Keeping track of bass caught

[scaleface]

5 hours ago, Michigander said:

I need to keep a tally next year, I'm curious how many I catch in a year. Also be curious to see what the keeper to non-keeper ratio is.

I dont plan on doing it again . I just wanted an idea how many bass I catch in a year .

[MIbassyaker]

21 hours ago, Michigander said:

I need to keep a tally next year, I'm curious how many I catch in a year. Also be curious to see what the keeper to non-keeper ratio is.

 

In my records, this depends substantially on which waters I fish.  Of the 20 places I have fished the most around Grand Rapids, the probability a bass i caught is keeper-sized ranges from around 7% to almost 70%. 

 

Here's a breakdown of the number of water bodies in my top 20 for hours fished by keeper rate:

 

 

What do the three in the top bin have in common??  Almost nothing, other than being somewhat remote natural lakes that don't get huge amounts of angler traffic (although two get a moderate amount, and one gets very little).

[Michigander]

28 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

In my records, this depends substantially on which waters I fish.  Of the 20 places I have fished the most around Grand Rapids, the probability a bass i caught is keeper-sized ranges from around 7% to almost 70%. 

 

Here's a breakdown of the number of water bodies in my top 20 by keeper rate:

 

 

What do the three in the top bin have in common??  Almost nothing, other than being somewhat remote natural lakes that don't get huge amounts of angler traffic.

I'm not quite sure what your chart is showing me, but I second the remote lakes as often being winners!

[MIbassyaker]

Just now, Michigander said:

I'm not quite sure what your chart is showing me, but I second the remote lakes as often being winners!

Number of water bodies on Y,  Percent of bass caught that are keepers on X.  

 

So in two of the 20 places I've fished the most, less than 10% (0-.099 range) of the bass I've caught were keeper sized. In three of them, 60-70% (.60-.699 range) were keeper sized.

[Michigander]

1 minute ago, MIbassyaker said:

Number of water bodies on Y,  Percent of bass caught that are keepers on X.  

 

So in two of the 20 places I've fished the most, less than 10% (0-.099 range) of the bass I've caught were keeper sized. In three of them, 60-70% (.60-.699 range) were keeper sized.

Ok, gotcha. That makes way more sense now!

[Bluebasser86]

I was at 2250 a couple weeks ago and haven't fished much since then. Not sure how many times I'll get out the rest of the year but I gave it a good run.

[scaleface]

On 11/29/2020 at 12:28 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

I was at 2250 a couple weeks ago and haven't fished much since then. Not sure how many times I'll get out the rest of the year but I gave it a good run.

Thats a lot of bass . Have you broke it down month by month ?

[Bluebasser86]

On 12/1/2020 at 2:26 PM, scaleface said:

Thats a lot of bass . Have you broke it down month by month ?

I didn't, I just have a metal "clicker" that I push each time I catch a bass. I know I didn't break 100 until February, had my first 100 fish day of the year April 16th that put me over 400, caught number 1,800 in early September, but that about as much of a break down as I have.

[TnRiver46]

41 minutes ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I didn't, I just have a metal "clicker" that I push each time I catch a bass. I know I didn't break 100 until February, had my first 100 fish day of the year April 16th that put me over 400, caught number 1,800 in early September, but that about as much of a break down as I have.

My cousin used to work at brushy mountain and had a clicker they counted the prisoners with that he would take on smallmouth canoe floats to keep track 

[Bluebasser86]

2365 was my ending count, 412 short of last time I kept track, but my quality was a lot better this year than it was that year. Overall, it was a good year, but I can't wait to get back to not tracking my fish next year.

 

[bulldog1935]

My buddy Jimbo, who used to tournament bass fish before he became a trout wizard, keeps track of fish numbers with a pocketful of Jolly Ranchers.  He eats a candy every 5 fish and counts the wrappers at the end of the day.  That way, his count is only 1 to 4 since the last candy.  

[Team9nine]

Saw where Ned K just posted his final trip report for the year this morning, along with yearly totals.

1,958 largemouth bass, 72 smallmouth bass = 2,030 bass total

101 trips; ~266 hours fishing

Average 20 black bass per outing

Best trip: Mar. 13 - 61 largemouth bass

 

[TnRiver46]

19 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

My buddy Jimbo, who used to tournament bass fish before he became a trout wizard, keeps track of fish numbers with a pocketful of Jolly Ranchers.  He eats a candy every 5 fish and counts the wrappers at the end of the day.  That way, his count is only 1 to 4 since the last candy.  

@Bluebasser86and @scaleface would

have to get dentures if they did that 

19 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Saw where Ned K just posted his final trip report for the year this morning, along with yearly totals.

1,958 largemouth bass, 72 smallmouth bass = 2,030 bass total

101 trips; ~266 hours fishing

Average 20 black bass per outing

Best trip: Mar. 13 - 61 largemouth bass

 

Sounds like he’s actually counting! My buddies always say they have 100 fish days........ never 99 or 101 or 74 or anything like that. Always a perfectly round  100.......... 

I think they count 1,2,3,4, 27, 63, etc......

[Team9nine]

Was holding out hope for one more day on the water this week/year, but the weather forecast just doesn't look like that will be a reality.

 

With this season now a wrap, I pulled the numbers for fish caught this year and the totals ended up being 2,212 bass and 1,818 crappie. I only keep track of this every so often, and like Bluebasser, I have no plans to do it again next year - lol. I did it this year to compare with a friend in the northern part of the state.

 

Bass numbers suffered at the end of the year as nearly all my late season trips (Nov-Dec) were for crappie, but it is always a nice change. Love that light line ‘thump’ of a bite.

 

Time to order and arrange a few more tackle and boat items, then hope for an early start to next year

[scaleface]

I added 10 more fish on a jerkbait , the last time I went fishing . I was well on my way to a skunking when I met someone I know and he clued me in .

 

Total bass caught 1167

 

Spinnerbait   462

worm            177

toad              140

crankbait       133

beetlespin      84

buzzbait         63

lipless crank   46

grub               43

 jerkbait         10

jig                    9

[MIbassyaker]

22 hours ago, Team9nine said:

Saw where Ned K just posted his final trip report for the year this morning, along with yearly totals.

1,958 largemouth bass, 72 smallmouth bass = 2,030 bass total

101 trips; ~266 hours fishing

Average 20 black bass per outing

Best trip: Mar. 13 - 61 largemouth bass

 

Comes to 7.63 bass per hour -- Ned's average hour (or yours, if we count the 8.86 from 2011 in your article) would be an exceptional hour on the water for me, and something I only experience a couple times a year.

[Team9nine]

3 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Sounds like he’s actually counting! My buddies always say they have 100 fish days........ never 99 or 101 or 74 or anything like that. Always a perfectly round  100.......... 

I think they count 1,2,3,4, 27, 63, etc......

 

Ned uses both a counter and a timer to log his trip data - lol.

I just use a counter, especially for crappie where a good trip could run into the 200-300 fish day 

 

11 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

Comes to 7.63 bass per hour -- Ned's average hour (or yours, if we count the 8.86 from 2011 in your article) would be an exceptional hour on the water for me, and something I only experience a couple times a year.

 

Yeah, everything is sort of relative. Hard to change your area/location without a lot of driving. You can focus on waters with a high bass population intentionally if you have them, which helps numbers. Pretty much have to play the hand you're dealt. I tend to not fish low productivity waters unless I'm specifically going for a reason (big fish, haven't been in a while, seasonal peak, etc.). Catching is a lot more fun than not catching.

[J Francho]

55 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

Comes to 7.63 bass per hour

More than one bass every ten minutes, on average.  Which means any time he went 20 minutes without a catch, He caught two in around 5 minutes.  I'm calling foo-foo on this.  This is a fish story in my book.  And it's not me being jealous, so let's not go down that path.  Unless he's fishing in a grow out pond.

[Team9nine]

11 minutes ago, J Francho said:

More than one bass every ten minutes, on average.  Which means any time he went 20 minutes without a catch, He caught two in around 5 minutes.  I'm calling foo-foo on this.  This is a fish story in my book.  And it's not me being jealous, so let's not go down that path.  Unless he's fishing in a grow out pond.

 

His historical average has been around 10 bass an hour. He fishes a lot of the smaller community reservoirs that don't get pounded by tourney pressure 7 days a week. We have a few similar type reservoirs near me, which was what I focused on in 2011 when I tracked for him. Just depends on how much you want to pick and choose to boost numbers and keep the rod bent. Also keep in mind he's just as happy catching a dozen 12 inchers than going an hour without a bite to catch one "keeper." All bass count in his system, whether 6 inches or 6 pounds.

[MIbassyaker]

It also would seem to require fishing only places and times where bass are very heavily concentrated, as simply moving location to location takes time.

[J Francho]

I think he lost count and exaggerated a few times or more.  Not buying it.  I have no doubt he has caught exponentially more fish than myself.

[Team9nine]

7 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

It also would seem to require fishing only places and times where bass are very heavily concentrated, as simply moving location to location takes time.

 

He pretty much fishes the same times all year long, almost always a 2-4 hour stretch between 11:00 and 4:00. Many of the reservoirs are 400 acres or under, so it takes little time to move around. He only fishes 'Ned rigs,' so rigging and bait changing is a non-issue. His cold water numbers have been hampered by weed control efforts. A lot of his really big number days came from bass piled into the last green vegetation. If I'm not mistaken, his numbers are also for "the boat," so on days he fishes with someone, which this year has been his wife a majority of the time due to Covid, the numbers for both anglers count in the totals.

 

All my numbers were solo when I've tracked, so 50 fish a trip was always my goal instead of 100, but I also fish short 4 hour and under windows sometime in the afternoon for most all trips.

[TnRiver46]

3 hours ago, J Francho said:

I think he lost count and exaggerated a few times or more.  Not buying it.  I have no doubt he has caught exponentially more fish than myself.

He sure moves a lot of product for z man! I’ve yet to drink the kool aid, mainly because by now 99.9% of everyone is throwing it most of the time 

[Bluebasser86]

11 hours ago, J Francho said:

I think he lost count and exaggerated a few times or more.  Not buying it.  I have no doubt he has caught exponentially more fish than myself.

I fish a lot of the same lakes Ned does, I doubt it's an exaggeration, there's just a TON of tiny fish and every bass counts when you're counting every bass. Many of them have slot limits to allow anglers to keep bass under 12" because they're overpopulated and stunted. A couple of them, it would be an embarrassment to catch under 50 fish on an average day if a skilled fisherman was just after numbers of fish, but there might not be a 2lb fish in the whole mess of them.

 

I've also fished with one of his friends that helped develop the Midwest Finesse once. Never in my life have I been beaten so badly from the back of my boat in numbers of fish. It was easily 10-1, and I wasn't doing badly, it just seemed like he was setting the hook every cast he made. My only saving grace was catching a 5lb smallmouth at the end of the day. That was my introduction to the Ned rig many years ago.