What kind of hours do you rack-up?

F

family affair

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I would consider my boat use for this neck of the woods higher than average. I usually get out 20-30 times a season, yet I'm only putting on a out 30 hours a year on engines. Since I trailer, I don't generally need to make long runs. Typically 20 miles or less round trip. Occasionally 50. Getting out of no wake zones rarely takes more than 15 minutes per trip. Even years where I trolled a lot, alternating engines, I wouldn't have that many more hours. It got me thinking, aside from the guys who run way off shore, how are so many people racking up 1000+ hours in 5-10 years? Are the hours due to extensive low speed operation, or do you all typically run greater distances often?
 
WOW - I would love to get out 20 - 30 times a year! You are lucky! This year I did not get out much at all, mostly due to travel and family engagements. I got out maybe 6 times this past year... Usually, in a 'normal' year I get out 10 -15 times, In those years I'll put 50 - 7o hours on my motor.
 
Sdfish said:
WOW - I would love to get out 20 - 30 times a year! You are lucky! This year I did not get out much at all, mostly due to travel and family engagements. I got out maybe 6 times this past year... Usually, in a 'normal' year I get out 10 -15 times, In those years I'll put 50 - 7o hours on my motor.
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So how are you racking up 2x the hours only going out ½ as much as I do?
 
If my math is correct, I went out around 15 times this season just for fishing. With crabbing and cruising, it's probably slightly more than that at around 20 total. I'm similar though in that I don't have to make long runs or anything like that as I've got a mooring buoy out in front of our cabin. I can row out there in our dinghy or my kayak, climb on board, unhook the boat from the buoy and literally start trolling for salmon as soon as we get off the buoy. Several times this season we went out for less than a couple hours a day, as well as when the peak of the season hit, there were times where we'd have multiple fish in the boat within only a couple of minutes of unhooking from the buoy. The outboard was replaced on my boat before I purchased it, of which it had like 991 hours at the time I purchased it, which was just over 4 years ago now. I used it once in the late late fall/early winter of 2021 and then didn't use it again until the next summer of 2022. I can't say for certain, but I imagine I'm similar in that I likely don't put more than maybe 30-40 hours on my outboard per season. Which is nice to be able to keep the hours on the outboard lower than not, and am definitely not like some of the guys on here that have to motor 40-50+ miles each way to go fishing, thankfully. I'm also admittedly more of a fair-weather fisherman, to where if the winds are over 15-20 mph, I'll likely stay home for the morning. Same with the fishing reports or conditions, to where if I'm out there fishing for 3-4+ hours and it's either really slow or I haven't limited out yet, I'll likely come back in and try another day instead. My buddy though, he's the complete opposite in that he could be out in his boat fishing for 8-10+ hours and keep doing so even without any bites at all. As much as I love fishing, if it's really slow or the conditions are really bad, I'm starting to think in my head that breakfast, coffee and a nap are sounding quite good...
 
Mustang65fbk said:
As much as I love fishing, if it's really slow or the conditions are really bad, I'm starting to think in my head that breakfast, coffee and a nap are sounding quite good...
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I had a lot of that this year! Normal I fish cruise 50/50. This year was 100% cruise because I didn't want to get out of bed. Thought it was age. Turns out it was medically related. Hopefully next year will be different.
 
October 2007 purchased with 50 hours on new motors. Today 2,500 hours. So 18 years. About 138 hours per year. Boat is only used in FL for two months +/-. Haven't put in the water in NJ for years - just work on it! In FL runs are short few mile runs but the motors are my generator to keep pumps and electronics going so they are never turned off. Even when bottom fishing or drift fishing kites/live bait. My mechanic tells me its not the hours that kills the motors - it's the years.
 
I usually put around 150 hours per year, but some of them were idling when bottom fishing.
The new Honda BF350 have now around 140 hours on the clock, reason is that i need much less idling to charge the house + stbd battery after i changed my battery wiring to 1+1+1 and installed a 140Ah LiFePo house battery what last forever.
Hours depend mostly on how one use the boat, hours on the water but with engines off can be substantial higher.
Chris
 
100 hrs is typical the past few years, sometimes a tad less. I find the long days on the sand bar these days really has cut it back.
 
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