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how far do you go

2970 Views 19 Replies 19 Participants Last post by  vertigrator
Hey everybody,
just out of interest, how far would most of you paddle during an average fishing trip, understood that alot depends on weather, sea conditions, and others, but what distance are your average trips, 3ks, 6ks, 10ks?
And what do you think your capable of doing in your respective craft?
And lastly, again taking into accout conditions, but how long does it take you to paddle a certain distance?
Given factors of age, ability, kayak, weight carried, and weather, answers will no doubt be varied, but an interesting disscussion i think.
For my own part, in glass conditions, no wind with a very casual paddle my gps was telling me i was doing 5 to 6 ks an hour, and i did 10ks that trip including stops for fishing, in about 5 hours very easily.
it may be interesting to find out how far 'billybob' paddles his swing on his trips.

leave it with ya

Alex
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Hi Alex, I paddle anywhere between 3Kms and 15Kms in a session, but as you say, it depends heavily on the conditions. I paddle an espri (for now :twisted: ) and it get's pushed around a fair bit by wind, but I can cover 6ks in an hour with a mild headwind and can do it in about 45mins with a tail wind if I imagine I am Grant Kenny back in the 80s. :p I have at times found the longer paddles quite challenging, but as long as there's a fish in my sites or more preferably one in the bag paddling doesn't seem too much of a challenge. I love the exercise and the upperbody strenght developed by paddling, it's helped my average posture a lot. Hmm, now I just need to find a way to get those abs working while I paddle.
Not uncommon to do 10 or more km in a trip. My GPS said I racked up 9 miles (downside of buying direct from US) last Sunday, and that was in very trying conditions
Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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Not very far on the first date unless I have their assurance they will still respect me in the morning.

Catch ya Scott
Ideally I try to launch as close as possible to wherever I intend to fish. ideally a total paddle of no more than 5km sees me maximising fishing time.

However in some trips (ie Bluefish point trip a few weeks ago), the launch site and the final fishing site were 5km apart, which meant a total journey of 10km (plus paddling round in circles, drifting, etc etc) - probably rackje up 12 km that day.

On average i'd say between 5-8km (mainly estuary fishing)
Our usual 'round trip' in the bay is about 20km. That's roughly 4 hours with stops etc.
If we go to Sunshine Reef we do 25kms average, maximum 30 kms.
If I had to paddle 30km to catch a fish my arms would be too tired to reel it in. Billybob is the man. :D
I'll usually paddle about 5-8km if I'm sitting on structure fishing artificial baits. I'll average about 15km if I'm trolling live baits.
Generally they'd be in the 5 - 15 kilometres all up according to my GPS. Mind you, there's almost always some drifting in there too. I've done a few longer trips, really gets the ole shoulder juices flowing :)
I reckon my normal paddling would be about 15k, most of this would be marking time, but I have gone from Woody Point to Scarborough when conditions have been ideal, and a few years ago, when I used my TK1, I would routinely do about 20 in Pine River, but cheating by going back and forth with the tide. If measured in paddle strokes, I do a lot. Most of these however are half hearted slow troll. I very seldom anchor up and just fish.

Cheers all Andybear :lol:
I range in distance form 5km to approx 20km depending where I am fishing. I just love the exercise and the fishing just tops it of. Benefits all round. :D
A typical paddle last Sunday. 2 Espris, sticking together, with two guys average age 60. We paddled 19.8km, according to GPS and didn't even get a strike. Left at 0640 returned about 1030. Great exercise, though, and slept well Sunday night.
Hi all,

Interesting discussion as I have been thinking the same thing.

When I bought my picked up my Predator Three and half weeks ago I was thinking 'A Yak is now my excuse to get out fishing!'. Now I think differently, 'Fishing is my excuse to get out and paddle my Yak!'.

My first weekend some of you may recall I had the unfortunate experience of dropping my rod and reel in the first fifteen minutes of being on the water of my virgin Yak fishing experience so I made the most of it by paddling that day. How far I travelled I am not so sure.

Last weekend I mostly paddled and mildly fished the Pine River on both Sat and Sun. Despite the blustery conditions I did this because I was having a great time getting used to my Yak in the chop and maybe I am a sucker for challenging myself physically.

At the end of the weekend I measured my routes on Google Earth and came up with a figure very close to 40 kms. I would say it is slightly more than this as the path set on GE was a series of straight lines and in reality I paddled all over the place and sometimes drifting back with the tide as I cast lures only to repaddle the same ground ( I hope yo get what I mean here).

All in all, for a 33 y.o. I was not too sore in the arms, shoulders and back but did my bum feel numb when I was out there (no jokes please).

Ultimately I guess I am training up to be able to longer trips out to the bay to fish pelagics and maybe have lunch and a beer at Dunwich on Straddie. It's nice to know I can do the distance in less than favourable winds on the river. My question is how much harder is it to paddle the partially smooth waters of Moreton Bay. I think I have some more training to do.

Cheers,

Milano.

PS. Billy Bob, do you ever take tag alongs off the coast of Noosa??? I am sure there would be a few here that would be up for it!
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Scott said:
Not very far on the first date unless I have their assurance they will still respect me in the morning.
That's very important Scott :lol:

Alex

Average trip is about 10kms over a session, no leg would exceed 2 kms though through the day.
7kgs is my longest continuous paddle going by google earth in the course of a 15kms day
Fishing from my sea kayak in Hervey Bay, anywhere between 30 & 50 klms - round trip. This boat has terrific glide though and is allmost effortless to paddle and has a sail for coming home.

From my slippery TK1 in the rivers, average between 10 & 25klms. Again, terrific glide and very little effort is required to make it go.

Only done short trips in my new SOT - maybe 5 or 6klms each way so far.
Interesting to see only paddlers have replied, how do people go on there Hobies? I did a 6hr session not long ago, felt stiff after ( maybe that was from no fish, again!? )
Since I mainly troll lures I often cover a few kms during a trip. In estuaries I would often do 10 or more kms and when I go out into the sound I often cover 20+ kms. When I started I used to suffer from sore arms/shoulders but after reading the sticky on correct paddling technique and twisting at the waist a lot more I don't suffer those aches & pains any more. I've also gained some paddling muscles and fitness so that helps too. And my lightweight paddle is a great help & fantastic on longer trips!
On a fishing trip, I regularly do 92 km.

However, 90 km of that is done in airconditioned comfort with yak on roof of vehicle.
Heya Troppo, Welcome back mate. :D I have missed you. :D

Hope all is well
I try to go all the way, but sometimes conditions aren't favourable and it's all over before you know it. :wink:

Seriously though, in my canoe it was a struggle to do more than about 5 ks. But now I've got the Prowler I can do 5ks and not even know it. I feel like I could just keep going all day. I reckon that crap canoe has been good training. In the yak I reckon 20 k trips are going to feel as hard as 5k ones in the canoe.
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