How much time is enough?

[Hammertime]

Looking at fishing before work at the local fish spots (Altona/Port Melbourne) midweek.

How many hours in your opinion makes it worthwhile getting down to the water, getting setup, launching moving to a spot, fishing and packing up.

I'm thinking probably 2 hours of fishing time, but interested in others opinions. As the number of daylight hours gets longer, and the snapper start rolling in, I think I'll try and get a few mid week sessions in.

[laneends]

A lot depends on how out of the way it is to get to the location.

I refuse to spend more time getting to, setting up, packing up and getting home again than I do on the water out of principle.

If it is a convenient drop by on the way to work its a different matter.

To make the most of before work sessions it is probably best to be set up for fishing before sun up.

catching a pb snapper on first cast cancels everything else out.

[maverick]

IMHO there seems to be a "busy" period interupted by hours of not busy when fishing. The busy period might only last 30 mins to a hour, so it really depends on if you can time the busy period correctly. Narrowing it down to tide changes and sunrise & sunset means you can spend less time on the water watching. Coinciding a change of tide and sunrise & sunset is a bonus. Taking into consideration the theories about lunar periods can also help.

I will go for a fish if I only have an hour, but to be honest I don't have to go far and I leave my gear set up and ready to go.

Watching the sunrise from the water is a fantastic way to start the day, regardless of all else.

[shane]

My pre-work fishing sessions at Altona, Willy, Docklands or Albert Park last between 30 mins and 3 hours on water time depending on the time of year and what's happening. Eg early snapper season pre DST can be a 5am launch, 8am return. If I'm only doing a quick bait trip for squid or salmon it can be much shorter.

[loboloco]

I agree with mav if you can work it out then you only need to spend an hour fishing, but hey that is very hard to do! For me several hours on the yak can go by so fast so the longer the better. If you really enjoying the process and not just the catching side of it then even 30min on the water is worth it.


Cheers
Loboloco

[Justo]

I agree with Keith, and for me the further the spot the longer I want for fishing time. When you add gear cleaning and maintenance to the list, 2 hrs is pretty much the bare minimum that I look for.

I love those times when you're able to pull a double header by leaving the yak and gear on/in the car and heading out again the same or next day, but sadly that doesn't happen much. I can see the attraction in a yak trailer but that's just not for me.

I'm shortly going to build a large rolling cart which will hold all my yak fishing equipment. I want to get really efficient at packing and unpacking (at home) and maybe that will increase my interest in shorter trips. I think I've got the launch/return aspect out of the car pretty right, but the family-driven inefficiencies at home are another matter.