an hour or 2 before and after work...but i live close to the water...

The tide. Top of the incoming to the bottom, usually.:kewl:

the worst is when fishing the Elizabeths with Jim. Leave his house at midnite, on the water at 1:30, fish till 3 or 4 pm. By this time we both look like Marty Feldman on a bender. Then reverse the process, back at my house by 7 pm. Screws me up for 2 days. :spin:

4 - 6 - 8 depends on what life has in store for me on that given day.

Tough question to answer for someone with various responsibilities. Before the marriage, mortgage, baby, home-owning responsibilities, etc/yada/yada shtufff.....It wouldn't be abnormal to pull double shifts, 16+ hrs chasing different species across both states, while grabbing a bite to eat or dropping off fish in between, so I guess technically, I couldn't count the drive time from place to place. .......:(:(...Aaaaaah, the good ole days.

Strangely enough, even though I used to fish A LOT, I could never say I fished everyday. I'm still not sure how some people can ........or claim to. :huh:....I'm jealous I guess, but I wouldn't want to do it for a living, that I'm SURE of.

...before I get hopped on.... I didn't always set my focus on stripers, I would target anything that got close enough to shore,...from the early morning Scup/Tautog bite...endless hours jigging up Macks of different flavors...atlantic, spanish, tinkers to footlongs (when you could actually catch a good amount from shore), squid, butterfish, tommy cod...jiggin or live-baiting for Fluke, minnow trap was always in the trunk, after a LONG day or night in Newport, ...a visit to the Melville pier was a must.....as well as a stop by the Manchester bridge in Tiv. (as we called it) for some snappers, that was always a GREAT time...:D BlooCrabbin was in the mix obviously....the list goes on and on. I absolutely lived to fish.

People would ask me what the holes in some of the fish were ..:laughs:.., I would live bait a lot......once the fish went limp, back in the bucket for someone's frying pan. aaaaaaaaaaaaah, the white bucket days,,,, how I miss them.

Thanks for letting me re-live some memories.

last year was 4-5 hours.

this year just getting out is a major morale boost. all night would be nice, but i don't think that's realistic for me anymore. i got a few spots where i think there's a 2 hour window of good fishing. i'll shoot for that. between travel and fishing, it's a 4-5 hour event.

:claps::claps::claps: - I applaud you guys & gals that have such long commutes in order to reach the salt. I've always considered myself Blessed to live 5 minutes away from the salt, and only minutes from either R.I. or the Big "D" area, (1/2 hr to Npt...40min to the "D"), yes..it's nice being in the middle with a respectable river only a rock throw away from my own house...

I remember being in Ohio on business recently and upon speaking to the locals, I was saddened to learn that some have never been to a body of saltwater, never mind fishing in it. I guess you can't miss what you don't know....:huh:

Wow.Sounds like you have really lived the coast life and know the waters like the back of your hand. I really could have seen growing up like that, but the paths went a different way. It sounds great.

It's never long enough.

I generally get in a half hour on weekdays before work, manage about 45 minutes on lunch break, and if my girls don't have a softball practice or game, about an hour at night. Saturdays and sundays, trips are longer, typically 2-5 hours. Doesn't seem to matter how long I spend, the results are still almost nothing. :D

I wouldn't go as far as saying I know them "like the back of my hand", ...but I used to get around ;)
It's sad at how much access I've seen taken away. Anyone who's fished Newport long enough can remember quite a few areas that are now completely inaccessible from shore...water line or not, you just can't get to em' anymore. The "Drive" used to have a LOT more access, few will remember.....

I must say though, yes...it was GREAT.

When I fish my home area it's only a 10-minute ride so most of my trips are 4-hours, two hours either side of the tide.

When the fishing is good or traveling to fish 8-10 hours is the norm.

I used to fish for 2-3 days straight now I hit the wall at 18-20 hours and usually fish 9-10hrs. in order to catch two slack tides.