Friday, May 13, 2005

Gas cost may slow fishing opener



The Forum
By Mike McFeely mmcfeely@forumcomm.com

Minnesota walleyes can breathe a little easier. The high cost of gasoline will keep Chuck Gulsvig at home - and off the lakes - more often this summer.Although he might be in the minority.The state's walleye and northern pike season, when about 1 million anglers will be on the water, opens at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Gulsvig will fish Lake Lizzie near Pelican Rapids that day. But after that, things will change."It's going to reduce my trips a little bit," said Gulsvig, a teacher and coach at Moorhead High School. "I used to be famous for afternoon getaways throughout the summer, if the weather was good, I was gone. I'm going to have to be a little more selective. Instead of going fishing three or four times a week, it might just be one or two times a week."With the price of gas above $2 a gallon, fishermen will find their favorite pursuit more expensive than ever.That's especially true for many Fargo-Moorhead fishermen, who travel at least 50 miles to their favorite Minnesota lakes.The distance is even more for popular walleye destinations like Devils Lake in North Dakota and Waubay Lake in South Dakota. The miles and dollars add up quickly."If you take into account gas for the boat, gas for the car, minnows and everything else, that adds up to $30 or $40 every day you go fishing," said Gulsvig, who fishes almost exclusively in Minnesota lakes country.Mike Miller of Moorhead said he plans to fish 80 to 90 days this spring, summer and fall. The host of WDAY's "Great Outdoors" said the cost isn't that much greater than past years."If you put the pencil and paper to it, the difference isn't that big," Miller said. "That's five bucks a day or $10 a weekend. That's the positive, glass is half full way of looking at it."That doesn't mean there will not be sticker shock. Miller said his boat holds 42 gallons of gas. His pickup's tank holds 30 gallons. At Thursday's price of $2.03 for a gallon of unleaded, filling both would cost $146.16."It's not going to slow me down," Miller said.That's the overwhelming feeling Lee Brenna of Park Region Co-op Sport Shop in Pelican Rapids gets from his customers."It's kind of crazy. When it comes to recreation, people don't complain," Brenna said. "But for me, when I fill up my lawnmower with two gallons of gas and it costs four bucks, darn that hurts."The high cost of fuel might not stop anglers from going to the lake, but it has slowed boat sales at Moorhead Marine, owner Steve Moltzan said."I think it plays an indirect role. People are worried about gas prices," Moltzan said. "Fishermen are always going to go fishing, but whether or not they buy a new boat to do it is the question."For Gulsvig, hopping into his car and driving an hour to catch walleyes used to be second nature. Not any more."It's going to be a factor for me," he said. "I didn't think anything of it before. Now I'll have to think about it a little more each time I go fishing."

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