Bass Fishing Forum

Fellow anglers, how far do you usually run on a fishing trip? Are you a short-distance casual fisher or a long-haul explorer?
For me, some other day, I was launching at Lake Okeechobee just as the sun was coming up, feeling like a tournament pro (even though I was just out for fun &#128518. I had my spots marked, my rods rigged, and my cooler packed. But as I sat there idling out, I had that familiar thought: How far do I really want to run today? Should I chase the bite across the lake, or play it safe and fish closer to the ramp? Do I have enough gas if I go for that 'just one more spot' moment? And let's be honest... am I willing to make that long ride back if the wind kicks up? 🤣"

Everyone has different habits, so let's chat about it! 👇👇👇

💬 What does your typical fishing trip look like?
• Your bass boat + outboard setup (brand, horsepower?)
• How far do you usually run in a single trip? (what's your longest run?)
• Typical cruising speed & top speed
• Fuel consumption (how many miles per gallon? how much do you usually fill up?)
• Biggest factors affecting your trip distance (weather, gas prices, fishing spots, permission from home? &#128518


💡 Here's my setup & experience (for reference):
• Tracker Pro Team 175 + Mercury 75HP 4-stroke
• 21 gal tank
• Typical trip: 15-30 miles (Lake Okeechobee, running from Clewiston to Harney Pond)
• Longest run: 50 miles (exploring Kissimmee Chain from one end to the other)
• Cruising at 25-30 mph, top speed around 40+ mph
• Fuel economy: about 6-7 mpg, depends on load & water conditions
• Biggest struggle: navigating the vegetation and wind chop—sometimes feels like I'm in an airboat! 😂

Let's hear your experience! Drop your setup, trip distances, and best fuel-saving or fishing spot strategies! 🎣⚡

In fact, I am an active explorer. Since there is no sign of catching fish at a spot, I will run a little further, and experience the cool wind. Before I know it, I have run a long way.😂😂 ~fff

When I was fishing on a regular basis my trips usually ranged 10-30 miles.  Depending on the weather I would launch near the area that I was planning on fishing that day.  Of course this also depends on which lake I was fishing.  My home lakes Belton, Stillhouse lakes here in Central Texas aren't big massive reservoirs to start with.  Now when I fished over on Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend in East Texas the runs were longer depending on where we stayed at.

My typical fishing trip usually started at day break unless it was a tournament event.  Tournament events started at  O' Dark Thirty before the sun even thinks about coming up  ;)
I have a 2004 Stratos 285 Pro XL Dual console; Yamaha VMax 150; Minnkota Foretrex 80lb foot control trolling motor; Lowrance Hook 7 Down Scanning Electronics on the bow and drivers console.
(https://i.imgur.com/0EobsVL.jpg)

My longest run on a single trip was 32 miles.  Depending on the weather my cruising speed is 45 - 50 mphs.  Wide open throttle get there quick be damn the gas mileage is 63.5mphs.  The Stratos has a 32gallon fuel tank and a 1 gal on board oil tank.  Making the long runs at cruising speed I'll burn 16gals of gas and 1/8 gal of oil.  Wide open throttle I'll burn 3/4 tank of gas and 1/2 gal of oil.

The Biggest factor affecting my trips was ALWAYS the weather > Storms / Rain / Wind etc.  Gas and fishing spots never factor in where I'm fishing really.  For me I do the "Home Work" I get to the area I'm fishing and I drop the trolling motor and start casting.  Some of the places I fish like on Toledo Bend or Sam Rayburn there's areas that go back off the main lake for miles. 

My home lakes there's miles of coves and of course running up the river channel.  Once I get to a spot I just drop the trolling motor and fish my way back to the ramp. I've done this a lot in the Spring.  On Still House lake I launch and make the 12mile run up the Lampasas River drop the trolling motor and fish my way back to the parking lot.

My wife's only comment on me fishing was to have FUN & BE SAFE.  She knew I'd be home shortly after dark.    If I fished over on Toledo Bend or Sam Rayburn my trips would be week long.  I'd call home every night just to check in.

There have been trips were the fish weren't cooperating.  On those days if the weather was hot and no wind I'll pack everything up off the deck and let that Yamaha Scream.  Of course when I got to the gas station I started having second thoughts about it seeing the price of fuel  :surrender:

Your setup sound nice and comfortable.  Your trips are similar to mine for the most part except the fuel and run distance.  This is a good topic I look forward to seeing how the other guys share their information.

I'm an old school guy and my views don't count for much. But I've done this coming up on 50 years both as a professional guide and tourney angler and as just-for-fun fisherman.

I run an older 20 foot boat with a Mariner 200 EFI that is horrible on fuel (at WOT it gets maybe 1.5 MPG), and that very much makes me limit my running. I almost never go faster than 40 mph (old guy) and this old hull tweaked will run about 68 mph with a tournament load. It has two 30 gallon saddle tanks- I balance them out by running the port side primarily, keeping about 35-45 gallons on board most of the time. The boat runs better that way.

As I write this we have just finished putting together a newer 200 Mercury Optimax that will easily triple my fuel economy. Cool.

My longest run recently was maybe 16 miles. My longest run ever in one way was 103 miles... I used to regularly run 74 miles one way here at Lake of the Ozarks. I had more money in those days.

I was never scared of the run if that's what it took to catch bass. This old EFI that I've been running is a great low-hour rebuilt motor (it's for sale too) but the fuel economy has limited my runs in the two years since I came back to tournament fishin'. I plan to run the Opti a lot father if necessary.

I'm a safety nut, but bad wind and waves have never dictated my day on the water. That's the main reason I run a twenty foot boat. I fish at Lake of the Ozarks a LOT. It's nothing short of an inland sea in the summertime with HUGE boats everywhere.

Not far at all.  Usually less than 2 miles, our waters are full of fish.  I go to fish, not run the boat.❤️

My typical boat trip is just pick a lake, launch and see wherever I end up. I have a Polarkkraft Dakota 1670 with a Suzuki 25hp. My Suzuki 25 has a lean burn system, that sips fuel, with a 6.5gal tank. I have never used more than 2.5gal, in any trip. On Saturday (4/5) I went 12.3mi (gps tracked) and didn't even use a gallon of fuel. (Thinking of downsizing to a 3gal tank because of it.) My longest trip/run to record has been 41mi.

Tiny boat, but a big deck.

Quote from: Donald Garner on April 03, 2025, 12:22:21 PMWhen I was fishing on a regular basis my trips usually ranged 10-30 miles.  Depending on the weather I would launch near the area that I was planning on fishing that day.  Of course this also depends on which lake I was fishing.  My home lakes Belton, Stillhouse lakes here in Central Texas aren't big massive reservoirs to start with.  Now when I fished over on Sam Rayburn and Toledo Bend in East Texas the runs were longer depending on where we stayed at.

My typical fishing trip usually started at day break unless it was a tournament event.  Tournament events started at  O' Dark Thirty before the sun even thinks about coming up  ;)
I have a 2004 Stratos 285 Pro XL Dual console; Yamaha VMax 150; Minnkota Foretrex 80lb foot control trolling motor; Lowrance Hook 7 Down Scanning Electronics on the bow and drivers console.
(https://i.imgur.com/0EobsVL.jpg)

My longest run on a single trip was 32 miles.  Depending on the weather my cruising speed is 45 - 50 mphs.  Wide open throttle get there quick be damn the gas mileage is 63.5mphs.  The Stratos has a 32gallon fuel tank and a 1 gal on board oil tank.  Making the long runs at cruising speed I'll burn 16gals of gas and 1/8 gal of oil.  Wide open throttle I'll burn 3/4 tank of gas and 1/2 gal of oil.

The Biggest factor affecting my trips was ALWAYS the weather > Storms / Rain / Wind etc.  Gas and fishing spots never factor in where I'm fishing really.  For me I do the "Home Work" I get to the area I'm fishing and I drop the trolling motor and start casting.  Some of the places I fish like on Toledo Bend or Sam Rayburn there's areas that go back off the main lake for miles. 

My home lakes there's miles of coves and of course running up the river channel.  Once I get to a spot I just drop the trolling motor and fish my way back to the ramp. I've done this a lot in the Spring.  On Still House lake I launch and make the 12mile run up the Lampasas River drop the trolling motor and fish my way back to the parking lot.

My wife's only comment on me fishing was to have FUN & BE SAFE.  She knew I'd be home shortly after dark.    If I fished over on Toledo Bend or Sam Rayburn my trips would be week long.  I'd call home every night just to check in.

There have been trips were the fish weren't cooperating.  On those days if the weather was hot and no wind I'll pack everything up off the deck and let that Yamaha Scream.  Of course when I got to the gas station I started having second thoughts about it seeing the price of fuel  :surrender:

Your setup sound nice and comfortable.  Your trips are similar to mine for the most part except the fuel and run distance.  This is a good topic I look forward to seeing how the other guys share their information.

@Donald Garner thanks buddy, what a wonderful sharing

My ride is a Stratos 285 Pro with a 150 Etec. My lockers are almost always full, I tote around the entire tackle shop. Yes, I was a Boy Scout and a McGyver fan. Be prepared means more today than ever and you can bet I'm prepared for most things. I like to run WOT, weather, water, traffic permitting.

My computer tells a different story when I pull the motor logs, more time spent between 3000 and 4500 rpm than 5800. Unless I'm trying to make a weigh-in or beat a storm, I generally take my time coming back to the ramp and cruise 45-50mph. I'm not sure I know what my longest run has been, probably around 30 minutes. My Stratos has two 18-20 gallon tanks and I figure I will run as far as one tank will take me, knowing the other will most likely get me back. Most of our nearby lakes around here aren't that big, but I've been know to make some long runs on Lake Norman, Smith Mountain, and Guntersville if there's reliable reports of good fishin'. 

run a Vexus AVX 1880 with a 115 merc optimax.  a 20-gallon tank.

make it a habit to have it full to start the day.  fish the TN river lakes (Chickamauga, Nickajack, Guntersville)

don't try to run the whole lake most days, but when fishing on Nickajack, sometimes I end up running dam to dam just so I don't have to trailer the boat on I-24.  traffic there just sucks.  not middle of atlanta sux... but enough is enough.

plus, trailering up at the upper end of Nick, I don't have to spend time picking eelgrass off the boat/trailer.

nickajack is 46 miles long.  so a long run for me is about an hour...  most days i'm in the 10-30 mile total distance range.

just fun fishing.  and it's good to feel the wind in my hair and on my face...

Quote from: coldfront on April 09, 2025, 02:22:16 PMrun a Vexus AVX 1880 with a 115 merc optimax.  a 20-gallon tank.

make it a habit to have it full to start the day.  fish the TN river lakes (Chickamauga, Nickajack, Guntersville)

don't try to run the whole lake most days, but when fishing on Nickajack, sometimes I end up running dam to dam just so I don't have to trailer the boat on I-24.  traffic there just sucks.  not middle of atlanta sux... but enough is enough.

plus, trailering up at the upper end of Nick, I don't have to spend time picking eelgrass off the boat/trailer.

nickajack is 46 miles long.  so a long run for me is about an hour...  most days i'm in the 10-30 mile total distance range.

just fun fishing.  and it's good to feel the wind in my hair and on my face...

Did you watch Dustin Connell fish the Nickajack dam on Guntersville on Sunday? Giant green, brown and spots for the W.

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19' aluminum boat with a Yamaha 115 SHO.

Longest distance I've run in one trip was 52 miles total on a very rough (think swells) Toledo Bend during a tournament that should have by all means been cancelled, postponed, or turned into a trailering event due to wind. Not a fun trip. 

Quote from: Eric-Maine on April 09, 2025, 07:33:46 PMDid you watch Dustin Connell fish the Nickajack dam on Guntersville on Sunday? Giant green, brown and spots for the W.

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i did.  and wesley.  hated every minute of it.

that's a part of the lake that doesn't get much pressure from the catch, weigh on stage tournaments.  and not a lot of folks spend much time up there.

that friggin' cat is now 'out of the bag'.

it's not a place where you can count on competing with 25# of fish day in day out.  but at certain times of the year...


and now every PC jockey and internet scout out there is gonna have to go up there and 'try it'...

~b~ 

Back when I had a boat it was a 15 ft. Fiberglass Flair skiff with a 40 horse Force motor on it.  Think of it like a fiberglass shell rowboat with a casting deck on it. It ran good both in the fresh and salt the few times I took it out into the Gulf of America(?).  It floated and ran shallow which was a plus in many of the smaller lakes I launched into. It ran fast enough for me. I carried a 6 gallon tank and it usually was enough to run Okeechobee where I took it out of either Camp Mack or the State Park. There were times I did carry a couple spare 5 gallon tanks just in case. All I can say is that I ran farther than I could swim back.  ~roflmao

I lived in Polk County, Florida and there were lakes galore to pick from, many you could swim across, or walk across (walk in water), so you didn't run the main motor very long.

There were weeks where I wouldn't even need to top off the tank because I hardly ran the motor, and could have run em with the trolling motor.

Now I'm a shore, pier, still mostly, salt water fisherman.  My miles per gallon is measured by my truck, and the amount of Gatorade I drink in a day.