Fishermen and boaters run aground by high fuel prices

The fish in Lake Erie are having an easier time of it this summer. The fishermen aren’t, thanks to fuel prices rising faster than the proverbial creek emptying into the lake after a summer storm.

“Yep,” agreed Bucyrian Rick Bauer, an avid angler who frequents Ohio’s North Coast in search of walleye and perch. “I try to take at least one extra guy with me. I’ve only been up four times.”

Bauer said lake anglers, while not yet an endangered marine species, have thinned considerably and gas prices are clearly the reason. He estimated a day’s fishing trip to Lake Erie cost him $110 in fuel for boat and vehicle, almost double what he would have paid a year ago at this time.

BucyrusRegister