On 3/9/2022 at 1:26 PM, Bluebasser86 said:

2 hours is my max for a day trip, 3-4 for an overnight. 

Agree with this. Kind of depends on your plans for fishing too. Like if you really want to hit the water early and be off during the peak of the day in the middle of the summer, you may not want to wake up at 4:00am and drive 2 hours, etc. Or maybe you just really want to try a new lake.

 

But I think Bluebasser covered it pretty well for most cases. I try to be around 1 hour for day trips, but would do upto 2.

Some of you guys are spoiled and don't recognize that some people MUST drive 2, 3 or 4 hours one way to get decent fishing opportunities.  I live in northern Pennsylvania and I'm blessed to have a lot of really good options within a 4 or 5 hour drive, but almost none of them are less than an hour and a half away and many/most are 2-3 hours away.

 

I've purchased a seasonal home in South Carolina recently and my situation changed drastically and I can now be on Jocassee, Keowee or Hartwell in well under an hour and there are probably 7 or 8 good choices less than 2 hours away. 

 

My answer to the question is that I'd easily drive 4 hours one way for an overnight trip if my lodging was nice and the fishing was good to great.

2 hours for a day trip. But I’m in Florida. 
For Headwaters/Stick Marsh for instance, it’s exactly 2 hours so I’m up at 4:30 to get everything moving to get there by around sunrise. Usually quit around 2-2:30 to avoid some of the I-95/expressway rush hour traffic as I usually go during the week. 
For an overnight I’d say 4 hours but if driving that far, it would probably be more than just overnight. 
When I would go to deer hunt with my buddy in KY, it was a 13 hours drive each way but I was there for a week but drove the 13 in a day. Not anymore though. 

I would probably keep it under three hours or spend two nights.

 

That said I have went as far as 2.5 hours for a day trip before.

With the price of gas and my truck getting about 9 mi a gallon pulling the boat, about 20-30 miles. LOL

 

Kidding aside, I have no reason to do an overnight anymore since I quit tourney fishing. I have a LOT of good lakes within an hour or so.

My rule is simple. Round trip driving time must not exceed total fishing time overnight vs. day trip is only limited by the hours awake in a day