The Five Percent Or The Other Ninety-Five Percent

[RLinc07]

5% here for largemouth. Last summer I caught a 5+ and another right around 6 - both public water too!

[gobig]

I would have to say this is a regional thing and even varies lake to lake. This weekend I am fishing a pro-am at Oroville where 10-12lbs a day will most likely take the tournament. Then there is Clearlake, which is just a few hours away. I know in the last three Anglers Choice team events up there 25lbs (for one day) does not even cut a check and half the field weighed a big fish over 5. Right now its taking a 30lb sack to cut a check up there. Not to mention if you went up there and fished shiners this time of year your almost guaranteed a 5 or better.

[Hooligan]

<-------------Yea, Yea, Yea...... Just read what it says above my avatar.

I've said it for years, too. Can't remember where I heard that line first, but I've loved it ever since.

Definitely a 5% guy, likely higher. I wonder what the total percentage of anglers catching fish over 10, 12, and 14 pounds is. It would be neat to see that breakdown, really. Multiples of those big fish, too, would be interesting...

I caught seventeen fish over 5 last year, certified weights only, not counting those fish that I've caught and weighed fun-fishing. I know this because I just looked at my little book of tournament stats that I keep. I caught well over 2000 fish last year in tournaments, again in the black book. Considering the small number of fish over five that I caugh in comparison to total number, that 5% mark may be quite generous.

[retiredbosn]

Definitely in the 5%, and I will attest that using this forum helped me break into that club. Up until I started using this forum my largest LM was 2 1/2 pounder, and about 3 on the smallies. Within a year I broke the 5lb mark and within two I broke the 4lb mark on smallmouth and had caught my current personal best 8lb 14 ounces which is good for the area I was in. Now that I've moved to SC I hope to break the double digit boundary on LM this year. Once you figure out what you are doing wrong, get the right equipment catching LM in the 4-5 pound mark isn't difficult. I can't wait until I can catch multiple double digit bass every year. I credit this site for the plethera of knowlege I have assimilated, and my retirement to having the time to practice and fish. It's really a numbers game, spend the time on the water and your odds go up. BTW I lived in WV where the state record LM is a 12lber, anything over 8lbs and you could literally make the newspaper. After using the info here and being able to fish more I caught several fish over 6 lbs every year and a few over 8. Not bragging just saying the info to help all of us break into the 5% club is here on this site. Thanks BTW I own and use a scale

[Nitrofreak]

I do like RW&#39;s original post. It sums up his attitude very well. I&#39;ve fished with him several times. and can tell you he is a great guy to share a boat with. He truly wants to help others advance their knowledge of this game. My post about stats came off a bit snotty. Some of my posts just seem to do that. I&#39;m not really a snotty bastage, but I will admit to being a wise-*** from time to time.

My approach to statistics varies from a healthy skepticism down to outright disdain. That was what my first post in this thread was intended to convey. Then I got into wise-*** mode and made the 97% statement. A little BS with a large grain of truth in it.

I&#39;ve caught about two bass a little over 8, three 7 pounders, six 6 pounders and maybe ten 5 pounders. Those are fish that made it onto a scale, not eyeballed. About twenty trophy sized fish for the areas I frequent. And that&#39;s over a thirty+ year period. Way less than one trophy per year. I couldn&#39;t tell you how many days fishing that is, much less how many hours.

So, put me in the 5% group through sheer perseverance.

Thanx for the post, I consider myself to be very lucky to have found this site and to have made a couple of new friends from here along the way.

I wish I had the time and money to go on one of the roadtrips and catch up with a few of you guys.

RW has tought me a lot, as well as others have on here, as far as the 5% is concerned, I live close to a lake here in Va. that does produce a fair amount of fish 5 lbs and up, it has a record fish of 13.0 lbs, this past summer there was one caught 12.9 lbs, the reason I put myself in that 5% is due to the fact that when I fish this lake and "target" big fish only, I most always come home empty handed, BUT when I find the schools of larger bass I am successful with pulling in a large 4, 5, 6, lb bass or two, granted it is not one right after another as we all know how it truly works, but I feel successful in going after a specific goal and making it happen, not while I am just fishing in general and lucking into a big one, with that I would have to consider myself to be in the other 95%.

There is NO WAY IN HELL I would have been able to do such a thing as this if it were not for having EXPERTS like RW and many others in this forum, I am going home empty handed less and less when I go there to specifically target big bass, the largest so far when I have done that is 6.9 lbs and the most that I have caught in one outing over 5lbs is two, all were weighed at the launch with tournament scales.

My PB so far is an 8 lb bass that was caught while fishing with my youngest daughter that came from sheer blind luck, not while I targeted large fish...but you know I wanna take credit for it anyway...lol.

Snotty, wisea**, or whatever mood you are in on a given day I always enjoy your posts!!!

[Raul]

Catching big fish can be divided into two separate groups:

1.- The lucky ones: yeah ya´ll know the kind, most probably belong to this group, you go and have never caught anything over pan sized fish and one day you luck out and catch something really interesting just to spend the rest of your life waiting to luck out again.

2.- The perseverant ones: let´s call them the obsessed ones, less belong to this group, why ?, because in order to catch big fish consistently first of all you have to get rid of the mentality of the weekend warroir where anything you catch is fine and take into consideration that you are not after whatever is willing to take your offerings, you are after 1 fish worth all the time you have to spend in the water in order to get that one bite ........... and after hours maybe you didn´t get that bite.

Location is important, but location where or what location is the right one ? the first location you have to be in is not a drop off or a flat, or a weedbed, the first location you have to pay attention to in search for the big ones is the body of water you are going to fish, there´s no point in me going let´s say going to La Laborcita ( a small lake near my hometown ) is search for a bigun cuz there ain´t no biguns at La Laborcita simply because the place doesn´t have the forage base to produce big fish, the "biguns" of La Laborcita aren´t THAT big ( 4-5 lbs ) and they don´t appear that often, I´ve fish that lake for more than two and a half decades and the biggest one I´ve caught there is 4 and a half pounds.

With what ? simplicity, it takes a single, well selected bait fished to perfection to catch big fish, the jig & trailer has caught me more double digit fish than all my other baits put together ( even though my first 10 pounder and my PB were caught with ajerkbait and a crank respectively I don´t use them to hunt for big fish ).

When ? there are few windows of time during the year when big fish are more vulnerable, down here we practically don´t have that second window so I focus on the one I´ve got and that´s the pre and actual spawn, the fish are going to be there because mother nature demands them to be there, they just have to spawn and because they have to be in particular places that fill the requirements of the spawn you have to know them in order to be there. I mentioned that there´s another window, well, that window is during the fall, I can´t comment on that, I´m unfamiliar with it because as I said, down here we don´t have "fall", the the water doesn´t get THAT cold.

So, you might think, "well I choose location, the right bait and the right moment I should catch big fish", pal, it don´t work thata way, you might have the right bait, the right location, the right moment but ...... YOU HAVE TO BE THERE. So one of the most important things is being there. Instead of being here reading what we have to say .............why ain´t you there ? grab your stuff cuz big momma is there waiting for ya.

[tstone]

Catching a good number of 5+ lb fish is not uncommon in Florida, especially during this time of year. If the stats really are acurate, I must be doing pretty good.

[Dwight Hottle]

Catching big fish can be divided into two separate groups:

1.- The lucky ones: yeah ya´ll know the kind, most probably belong to this group, you go and have never caught anything over pan sized fish and one day you luck out and catch something really interesting just to spend the rest of your life waiting to luck out again.

2.- The perseverant ones: let´s call them the obsessed ones, less belong to this group, why ?, because in order to catch big fish consistently first of all you have to get rid of the mentality of the weekend warroir where anything you catch is fine and take into consideration that you are not after whatever is willing to take your offerings, you are after 1 fish worth all the time you have to spend in the water in order to get that one bite ........... and after hours maybe you didn´t get that bite.

Location is important, but location where or what location is the right one ? the first location you have to be in is not a drop off or a flat, or a weedbed, the first location you have to pay attention to in search for the big ones is the body of water you are going to fish, there´s no point in me going let´s say going to La Laborcita ( a small lake near my hometown ) is search for a bigun cuz there ain´t no biguns at La Laborcita simply because the place doesn´t have the forage base to produce big fish, the "biguns" of La Laborcita aren´t THAT big ( 4-5 lbs ) and they don´t appear that often, I´ve fish that lake for more than two and a half decades and the biggest one I´ve caught there is 4 and a half pounds.

With what ? simplicity, it takes a single, well selected bait fished to perfection to catch big fish, the jig & trailer has caught me more double digit fish than all my other baits put together ( even though my first 10 pounder and my PB were caught with ajerkbait and a crank respectively I don´t use them to hunt for big fish ).

When ? there are few windows of time during the year when big fish are more vulnerable, down here we practically don´t have that second window so I focus on the one I´ve got and that´s the pre and actual spawn, the fish are going to be there because mother nature demands them to be there, they just have to spawn and because they have to be in particular places that fill the requirements of the spawn you have to know them in order to be there. I mentioned that there´s another window, well, that window is during the fall, I can´t comment on that, I´m unfamiliar with it because as I said, down here we don´t have "fall", the the water doesn´t get THAT cold.

So, you might think, "well I choose location, the right bait and the right moment I should catch big fish", pal, it don´t work thata way, you might have the right bait, the right location, the right moment but ...... YOU HAVE TO BE THERE. So one of the most important things is being there. Instead of being here reading what we have to say .............why ain´t you there ? grab your stuff cuz big momma is there waiting for ya.

Thanks for the words of wisdom, Raul.

[urp]

I've been fishing for bass since the '60s. Not bad for a NW boy who never heard of a bass 'til he went in the service. If it's not a salmonoid in the NW it's a junk fish. I've caught a ton of big bass but a 5lb SM is my white whale. Best I've managed to do is 4 1/2.

[Hooligan]

I've been fishing for bass since the '60s. Not bad for a NW boy who never heard of a bass 'til he went in the service. If it's not a salmonoid in the NW it's a junk fish. I've caught a ton of big bass but a 5lb SM is my white whale. Best I've managed to do is 4 1/2.

There's this place in CA, just a little south of Medford called Shasta. There's some pig smallies in there.

Great topic on the whole.

[Diggy]

I made it last year into the 5%

[J Francho]

The 5% nation of Casiotone.

[Nitrofreak]

The 5% nation of Casiotone.

J, I am just a good ol boy who lives in the sticks and loves country and southern rock, so please look over my redneck ways.

If you don't mind me asking... what in the world was that? LOL !! nice beat but I just couldn't connect.

I know you play the drums is that your group?

[J Francho]

No, that's a slacker jazz beat band from the 90s, LOL. You might know the song "Circles." That had popular radio play.