Busy boat versus painting bullseyes on big ones?

[MIbassyaker]

Somewhere in the middle. I don't really enjoy catching lots of little bass, but I also don't have the patience to commit to trophy-hunting and going potentially days without bites.   I dunno --  5? something like that.

[Bass Junke]

29 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

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

Ya, I get it. My answer remains unchanged. Seriously though, I fish for bass and I mostly catch bass. That is about as focused as I currently am in my quest to be a good bass angler. So I am a 1, I just want to catch bass. 

[Jar11591]

Most of the time I go out with the mindset of “if I fish where I know bass are and I catch enough of them, odds are some of them will be sizable”. There are times though such as very early or late in the season where I will specifically target big bass with the mindset of “gotta be prepared to get skunked”. 

[Team9nine]

1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

 

If you find that lake, please call me.

 

Pretty please.

There are still quite a few of those places out there as you can tell by many of the reports on the site, but none are close to me, and I’ve become much less a fan of long trips as I get older 😉

[Tennessee Boy]

I'm gonna say I'm a 6 or 7.  I typically measure success by my 5 biggest fish.  I got started thinking that way when I fished tournaments in the 90s and just never stopped.  

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

56 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

I’ve become much less a fan of long trips as I get older

 

Me too. I've got a thousands-of-miles road trip starting this Friday and I dread it. I don't want to leave Maine. 

[GaryH]

I’m high on the quality scale but not obsessed with a PB. I’m more in the 5 quality fish and then concentrate on a big one. 

[TnRiver46]

It depends on how hungry I am and what I’ve got in the freezer, who’s coming over for dinner, etc. 

 

if I’m fully stocked, I usually try to catch a single fish so I’m not skunked, then try to catch the biggest one I can. Which around here isn’t really big but still more fun, bigger fish pull harder 

[Susky River Rat]

I can’t comment on this scale. I measure my outings by fun. Figuring out the puzzle is the fun for me. I stopped comparing myself to anyone else when I stopped musky fishing. I stopped beating my head against the wall about fishing and just take it all in. 

[Bankbeater]

If I've been skunked, then I'll go looking for numbers. When I get tired of numbers I will fish for size. 

[Woody B]

First,  Katie, you're a hammer.  You catch amazing numbers of Bass.  I also believe you catch some of the biggest Bass that are in the waters you're fishing.   

 

 

When I started back fishing in Dec 2021 I just wanted to catch Bass.  That still applies, but I'm not happy catching what I call "micro- Bass".   The waters I fish have decent numbers of both Largemouth, and Spotted Bass.   Most days I could catch 10 inch Spots all day long.  (what I'm calling micro Bass).  That's not what I'm looking to do.  Even though it's against conventional thinking I will "leave Bass to find Bass".   

 

I don't know where to rate myself.  I'm not much to brag..........I'll probably get skunked the next 57 times I go fishing for saying this.  I've got a friend who works at a marina on the lake I fish mostly.  He wins a bunch of tournaments on this lake and others.  He also always knows all the results from tournaments.   I consistently match or exceed the biggest Bass of most tournaments.   My biggest so far for 2024 (7.91 pounds) is the biggest Bass he's heard of this year.  I'm not in a contest....I enjoy Bass fishing too much.  I don't keep track of my best five.   

 

When it comes to having fun fishing I'm a 10.  Beyond that it doesn't matter to me.  There's many people who catch more Bass than I do.  There's many people who catch bigger Bass than I do.  There's even a bunch of people who catch more and bigger Bass than I do.   I enjoy seeing pictures and hearing about their catches.   

 

If Pat Brown were to come down to the lake I fish he'd probably catch a 15 pounder.  I'd be celebrating with him.  

 

Added: If Team9nine were to travel up here I doubt he'd catch Pat's 15 pounder.  He's just catch a 14 pounder......and a 6 pound Crappie.  

 

 

[BrianMDTX]

0600-0800: I’m fishing for trophies

 

0800-1000: I’m concentrating on decent-sized bass

 

1000-????: Just bite the bait, ya $@&! bass!

 

Seriously, I don’t have what it takes to dedicate myself to fishing solely for a giant bass.  Nor do I enjoy catching a ton of dinks just for numbers. I’m definitely in the 4-5 range. 

[Bird]

 🎵 Some days are diamonds some days are stone 🎵 -John Denver.

Fun and enjoyable - I'm a 10

Hours on the water - I'm a 10

Giant bass ?

Well my total weight for the day usually exceeds 20 lbs 😀

[crypt]

in the middle.....take them either way........as long as I go......

[Fishing_Rod]

Greetings All,

Interesting question. Fantastic answers provided. I aspire to address both quantity and quality with every adventure. I’m happy just to be “on-line” with any fish that is interested. 

 

This past week has been wonderful pre-retirement training. It was great to be out at the regional waters when it was not a weekend or holiday. As such I believe that contributed to my success with both quantity and quality. In the case of catching there were plenty of mutli-species action the ultra-lite rods were bending and drag was screaming. All good in my book. 

 

Even with all that fun there were several better than typical bass over 17 inches on the UL gear with the 4 pound mono stretched out via some dramatic and energetic fish struggles. Of course there were the obligatory branch, rock, and weed snags to deal with as drama enhancements. 

 

It was interesting to be fishing during non-typical times and conditions for me. I’m happy to say I had all this fun at several urban parks along with my local high desert reservoir. I’ve posted some of the adventures with photos in the Western Bass Fishing section. Please keep in mind the regional context for better than typical sized fish. 

 

Yeah, I’d like to experience quantity and quality catching in other regions too, someday! Be well and Cheers!

[Swamp Girl]

1 hour ago, Bird said:

 🎵 Some days are diamonds some days are stone 🎵 -John Denver.

Fun and enjoyable - I'm a 10

Hours on the water - I'm a 10

Giant bass ?

Well my total weight for the day usually exceeds 20 lbs 😀

 

Whoa! A 20 lb. + average is something to crow about.

 

[Bird]

3 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

Whoa! A 20 lb. + average is something to crow about.

 

Lol, but we're talking about HOURS on the water.

7 hrs = 3lbs per hour 😂

[Smokinal]

I don't get to go very often so when I go, I want to catch fish. So, as you guessed it, I'm a numbers guy. My buddy and I have had 160+ and 190 fish days. Not uncommon for us to boat 60-80 between the two of us in 4-5 hrs and I'm fortunate enough to have many waters that will produce that pretty consistantly.

That said, once in a while I will get the big fish itch, and we have water that supports that too. There's a few spots that the numbers usually aren't there but a 7-9 lber could be on any cast. I go there once a summer. And if a big bite doesn't happen, the next time out I'll go wrek 'em on my numbers lake 😁

 

[Buzzbaiter]

In my limited experience (which is very limited, being that I’m not a big-bass fisherman), I rarely catch quality when looking for quantity. If I want to catch big-ish fish, the baits I throw and the things I look for are different. Big fish generally don’t eat little fish food.

 

For instance, I’ve seen plenty of 2-4lbers cruising the shallows and totally ignore a ned/dropshot/shakeyhead/grub/inline spinner/etc. that had been catching inchers and pounders nicely. The big ones just aren’t interested in the type of small offerings that tend to catch numbers. I know it happens on occasion, but I imaging that I pass over a fair amount of big fish when the small ones are biting my finessy techniques.

[GreenPig]

Two to eight on your scale. Sometimes I'll chase Spots all day with a Micro Ned. Next trip I'll hunt LM with big swimbaits. Sounds like a bad case of multiple personalities, atleast they all bass fish.

[IcatchDinks]

I'm always happy to catch a lot of bass. I'm always looking for a new PB. As long as the bass aren't tiny dinks, I'm happy. So, somewhere near the middle of the QQ scale. 

[Swamp Girl]

@Smokinal: Post some trip reports, please. Represent! 

 

Well, even though I'm often a 1 on the QQ Scale, I'm off to hunt a big one. Fingers crossed! 

[T-Billy]

Always looking for quality, but the baits I throw also catch quantity. I don't mind wading through a bunch of smaller fish in search of a big bite, but they're not what I'm looking for.