Busy boat versus painting bullseyes on big ones?

[Swamp Girl]

You all know I love a busy boat. I like to lift lots of bass into my little canoe and by playing the odds, I sometimes lift big bass into my boat. @A-Jay, on the other end of the spectrum, targets big bass and does very, very well doing so. So, imagine a spectrum where I'm at one end and Andy's at the other. Are you Ol' Crickier or more A-Jayish? 

 

I'm 1 on the QQ Scale* and Andy's 10. How about you?

 

*Quantity Quality Scale

[DaubsNU1]

Old fishing buddy once asked me:

 

"Would you rather catch 100, one pound bass, or one, ten pound bass?"

 

Most days I'm opting for the "hundred bass day."

 

(not many 10lb LMB's in Nebraska).

[Dwight Hottle]

Quality first quantity second

 

[A-Jay]

Thanks for the kind words @ol'crickety 

But fishing for a big bite doesn't necessarily mean I'm not 'busy'.

Admittedly, it's a different type of busy. 

The hardest part is keeping confidence high and staying focused & ready.

Because when it does happen, there's little room for error.

Preparation in all manner of things is Key.

My 'numbers days' usually happen in the Oct time frame.

Apr/May, and Aug/Sept I'm relegated to hunting mutants.

One or if I'm Lucky, two tanker bites a day. 

Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. 

Fish Hard

A-Jay

 

 

[Functional]

I want one bass to not be skunked, them I'm trying to hunt a new PB. 

If I have someone with me I just try and find any fish to catch. I wont subject them to my self torture.

[Junk Fisherman]

I don't feel I really have the luxury of deciding.  The fishing pressure is so intense in my area that using finesse is necessary to keep me engaged.  If I went out throwing a big swimbait or a 1/2 oz jig targeting big fish, I suspect I'd have a lot of days blanking.  Therefore, I fish my Neds, finesse swimbaits, Nekos, and other subtle presentations.  With that said,  I catch enough big fish, especially smallmouth, that I don't feel I am missing out on big fish by not targeting them.  

[Swamp Girl]

19 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

The hardest part is keeping confidence high and staying focused & ready.

 

Andy, you might remember that I was once a musky angler and your approach to big brown bass reminds me of my musky days. I too sought to be ever ready for that one, rare bite. Every cast, I'd visualize a fish hitting my lure so that I'd be ready when it did and I'd also visualize my reaction, much like athletes visualize their coming performance. 

 

Thanks to all who replied. Once again, I'm out of reactions. I wish there was a black market where I could buy more reactions. 

 

@Dwight Hottle is a 10, for sure, on the QQ Scale. Dwight, has anyone ever called you a 10 before this? 😉

[casts_by_fly]

I'm a solid 5.  if I wanted to just catch numbers, I'd pick up a small plastic and pick apart places where lots of small bass live.  On the days when I haven't had a hit by 10 AM I might go do just that to catch something.  On the flip side, anything under 12" is uninteresting.  I want to catch fish in that 15-20" bracket.  And a lot of them.  I'm not angling for the biggest fish in the lake.  If I catch a single 5lb bass for the day then I've still had a great day, but that wasn't my plan going into it.  I'd much rather catch a dozen 2-3 lb fish.

[Choporoz]

Friday morning I went out for about two hours.  I caught maybe seven or eight, all between one and two and a half pounds.  Friday evening I went out for about two hours and had one bite - over four pounds.  I considered the evening trip to be quite a bit more satisfying. 

[gim]

36 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Andy, you might remember that I was once a musky angler and your approach to big brown bass reminds me of my musky days. I too sought to be ever ready for that one, rare bite. Every cast, I'd visualize a fish hitting my lure so that I'd be ready when it did and I'd also visualize my reaction

 

I was going to chime in how muskie fishing often falls in line with this.

 

Getting blanked is often the norm.  A sighting of a fish or two, even if they don't strike is considered a successful outing.  Its very mentally and physically draining because you can go for hours, days, months, or even years without one.  Hard to stay focused when that starts to happen.  You lose the expectation of catching a fish and just start to cast very robotically.

[Swamp Girl]

Full disclosure: I wanted to be like @A-Jay, @Pat Brown, @Dwight Hottle, @AlabamaSpothunter, and the other BR big bass anglers, but failed. I fished big bass bogs and used big bass lures and probed big bass haunts, as explained by @Glenn and other experts, but largely failed. And I still try to be a 10, from time to time. For example, I'm big bass boggin' tomorrow morning, which means driving down the dirt road in the dark, strapping wheels to my canoe, hauling it over the meadow and through the woods, and launching in the mud, which is how I caught my PB this spring, but it's also how I caught a fourth of the fish I catch when I fish like an Ol' Crick (1!). 

[Pat Brown]

I feel like I'm probably a 10 if I'm being honest.  I pretty much only target bigger fish with how I fish in general and my success rate depends heavily on my level of commitment, preparation and how present and aware I am at the moment of the bite.

 

Some days they bite like they mean it and I get away with being slack but usually if I'm not 100% committed to the cast she bites on I miss my shot for the trip.

 

Not saying I don't catch good numbers sometimes or dinks.  I do.  And I skunk plenty.  But I have plenty of action packed days and big fish biting to keep me plugging away at cracking The Code™

[jbmaine]

Wife and I love being on the water and love catching fish. But if we get skunked, we still have fun. 

 Back in the day, I was a numbers guy, especially in the salt water. Run out to the isles of shoals and catch fish all day, numbering into the hundreds. Same thing in the Piscataqua river. Catch schooly stripers all night. 

 Last twenty years or so it's more just being on the water catching fish as they come.

As far as targeting big fish, we don't per say. Funny thing is, our three biggest LM were caught in places We never would have guessed they were. 

[WRB]

Numbers of big bass.

Tom

[Bankc]

I'd take quantity over quality.  That's just more fun to me.  But either is better than what I have now.  It's been a tough year at my local lakes for some reason.  I almost want to blame myself, but everyone I've talked to at the dock seems to say the same thing. 

 

"Any luck?"
"Nope.  You?"

"Nope.  But nice weather though."

"Yeah! It is!"

[Swamp Girl]

3 minutes ago, WRB said:

Numbers of big bass.

Tom

 

Ha! Well, you have succeeded. 

[Bluebasser86]

Depends on the day. Some days, I'm playing the numbers game with a Ned rig, some days I'm hunting big ones with a 7" glide. 

[Catt]

For me its a moving target!

 

Some days I am a 10, other days not so much!

[Team9nine]

I’ve never met/caught a bass I didn’t like 😉

 

Been the ultimate “numbers” guy for most of my life, but have slightly shifted to a better appreciation for a quality bass bite these days, so I’d say I’m up to a “3” at this point. On the crappie front, I shifted from a “1” to an “8” or a “9” almost overnight last year. If I found a local lake that supported such a shift in bass, I might move higher up the scale.

[Swamp Girl]

3 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

If I found a local lake that supported such a shift in bass, I might move higher up the scale.

 

If you find that lake, please call me.

 

Pretty please.

[bp_fowler]

Where I fish also has a lot to do with it.  There are certain places that I know hold bigger fish.  Most of those places I won’t get numbers unless the all the variables line up perfectly.

 

Lately I’ve been on a big bass kick.  I have upgraded my quality of fish, catching more 2-3 pounders than ever before but the truly large fish continue to elude me.    
 

Some days I just want to catch a bass, any bass.  On those days I’ll go to bodies of water where I know I’m pretty much guaranteed to catch a fish, probably multiple fish but they will all be dinks.

 

So I guess that makes me a 5…maybe a 6?

[Bass Junke]

@ol'crickety I you are a one on the scale then I am not sure if my number can be seen with the human eye.

[Swamp Girl]

5 minutes ago, Bass Junke said:

@ol'crickety I you are a one on the scale then I am not sure if my number can be seen with the human eye.

 

Ha! Being a 1 just means I fish for quantity as opposed to quality. 

[scaleface]

I kind of know the places where bigger fish like to accommodate so I fish those spots and go for bites. 

[softwateronly]

I will certainly leave or not bother with sub 3lb fish if that’s all I’m catching or seeing. My water has enough 17”+ bass that I don’t skunk very often. But mid July to mid September is when I need to improve the most, especially in the daytime. I’m gonna say that makes me a 6.5. 

scott