Redtail Posted June 13, 2005 Posted June 13, 2005 I wonder what the approximate ratio is of fish caught per cast. (Obvoiusly this would be an average over a long period of time) Do you think it's one fish for every 100 casts, 200 casts? Just curious what you guys think about this. I know some days it feels like I make 500 casts to catch one fish. Quote
Nick_Barr Posted June 13, 2005 Posted June 13, 2005 If i did the math right 3 cast per minute 60 minutes in an hour 8 hours in tourney 5 fish= 1 FISH PER 288 Casts on average Quote
Super User roadwarrior Posted June 13, 2005 Super User Posted June 13, 2005 Nick_Barr, I fish a lot slower than you, probably more like twenty casts per hour, but certainly no more than thirty. I expect 1:10 on my ponds, something less on big water and more like 1:5 on the Tennessee River (although they are not always bass). If you are really 1:288, I think you need to try some different technique or find a new place to fish. Quote
gamblerOH Posted June 13, 2005 Posted June 13, 2005 Nick_Barr, where do you live? Remind me not to fish any of your lakes . You could always sit and let you partner make the first 287 cast then cast yours on the 288, your catch to cast ratio would skyrocket ;D---just a thought Quote
plowertj Posted June 13, 2005 Posted June 13, 2005 i wish i could catch a fish within 10 casts! Quote
Muddpuppy Posted June 13, 2005 Posted June 13, 2005 At 3 cast a min. I'd besprawled out on the deck like winded hound in a short period of time. Crawdads could use my tounge as a diveing board. You need to pair up with my buddy. I started out trying to figure 1 cast a min. at 60% actural fishing time and came out with 36 casts an hour, I think that is still way more than I normally make. 20 sounds pretty close maybe 25. And usually 3-5 fish on fair to good day avg. for a 2.5 to 3 hour trip. My numbers aren't probably as impressive as RW's but I don't try very hard either, some days. Maybe a range of 15 - 20:1 to 36 - 40:1 depending on baits. And probably in the mid range most of the time. My avg. was probably better 20years ago. Quote
Super User 5bass Posted June 13, 2005 Super User Posted June 13, 2005 I would think that on certain waters such as farm ponds with little or no pressure the ratio would be lower.On heavily pressured lakes,the fish see 100X more baits,have more places to roam and hide and the ratio goes way up.It really all depends on what type of lake/pond/river you fish.It's like the Bill Dance effect.He fishes private stocked lakes and ponds all the time.He catches a whole pile of fish. Quote
Crazy_Colaizzi_21 Posted June 13, 2005 Posted June 13, 2005 Gambler that was funny and Nick all i have to say is nice math work bad average I thinck it is more like 1 to 5 on a good day 1 to 20 on a bad Quote
mac7373 Posted June 13, 2005 Posted June 13, 2005 On ponds I could understand having days like 10:1...but you should call the Guinness Records guys if you could go out and consistently every single day do 10:1 and they are legal size keeper bass and not little dinks. Not only that but if on bigger water your ratio only slightly goes down then you should be doin nothing but fishing the BASS and/or FLW tours and making some real money. I have some farm ponds that I can go to any day, anytime and catch bass 1:1 but never catch one over 1/2 pound or so? If you took an honest representation of your fishing "time" and remembered the bad days as well as you remember the good days I think you would be surprised with how much higher your ratio is than 10:1. I have had days and seen pros have days on some of the best lakes in the country where we or I have gone 3-4 trips for 8-10 hours a days and caught one bass a day!!! Ask the guys who make a living as guides on some of these major lakes if they just go out and hammer 'em everyday...nope, they don't. I have been given two free trips to re-book a guide trip before because we have turned up "goose-eggs" on the trip. 288:1 is pretty high though, but is not impossible...like I said earlier, any fisherman who is honest will tell you they have had days worse than that. Using the way it was calculated in the initial post I would say that the average fish caught would not be 5 but rather 8-10 and sometimes allot higher than that and sometimes lower. I would also say that the casting per minute ratio is going to range from 1.5 - 3 and sometimes 4 per minute. Based on 10 fish in a tournament day it looks like this...remember this is averaged over a long period of time and not just the one day or the best days but all of them... 1.5 casts per min. = 72:1 2 casts per min. = 96:1 2.5 casts per min. = 120:1 3 casts per min. = 144:1 Anybody who is boasting anything better than a 50:1 - 80:1 on a daily consistent basis over a long period of time and isn't willing to admit they too have 288:1 days is probably not being altogether honest. If we all started today and went for 5 years and log ever cast of every trip and every BASS caught with a minimum of say 30-50+ trips a year and the tournament guidelines for size limits where applied not counting dinks...I would bet everything I own that nobody on here would average out to higher than a 50:1 ratio, which would come out to a generous 20 or so keeper bass a day everyday...that's even too low a ratio in my opinion. Think about it...when we watch the tournament highlights on ESPN or whatever...we see the anglers make maybe 10 casts that they caught fish on...what about the other 1500 casts we don't see? Based on your numbers 10:1...pro anglers must cull like around 100-150 fish a day because if you have 10:1 everyday than I am sure these pros can do that...right? Wrong!!! If you pay attention you see tournaments where pro anglers outside of the top five don't even limit out (5 fish!!!) everday. Quote
Super User roadwarrior Posted June 13, 2005 Super User Posted June 13, 2005 I'll stick with my numbers: Pond: 1 loop: 5 bass/ 1hr 30 min. 2 minutes per cast (soft plastics) = 45 casts catch ratio 1:9 I often have a better day, I rarely have one worse Tennessee River: Well, I count everything , use live bait and one cast can last 5-10 minutes. Sometimes I'll catch 200 lbs of fish in a day, on a slow day probably 50 lbs. I catch more fish and certainly more pounds on the river than at my ponds. Catch ratio 1:5, I'll stick with that too. White River: This weekend I was fishing for one big fish, which I caught. My partner was more typical, he caught 90+ in two days, many in 4 and 5 fish streaks. Unless you get hung up, one cast usually resulted in a fish. I would guess his ratio was 1:3, but it might have been better! Quote
Muddpuppy Posted June 13, 2005 Posted June 13, 2005 I believe I stated that I figured these off of Fair to Good trips. As far as the figures go they may also be misleading in the fact that I do not always fish constantly through out a day nor do I have to fish under extreame pressure. Sure I get skunked from time to time, and to be honest I meant to put that in. I also said that I couldn't endure 3 casts a minute so I am selective about the casts that I do make. An avg. of one fish an hour out of up to 40 casts or 3-5 fish of any size on a good day on East Texas Lakes isn't boasting. And I did not mean for it to be taken as such. True I did not answer the question as it was put. However I did try to keep the numbers real and explain how I arrived at them, at least to answer an internet question. If you have a problem with them I will be more than happy to deleate my reply. I should have read the post a little closer. Quote
mac7373 Posted June 13, 2005 Posted June 13, 2005 roadwarrior You need to take that show on the road then. Why are you wasting your time here on this board when you could obviously be out there totally dominating the pro anglers of the world who evidentially don't know how to fish...they should all be able to muster a catch ratio like that. What was that that Jack Nicholson said in the movie "As Good as it Gets"...something to the effect of..."go sell crazy someplace else, we're all full here." I am not knocking you as a fisherman or anybody else here for that matter, but I have spent way too much time on the water fishing...at least 130+ days a year for the last 15-20 years and not in my backyard or in my private pond either- to know that a catch ratio like yours over that period of time is not possible. The numbers you are using are skewed to favor you...if you went out and fished unfamiliar waters, artificial bait, only largemouth and smallmouth counted and had a size restriction like 12"-15" for 150 days out of a year...not just the good weather days either but all days pre determined just like a tournament your numbers would fall apart in a hurry...its that simple. Now if we want to pick and choose the location, and bait and time of year and...etc then I have a 1:1 ratio, but I don't think that's what the original question was either. Granted, I have gone away from the original question as well, but not to favor me but rather to make it more equal and less biased as a whole. Quote
mac7373 Posted June 13, 2005 Posted June 13, 2005 MuddPuppy- I don't know if you thought I directed my comments to you but I didn't. I had only read as far down as Roadwarriors and I was so blown away by his claims that I didn't read any further before I posted. All of what I said was more or less directed to RW. I agree with you now that I read your comments. You have the most feasible argument here I think. I think your numbers are closer to the real deal. No explanation necessary as far as I am concerned. Later Quote
Wabassin Posted June 14, 2005 Posted June 14, 2005 Three cast a minute would be impossible for me..When im power fishing a jig the average that the jig is in the water is 8 to 10 seconds as I hop it 2 or 3 times and make another pitch. My fish per cast ratio is probably something like 50:1 big fish (keeper in a tournament) and probably 20:1 for dinks. Most the time less than that. Quote
mac7373 Posted June 14, 2005 Posted June 14, 2005 Just for the heck of it here are some results from tournaments in that area plus various other areas. Pay special attention to the total number of anglers and limits caught. **BASSMASTER SERIES MISSISSIPPI 2: PICKWICK LAKE Tournament Winner: LEON TIDWELL Winning Weight: 19 lbs 8 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 03/06/2005 End Date: 03/06/2005 Number Of Anglers: 84 Fish Caught: 171 Total Weight: 429 lbs 6 ozs Bass Limit: 5 Limits Caught: 13 **BASSMASTER SERIES NORTH ALABAMA: LAKE WHEELER Tournament Winner: JACK RAGSDALE Winning Weight: 6 lbs 5 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 04/24/2005 End Date: 04/24/2005 Number Of Anglers: 104 Fish Caught: 216 Total Weight: 353 lbs 12 ozs Bass Limit: 3 Limits Caught: 53 **BASSMASTER SERIES SOUTH ALABAMA 2: LAKE EUFALA Tournament Winner: BILL CHAMPION Winning Weight: 7 lbs 6 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 03/06/2005 End Date: 03/06/2005 Number Of Anglers: 132 Fish Caught: 106 Total Weight: 256 lbs 3 ozs Bass Limit: 3 Limits Caught: 11 **BASSMASTER SERIES MISSOURI 1: GRAND LAKE OKLA. Tournament Winner: GLEN YOUNG Winning Weight: 13 lbs 5 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 03/13/2005 End Date: 03/13/2005 Number Of Anglers: 128 Fish Caught: 127 Total Weight: 330 lbs 13 ozs Bass Limit: 5 Limits Caught: 2 **BASSMASTER SERIES TENNESSEE/KENTUCKY: PERCY PRIEST LAKE Tournament Winner: BILL EATHERLY Winning Weight: 12 lbs 0 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 03/13/2005 End Date: 03/13/2005 Number Of Anglers: 63 Fish Caught: 43 Total Weight: 114 lbs 8 ozs Bass Limit: 5 Limits Caught: 0 **BASSMASTER SERIES NORTH ALABAMA: GUNTERSVILLE LAKE Tournament Winner: DOUGLAS TRUE Winning Weight: 22 lbs 11 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 03/13/2005 End Date: 03/13/2005 Number Of Anglers: 143 Fish Caught: 178 Total Weight: 675 lbs 7 ozs Bass Limit: 5 Limits Caught: 5 **BASSMASTER SERIES TEXAS: SAM RAYBURN Tournament Winner: LEONARD PRICE Winning Weight: 20 lbs 8 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 04/10/2005 End Date: 04/10/2005 Number Of Anglers: 163 Fish Caught: 526 Total Weight: 1,280 lbs 15 ozs Bass Limit: 5 Limits Caught: 61 **BASSMASTER SERIES TEXAS: TOLEDO BEND RESERVOIR Tournament Winner: PHIL HENNIGAN Winning Weight: 17 lbs 8 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 05/08/2005 End Date: 05/08/2005 Number Of Anglers: 137 Fish Caught: 292 Total Weight: 656 lbs 13 ozs Bass Limit: 5 Limits Caught: 16 **BASSMASTER SERIES OKLAHOMA/ARKANSAS: LAKE DEGRAY Tournament Winner: NATHAN STRATTON Winning Weight: 15 lbs 9 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 03/20/2005 End Date: 03/20/2005 Number Of Anglers: 83 Fish Caught: 184 Total Weight: 349 lbs 14 ozs Bass Limit: 5 Limits Caught: 11 These are all 1-day results from various lakes with various levels of pro anglers. They were picked at random concentrating on southern lakes and rivers. If you put together all the numbers... Total Anglers: 1,037 Total Fish: 1,843 Total Limits: 172 out of a possible 1,037 = 16.5% Total Casts: 1,244,400 (based on a avg. of 2.5 per min.) Fish to Angler Ratio: 1.78 to 1 Catch to Cast Ratio for ALL Anglers combined: 1 fish to every 675 casts or as we wrote it in previous posts 675:1. Even if you slow it way down and say 1 cast per minute... 497,760 casts total = 270:1. Hmmmm? I am telling you...some of you guys are in the wrong line of work. Quote
mac7373 Posted June 14, 2005 Posted June 14, 2005 Wabassin Your info much like Mudd's sounds a heck of allot more realistic to me. Quote
FL_fisher Posted June 14, 2005 Posted June 14, 2005 mac is right if you can catch fish at a ratio better than 1:50 then you need to think about going pro even 1:50 is very good .no ponds included. just think if you fish for 8 hours and catch bass at a 1:50 ratio at 2 cast a min you will catch 91/2 bass keeper bass. if you fit this then stop what you are doing and go pro. Quote
Super User Gatorbassman Posted June 14, 2005 Super User Posted June 14, 2005 Now that number sounds more like it. I have been working on increasing my casts per minute this year only when conditions warrent it. I have found that the most important thing isn't how fast I get the bait back in the water but how accurate that cast is. I have been pitching and flipping alot more and I can now hit a coffie cup a 30 ft one out of five times. Just like everything else. The more you practice the better you become. I still have trouble skipping though, but that's next. Quote
Wabassin Posted June 14, 2005 Posted June 14, 2005 Learn to skip with casting tackle, spinning is easy but so is casting once you get it down. You wont lose as many fish with it due to bad cover. Quote
Super User 5bass Posted June 14, 2005 Super User Posted June 14, 2005 Looks like mac has been doing his homework.....I agree with all that he has said.His numbers are more realistic. Quote
D.Taylor Posted June 14, 2005 Posted June 14, 2005 Good work mac We spent a total 4.5 hrs on the water and caught over 45 bass. Most were caught on senkos and tubes heres the trick we had maybe 5 over 14 inches the biggest was 16 the lake limit was 18 inches. If you have a 75 to 1 ratio of keepers over a 8 hr day you are having a great day. I know you can find that one spot and catch them on every cast till they quit biting but the rest of your day you can chase your tail and not get bit. Quote
Super User KU_Bassmaster. Posted June 14, 2005 Super User Posted June 14, 2005 Do those number's include short fish though. I don't think they do?? The total number of fish caught should go way up, and also if you read RW post he is not just talking about bass. I think when he says "200 lbs." I think he is talking about stripers. I have been pitching docks the last week and on average I would catch 3 fish an hour and about 1 of every 5 of those would reach the limit (15 inches). 2.5 cast per minute = 150 cast every hour 50:1 for all Bass 250:1 for "keeper" Bass I think these numbers also reflect what type of bait you are using. My numbers reflect using a YUM Beaver tail and jig-n-pigs. If I was to throw a 4 inch plastic worm I think I could have caught a whole lot more, but MAYBE 1 out of 15 would be of legal length. Quote
mac7373 Posted June 14, 2005 Posted June 14, 2005 KU_Bass... No those numbers do not count "short fish" for they do not fall into the "keeper" criteria set forth by most tournaments. The average slot that I have seen is normally 12" but I have seen in other states were it can fluctuate from 12"- 16". Regardless of what RW said, I specifically stated that it only included smallmouth and largemouth and that the limits as in a bass tournament should be the criteria applied. (makes sense seeing as this is a bass fishing thread) This ratio is not about stripers or hybrids or trout or catfish or perch or little dink bass from an overstocked pond or anything else other than bass of the smallmouth and largemouth variety. Like I said before...if it were just anything and any fish I could skew my own numbers to 1:1 ratio, but what's the point of that? It proves nothing and lends nothing to the debate/discussion. Quote
Redtail Posted June 14, 2005 Author Posted June 14, 2005 Wow-I just realized how bad I am at fishing! Let's say you fished an 8 hr day (50 casts an hour, 400 for the day) and got no fish, which I've done. If in the next 5 times I went (same senario 400 casts a day over 8 hours) but caught one fish every hour on all 5 trips, that would be 40 fish in 2,000 casts for a grand total over 6 days of 2400 casts for 40 fish or 1 fish every 60 casts. To me that would be great fishing and I've never done that either. I'm afraid my ratio is well over 100 to 1. I think I better go back to golf! Quote
Super User roadwarrior Posted June 14, 2005 Super User Posted June 14, 2005 Whoa! mac7373, I'm not a tournament fisherman. I don't just "go fishing", I go CATCHING. My ratios are based on counting everything. First of all, I fish for big fish on water that holds lots of them. I fish the same water most of the time. I NEVER search for fish. If I'm on new water or big water, I hire the best guide on the lake. Second, I generally fish live bait on the Tennessee River. I feed them exactly what they like to eat. I catch multispecies, and I count them all. Yep, that's right: skipjack, drum, gar, buffalo, bream, crappie, catfish, sauger, white bass, Kentucky, largemouth, smallmouth and stripers. I'm not a tournament fisherman, I don't get jazzed about catching 15-20 lbs of fish over a two day event or fishing for twelve inch "keepers". I do much better than that fishing artificials on my ponds. Maybe you should come on down to the river and discover what catching is all about. Sure, we'll target smallmouth and you might catch a monster, but along the way you'll catch a lot of other fish, too. If you like catfish, you can keep them all and take a hundred pounds home with you. p.s. My comments on this thread were directed to Redtail's post, not "YOUR CRITERIA". Again, I'll stick with my ratios for my fishing. Quote
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