Trophy Fish Quest

[papajoe222]

Seeing as my season is over, I decided to go over my logs for this season and see if anything different jumped out at me. I didn't find any earth shattering changes in fish movements or locational patterns, but I did have a lesson pounded into my hard head that I think I should share, especially the rookies among us.

I spent a total of just over 319 hours on the water this season with a total catch of 574 fish (dang, it didn't seem like that much). That averaged out to approximately 1.8 fish per hour and now that I see those numbers, it was a GREAT season.

Now for the part I wanted to share: Of all those fish, ONLY ONE was in the trophy class for my part of the country and it barely made it at 6lb.3oz. More astonishing to me was the low number of monster fish I actually landed, those being over 18in. Please note: I rarely weigh my fish. A quick measurement and back they go. Only 14 fish in that catagory.

You guys can run the numbers if you like, but one fish in over 500 is less than .5% that's 1/2 of 1% and 15 out of the same number is less than 4%.

The point that I'm trying to convey is just because you target big or trophy sized fish, the odds are against you on any given outing. Not that my home waters produce an abundance of 18+inch fish or do. BTW, I didn't just luck into these fish, I worked at catching them and the other 500 or so narrowed down my search. Only twice did I actually tell myself "I know there's a monster here" and came away empty both times. That doesn't meat there wasn't a monster there, there likely was, but despite my efforts I'll never know.

The lesson that was pounded home became strikingly evident to me and I hope to you grasshoppers out there.

[paul.]

big fish are rare fish. the odds are stacked against a bass ever reaching trophy proportions from the time it hatches - even more so in northern climates where growing seasons are shorter and a fish has to survive even longer to become a lunker. sounds like you had a pretty good year though.

[DavePNW]

Really good numbers, I'm really impressed with everything you log. When I'm out on the water I can hardly think to do that kind of stuff. I should really start though!