15 hours ago, J Francho said:

I'm not sure if I'd ever fish anywhere other than Champ if I were that close. 

We have inland lakes that due to the season not being open, you can't take the bass out to record records.  8-9lb Smallmouth come up spawn on a shelf, then move out to chase smelt over 300 ft.   It's an amazing place.   I digress. Yes, I'm super spoiled 8 months a year

Some River floats I like to do around here are up to two hours getting there and another hour to set up the shuttle.  All that drive time makes for a grueling day, but it's just part of the deal and worth every second.   

An hour. I only have so many fishing hours and I don't want to waste them in a car.

Greetings All,

Angling in SE Arizona is challenging. First off it is mostly desert, so finding water with fish is difficult. Most of the regional angling destinations require at least an hour transit time. My personal limit is about 3 hours for a day trip. That amount of travel will get me there with a reasonable amount of time for proper goofing off before having to get back on the road.

 

I just posted my recent "keeper" catch in the latest catch thread from my almost 200  mile adventure to Copper Sky park in Maricopa Arizona to taunt bass there. It makes for a comfortably full day. Nice that when you arrive you're able to simply enjoy catching fish. Yes, the family friend, our beloved old pickup has rolled over 200k miles for many such adventures. It doesn't seem to be too worse for the wear.

 

Much beyond that three hour transit will require an overnight stay as it becomes quickly too much to handle in order to stay safe driving all that way and still be able to enjoy properly and not be too tired for the return trip. It is very unfortunate to see all the incidents on the freeways and highways. I'd rather not add to the statistics. Let's have a good time finding all those angling adventures but let's be careful out there too. Cheers!