Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Fishermen, like this bass boater, will be paying more for gasoline for their engines this summer. Many are saying they will probably do their fishing closer to home to save money. Click photo for larger image.

Record gas prices may not have Pennsylvania anglers over a barrel, but many say they're fishing differently as they head into the busiest outdoors season.

"I'm sticking closer to home," Dave Marko of Valencia said. "Last weekend I fished a pond near my house and did really well. If I drive to Erie, I might sleep in my truck or I'll carpool with other guys to share expenses.

"You get spoiled in Erie, but I think a lot of guys will give local waters a second look. It might even make us better anglers."

According to Richard Ready, Penn State University assistant professor of agriculture and environmental economics, "There's lots of evidence that anglers are very sensitive to the cost of accessing water," and they will let it drive where and how often they fish. If license fee hikes last year out-priced the once-a-year angler, he said, this year's 40 percent rise in gas prices could have a greater impact on the more dedicated sportsman.

"Some will absorb the increased costs and not do anything differently," he said, "but that isn't the typical response. I expect most folks to fish less frequently and to go closer to home."

Even after the shock at the pump has subsided, he said, "and people are no longer talking about it, they'll still be making subtle changes in their day to day decisions over the long haul."

Some changes are not so subtle, say those in the boating business.

"I haven't seen a decrease in numbers, but I've seen a decrease in the number of high-end sales," said Kneal Wiegl of Wiegl Brothers Marine of Franklin, Pa., which specializes in large jet boats "Where I used to have a lot of people shopping for big boats and getting financing, the gas issue never came into play. Now it has. They're saying, if I can't afford to run a $33,000 boat, I can't afford to buy it."

Weigl reports an increasing demand for the type of energy-efficient engines that began hitting the market four years ago, and expects sales of smaller fishing boats, 14 to 16 feet, and under 20 horsepower engines to remain the most stable. "They're not the gas guzzkers. Guys can take those to the lakes and get by all week on a tank of gas," he said.

Jim Adams of the Boat Fish Fun Shop in Mt. Pleasant reports a drop in boat sales so far this year.

"It's the pleasure boaters who aren't buying, not the tournament guys," said Adams, who is vice president of Bass Federation Nation, a tournament organization. "In fact, the tournament guys are complaining less than the guys with the 9.9 engines."

To seriously compete requires a heavy commitment, said Ready, "and there's at least the dream of winning money to offset some of the higher expenses."

Gary Wert, an outdoors radio personality and Warren County tourism booster, expects to spend $1,000 more than usual this summer on gas to haul and run his 19-foot boat with 90 horsepower engine in the Kinzua-Allegheny Walleye Association and other tournaments in Pennsylvania and New York.

"We're concerned," he said, "but turnout for a small local tournament was good last weekend, and the opening day of walleye season was wall to wall boats on the Kinzua. There've been hordes of crappie anglers on Chauttaqua this spring."

Tackle shop owners at other Western Pennsylvania waters paint a different picture.

"I'm not seeing as much of my Pittsburgh customers," said Ron Anderson of Appalachian Trails near Lake Arthur. "A lot of the retired guys have told me, 'You'll be seeing me once a month, not once a week'"

Bob Mohra of Fergie's near Lake Wilhelm said crappie season -- typically one of his busiest -- was flat this spring.

"A lot of guys who would normally jump in their truck to come just look at the lake are calling instead for reports," he said.

Denny Ferguson, who runs the Goddard Park Marina on Lake Wilhelm for the Pennsylvania Department of Parks and Recreation, has seen a drop in boat rentals. "Normally, almost all of our motor boats get rented out by crappie fishermen," he said. "This year, they're not renting at all, hardly."

He said he has had to raise the hourly rate by $5 this year.

Likewise, Anderson has increased the cost of minnows from $1 to $1.50 a dozen, since fuel surcharges are being passed on to him."One supplier raised the price by $2 a pound. I used to pay $5. Now it's $7."

Even the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is citing the impact of higher fuel costs, since it maintains a fleet of 100 patrol cars, 125 law enforcement boats and 45 hatchery trucks, plus gas-powered lawn tractors that maintain access sites and feed trucks at hatchery raceways.

"Gas is a huge issue for us," agency spokesman Dan Tredinnick said. "We put something like 800,000 to a million miles a year on patrol vehicles alone."

By the end of last month, the commission had spent $583,000 on fuel -- or $81,000 more than it spent in all of the previous fiscal year, Tredinnick said. "And we haven't even hit our busiest season."

"We don't have the luxury of passing costs on," he said, or raising the $65 a day stipend for deputy waterways conservation officers who pay out of pocket to gas up their vehicles.

If folks are stuck with steep gas prices for some time, Ready suggested that it might help to put costs into perspective. "By historical comparisons, gas is expensive, but it's not outrageous when you adjust for inflation or when you look at what people have always paid in other countries," he said. "They work closer to home and don't buy enormous RVs."

Anderson also offers a positive spin.

"We've been spoiled for so long," he said. "This may force people to make more careful choices. It'll make a day on the water more special."