Fishing – Keeping your costs down

With soaring fuel prices looking to go no other way than up, most boat-based angling activities have taken a hit.

Unless you are fishing from a kayak, rowboat, yacht or a jet ski, one of the prime considerations when planning a trip is the cost of fuelling your craft.

There are some things a boatie can do to mitigate the rising costs of petrol and diesel. For our crew aboard Tackle Tester, the first one is pick your days to go. The trips where the weather is marginal and the moon phase producing a poor bite time are the ones to cut out in favour of a better outlook. I look at https://www.fishing.net.nz/fishing-advice/bite-times/ to work out the most favourable times to fish and www.windy.com for the best weather. Your boat’s engine will be more efficient on the calm days.

Some anglers suffer from ‘faritis’, a common angling disease where the best fishing is always over the horizon. Fish your feet first. This is the case when fishing out of Mangawhai you have some great options a short distance from leaving the bar.

If you can’t help yourself and just ‘have to go’ out wide, organise a full crew to share the fuel cost. There is a great deal more to running a boat than just fuel, but if your crew is prepared to contribute a fair share, then this helps ease some of the pain at the pump.

Getting to your fishing place doesn’t need to be a race. I have a Mercury 200HP four stroke outboard on a 6.45m loa hull. The most efficient speed is 3550 RPM which sees a fuel burn of 1.5 lnm (litres per nautical mile). This sees us travelling around 22-23 knots, depending on load and the sea state. Another 500rpm sees the fuel burn up to 1.85 lnm, with just another couple of knots added to the vessel speed. Using the tachometer and speedo, trim your vessel at the optimum speed.

Now is a good time to declutter your boat of all the extra ‘I might just need this’ stuff that has made its way on board. The extra weight all adds up. Go through your tackle and remove those boxes or jigs and sinkers, or at least fine them down to essentials. It is time to get the game gear off the boat until next season, or at least to the bluefin start showing up.

If you plan to go some distance, hedge your tackle bets to maximise any opportunity that might arise. Have a variety of bait on boat and while on that subject, purchase a bait net and go catch your own piper, mullet and kahawai. Fresh is always best!

Keep an eye out for fuel stop specials, topping the tanks up when the price is right. But be aware, the maximum fuel you can store or carry in containers is 50 litres under the Dangerous Goods Act.

Sticking to any one of the above practices will see small savings made, but implement then all and the pain at the pump will be lessened.

Tight lines.