CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — As gas prices rise around the country, motorists are seeing the effects at the pump, but so are boaters.
A typical car has a gas tank with a capacity of around 12-15 gallons. Davey Wright’s boat has a 40-gallon tank.
“It’s $50 a day more in fuel [to fill up],” Wright said.
He fills up his boat three to four times a week.
Wright is the operator of Floating Debris Charters. He said he has noticed a decrease in customers with fuel prices rising.
“It’s decreased a little bit. I think it’s going to get worse if the fuel prices continue to increase,” he said.
Boaters are not only worrying about rising fuel prices. They still have all the other costs associated with a fishing trip that is rising.
“Just to get out here, it does cost a little more, but we are losing lures, fishing line, weights, bait, and it’s our time out here,” local fisherman Art Zamora said.
Flour Bluff resident Logan Lyda has two boats. The one he uses most is a small boat for fishing with a ten-gallon tank. Lyda said he fills up about once a week.
“Every time i go fill up now, I don’t think it’s actually doubled, but it seems like it’s doubled,” he said. “It’s a significant expense every month when it pretty much doubles in price.”
Lyda’s other boat is a sail boat. It doesn’t use as much fuel as his smaller boat, but he said he hasn’t filled up in a while.
He added he is not looking forward to the next time he has to fill it up, because it has a 40-50 gallon fuel tank.
Lyda said while the price increase is inconvenient, he is not planning on spending less time fishing.
“I’ll still go fishing,” he laughed. “I’ll just cut back on something else.”
