How far do you travel

john step · Mar 2, 2019

This last week on the river I have spoken to three anglers that have travelled from..

Colchester
Royston
Middlesborough.

I know some on here just pop out for "a quickie" excuse pun but these three anglers really surprised me.

The Middlesborough chap had to pass the Swale and other Nth. Yorks barbel rivers.
The Royston bloke belonged to a well known Hertfordshire club with plenty of barbel which he said were too easy.
The Colchester man can be forgiven due to the lack of Essex barbel but they are in the Lea.

How far do you travel particularly in the winter?

sam vimes · Mar 2, 2019

I try to restrict myself to no more than thirty miles for routine fishing trips. I'm happiest keeping it under ten miles. Once in a while I'll treat myself to a long distance trip, but even that has a limit of around 100 miles or so.

nottskev · Mar 2, 2019

I tend to think more in terms of time than distance. Hit the ring roads round here at the wrong time (and some days that's anytime) and 1 mile will take you longer than 10 will if you can escape the gravitational pull. So I usually think 30-45 minutes is a reasonable journey for routine trips.

There are places nearer by - but the grass is always - often literally - greener a bit further away. I sometimes regret not going further for more interesting or productive fishing, but the further away the water, the less I'm able to predict when to go and exactly where to fish.

It's easier to get around and miss the worst of the traffic when the days are longer. In winter, the daylight hours are sandwiched between the peak traffic hours, and you tend to cop for it going and coming back.

Keith M · Mar 2, 2019

I belong to two local Angling clubs which gives me over 20 decent fisheries to fish and I rarely need to travel more than a half hour for my fishing; and there are around 7 or 8 of these club fisheries within a ten to fifteen minute journey from where I live; including a beautiful private estate lake which is just up the road and several excellent streams and river sections within 10 to 20 minutes drive from me.

I do occasionally fish club waters further afield but except for a nice Tench lake which is not far from whipsnade zoo; I rarely visit these; although I might be trying a couple of my old Thames haunts come the next river season; which are around an hours drive away.

Keith

Another Dave · Mar 2, 2019

3 minute walk to the river or a 10 minute walk to the pond.

mikench · Mar 2, 2019

As Kev said it's not the distance away but how long it takes to get there that counts for me! Nottingham is the furthest I will travel.

Most of the waters I frequent are about 20 Minutes away and a couple 5 minutes . I am full of good intentions the night before but usually succumb to lethargy and complacency and stay local!

Will I ever change; unlikely!

seth49 · Mar 2, 2019

When I sea fished a lot, we used to travel from here to the south coast, across to the east coast or wales, and even up to Scotland.nowadays I only need to travel about half an hour away, at the most under an hour, as I don’t sea fish anymore, just coarse and carp nowadays.

john step · Mar 2, 2019

Another Dave said:
3 minute walk to the river or a 10 minute walk to the pond.

It was you I had in mind with the quip about popping out for a quickie:wh

mikench · Mar 2, 2019

Oo er missus! Dave isn't like that.

Peter Jacobs · Mar 2, 2019

My nearest trout fishing is across the road and through my neighbors garden.

Otherwise 5 miles up the valley is my next nearest.

Coarse fishing is 12 miles south in Salisbury on the Avon, so I never have to travel too far these days.

steve2 · Mar 2, 2019

I use to regularly make 200 mile plus round trips for a days fishing on the Hampshire Avon or similar up to Norfolk, now if I go it’s 30 miles or less.
If I wanted to fish a commercial 5 minutes, a carp lake 10 minutes, a decent river anything up to 2 hours. But because most of my journeys would involve the M25 any journey time could be measured in days rather than hours.

103841 · Mar 2, 2019

Mike said the crucial point for me, not distance but time getting there. As a chauffeur for the majority of my working life, the last thing I enjoy any more is driving any distance where traffic is involved.

I have a more important consideration to take into account when choosing my fishing venues, my better half cares every day for her elderly and frail Mum and Dad and because she doesn’t drive I like to be within striking distance of any emergencies.

Luckily I have the river Stour running through Canterbury, my estate lake and a few day ticket waters all within a 20 minute drive. The furthest I travel is to Hythe for some sea fishing. One day I won’t be on call any more and free to roam, if I still have good health, I will be asking Steve, Neil or Kev for a very special day out!

S-Kippy · Mar 2, 2019

To get anywhere of note I have to use the M25 so "time getting there" takes on a whole new meaning. One of my fairly regular haunts can take me 45-50 mins on a good day or over 2 hours on a bad one. There is just no way of telling.

Last night I fished a new bit of water, same sort of area but not as far down the A3 as usual. I noted the time on leaving the water and I was back home inside 30 minutes....if only the M25 was always like that.

Any amount of carp fishing within 20-30 mins from me but that's not what I do....other than very occasionally.

For special days out I'll go 2-3 hours if necessary but I wouldn't want to make a habit of it.

bullet · Mar 2, 2019

I think anything more than an hour or so can turn the day into a slog, particularly on the way home when you've put in a good day.
Reasonable fishing close by is a mixed blessing, though.
Nine times out of ten I'll opt for this, rather than an extra half hour in the car for something a bit more exciting!

Roger Johnson 2 · Mar 2, 2019

Bottom of the garden for barbel, bream, trout and grayling and my neighbours land if I fancy a change for roach and perch!. Looking forward to exploring some lakes a bit further afield this year.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

barbelboi · Mar 2, 2019

A stroll over the fields to the rear of the house offers quite a lot of flowing water and a few farm/woodland ponds. A few gravel pits and a couple of estate lakes and other stretches of flowing water involve (at most) up to the best part of a 15 minute car drive down the lanes (unless you get stuck behind a combined harvester which could slightly lengthen the journey).

flightliner · Mar 2, 2019

I spent years fishing the Witham, Welland, Nene and lots of Fen drains, much of it as far as a hundred miles plus further from home, most of it either match fishing or in later years fishing for pike.
Then I hit my carp years and it was all gravel pits and the Trent where I pursued "a Twenty" in winter only conditions- a journey of some 25/35 miles depending on venue.
These days it's a mix of all three- anywhere from a hundred Down to as little as five to 20 miles with the average 'tween the two being the pre dominant distances dependant on weather/ species/ conditions prevailing at any one time.

stillwater blue · Mar 2, 2019

I travel between 60 - 90 mins for sea trout fishing but it something I only do a handful of times a year,
I travel between 15 - 45 mins for trout and grayling on the fly,
and I travel between 10 - 40 mins for coarse fishing depending upon the species I'm after.

Most of my fishing is at unsociable hours so traffic is rarely an issue.

wetthrough · Mar 3, 2019

Not keen on travelling far unless there's a particular reason for doing so. I like to spend my time fishing not driving.

Recently discovered that the local social club, just 500M from me has it's own club and pool to the rear. Perfect, fish the day, get my evening meal and a pint and finish off with a game of snooker

I'm signing up Monday evening. £20/yr for the social club plus £10 for the fishing.

mikench · Mar 3, 2019

Roger Johnson 2 said:
Bottom of the garden for barbel, bream, trout and grayling

Pourquoi me rappelles -tu pas toujours!

Fiche-moi le camp!

Ne t'en fais pas; j'ai dit ça pour rire!

How far do you travel

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