Trophy Hunter Vs Big Numbers Of Fish

[ness]

You guys are over-thinking this.

[ness]

Make that, SOME of you guys.

[eric1978]

Eric is exactly right. What was I thinking? Old age must be catching up with me. All of the fish in a river are in the slow, deep pools where you can handle a canoe better and run the trolling motor on jet boats, without ever getting your feet wet, and hardly anyone fishes there, while every riffle and run on a floatable stretch between accesses is waded all the time. The bigger the bait the better, too. If smallmouth like little crayfish and small baitfish, they should really love lobsters and herring-sized crankbaits.

No need to get sarcastic. I'd say it depends on the river. On the bigger rivers that see jetboat traffic, you may be right that getting out and fishing one spot slowly with finesse baits may be a better bet. But I don't fish the bigger, jetboatable water all that often. On skinny streams, there's only so much potential in one pool, and after five minutes of working it over, you've either caught the biggest fish in there, or you're probably not gonna catch them. Time to move on.

[Al Agnew]

Eric is exactly right. What was I thinking? Old age must be catching up with me. All of the fish in a river are in the slow, deep pools where you can handle a canoe better and run the trolling motor on jet boats, without ever getting your feet wet, and hardly anyone fishes there, while every riffle and run on a floatable stretch between accesses is waded all the time. The bigger the bait the better, too. If smallmouth like little crayfish and small baitfish, they should really love lobsters and herring-sized crankbaits.

Ah, irony!

As to size of lures, I've fished rivers like the New in Virginia that have musky populations, and the guides always tell me that they catch a lot of big smallmouth on musky size baits while fishing for the toothy critters. Big ones WILL eat big baits. It's just that they'll also eat smaller baits just as well or better. What I believe, after all the years I've fished for them including a number of years fishing with live bait, is that they don't much like really big crayfish, but they do like big minnows. Back when I fished with crayfish and minnows, I seldom caught a decent fish on a crayfish of less than two inches in length, and I never caught a big one on a crayfish of more than three inches in length unless it was a softshell, one that had recently molted. But I caught some big ones on five and six inch minnows.

[gotmuddy]

I am pretty methodical I guess, I like to pick apart every nook and cranny of a 5 mile float. I am torn on the first question though. Generally I catch 20+ fish on a good day with a 18" fish in the mix.

[Mitch f]

Thanks for the good discussion guys!

I am on the 1- 20" fish side, but will travel very far to find the best holes. With a river like the Meramec in the winter, most of the big fish will only be in a couple of spots. It sometimes takes an adjustment for me to break out of the winter fishing mode though. One of my biggest enjoyments is taking someone out in my boat and having them catch a big fish. Makes me just as happy as if I caught it myself!

[Chief Grey Bear]

I just like catching fish. High numbers is fine as is a large fish. I target neither.

[ColdWaterFshr]

I target a good time and just being out. Seeing a buddy pull in a big one is almost as enjoyable as myself doing it. And lot of fish is always nice, but not important. Just wish I was out on a creek somewhere today instead of staring into this dull ole computer screen.

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

That is a difficult question to answer. I believe I would rather catch many vs 1. But, put me in a situation where all I am catching are small fryes, then I will probably say, I would trade them all just for 1 large fish.

Short or long, that depends on too many factors, generally I will go for short. I can extend it if I am having a good time.

[mic]

Numbers.