. I go to a local lake 20 miles away about once/week or once/2 weeks. Before the price hikes, there were no limit on distance.

[YAZ]

This will slow me down a little bit. I have been picking and choosing my times and places more carefully. But, this will not limit my distance traveled. I may just have to save a little longer. Also, I have been trying to save money in other ways so I can still do what I love to do.

[TR21Bassin]

Vacation - no real impact. Cruise and air travel purchased last year.

Fishing - not fishing nearly as much. Usually by this time I've been to KY or Barkley 12-15 times. This year only about 5 so far. Only been to Boggs twice and no where else. I'll continue to cut down my trips and probably only make trips to KY and Barkley once a month or so for fishing. May fish Prides Creek a few times since its close but that will be about it.

Charlie

[WMAMOS]

Fuel prices are definitely impacting my fishing. Last year I joined a club that fished 8-10 tournaments on the major water bodies in Indiana (Patoka, Monroe, Ohio River, etc.). Due to gas prices I dropped out of the club this year. Last year I fished practically every Tuesday night tournament at Geist. This year I'm fishing every other Tuesday. I did join a Geist only circuit that fishes once a month through September. That's the extent of my fishing plans for 2008. I'm going to rethink things come Fall and possibly put my 1998 Ranger up for sale. Notice that I said "put it up for sale"......selling may be hard to do. I'm just glad I'm not committed to making 144 payments on a $50K rig.

And as a side note, say no to ethanol based fuels. It is not the answer as you'll notice from your grocery bills. Not My Man Mitch needs to recognize this as well. The benefit the local farmers noticed from the ethanol craze is over and his input costs have caught up. Diesel, fertilizer, pesticides, etc. have all risen sharply causing his net profits to be the same (or less) than they were before the push for ethanol.

Don't vote Mitch in November!

[Bragger]

Fuel prices are definitely impacting my fishing. Last year I joined a club that fished 8-10 tournaments on the major water bodies in Indiana (Patoka, Monroe, Ohio River, etc.). Due to gas prices I dropped out of the club this year. Last year I fished practically every Tuesday night tournament at Geist. This year I'm fishing every other Tuesday. I did join a Geist only circuit that fishes once a month through September. That's the extent of my fishing plans for 2008. I'm going to rethink things come Fall and possibly put my 1998 Ranger up for sale. Notice that I said "put it up for sale"......selling may be hard to do. I'm just glad I'm not committed to making 144 payments on a $50K rig.

And as a side note, say no to ethanol based fuels. It is not the answer as you'll notice from your grocery bills. Not My Man Mitch needs to recognize this as well. The benefit the local farmers noticed from the ethanol craze is over and his input costs have caught up. Diesel, fertilizer, pesticides, etc. have all risen sharply causing his net profits to be the same (or less) than they were before the push for ethanol.

Don't vote Mitch in November!

I have to disagree on the ethanol. Other than the direct purchase of corn and corn based products (very small amount of my groceries), ethanol is not making your grocery bill go up. Your grocery bill is going up becasue a truck driver had to use diesel fuel to deliver those groceries, and diesel prices are not going up because of ethanol.

I think you are also missing the whole point of ethanol. It is not to make our farmers rich. It is to break our dependance on foreign oil. Personally I think ethanol is a possible solution, but I think we should be producing it from grasses rather than corn. From what I understand there are some grasses that would produce much higher ethanol yield per acre.