Trophy Hunter Vs Big Numbers Of Fish

[Gavin]

Just depends on the company and what the river hands you Mitch..The people involved drive the trip. They pick the places and what you have to do to get it done..The darn fish, do what they want...I'd call a 20 smallmouth day about average....less poor, more good...I'd take big fish over dinks anytime.

[Sharps4590]

I would prefer to catch more, quicker but who would turn up their nose at a 20 incher?

Short floats when I float anymore. Much prefer wade fishing. 6 hours is a long fishing day for me and most are 4 hours.

[duckydoty]

If im just chasing trout in Missouri, I have found I catch more "trophy fish" if I target the bigger fish. When I'm targeting bigger fish, I tend to cover more water looking for that one fish I want. My success rate on the trophy fish has greatly increase since adapting this approach. I do enjoy the numbers game but rarely do I catch a trophy fish when I'm just looking for numbers. My gear and equipement do not change, just my style of fishing.

While in Alaska, and running the rivers in jet boats, I prefer to have as much of the river to cover as possable. If I get in a spot that is producing well, I will stay there for quite a while and then blow through the rest of the river at the end of the day.

[FishinCricket]

At my age, I just like to feel my rod throb.

Hey, this is a family forum, old timer!!

(But they do have a pill now, ya know...)

[MOPanfisher]

I'll take the 20 smaller fish also, plust the shorter float. I like to beach a canoe or boat and really work the better holes, sometimes you can pick up that 20" fish by doing that.

[Justin Spencer]

Next time I go out give me 1 - 20" fish since I've never caught one that big in a stream (I'll make it a very short float)

After that give me the numbers.

With trout anymore I will usually take less numbers and pursue bigger fish by throwinig big streamers, but then they stock browns and my big streamers need to get bigger to discourage those aggressive little runts.

[laker67]

Never cared much for numbers.

[eric1978]

...I like short floats and although we'll do some casting from the boat, hitting the same worn water as everyone else, I use the canoe mostly as transportation from one good wading spot to another. I'm convinced one always catches more fish with the low-profile approach of wading than higher up in a canoe...

Odd, I feel exactly the opposite. I think the spots that you can only hit while in a canoe are far less likely to be pressured than the spots you can wade and fish...which everyone does. Those riffles that go around a bend and drop off into the quintessential bouldery pool with the classic outside bend bluff and the perfect inside bend gravel bar...they look good to everybody, and they get beat to death. You'll catch fish there, but I tend to catch most of my better fish in far more unsuspecting places, some you wouldn't even think a fish would be.

And approaching a good spot in a canoe, if approached correctly, is much stealthier than wading up to a hole, water sloshing and gravel crunching underfoot. And it requires far less effort.

[Al Agnew]

I think Eric and Ron are both right. In waters that are heavily floated or heavily fished with jetboats, all the places that can be fished easily from a boat or canoe get pounded to death, and you EITHER have to be very good at fishing out of a canoe and look for the spots that the average boat or canoe angler skips because they are too fast, too brushy, etc., or you have to get out and wade where you can to fish a lot of the same spots, those that are just so very difficult to fish effectively from the canoe. Both ways work, depending upon the type of water you're fishing. Personally, I'm on Eric's side in that I suspect that the biggest fish might be spooked by wading anglers. You can wade stealthily, but on Ozark rivers you'll almost always be crunching gravel as you wade, and having spent time snorkeling, I know that crunching gravel is NOISY. Doesn't seem to bother most fish, but the really big ones perhaps are more skittish about noises like that. So I'll stay in the canoe whenever I can. I'll look for little eddies to get into, I'll hook a leg over a log or rock, I'll slide the canoe up onto a weedbed, or I'll work hard to get the canoe slowed or stopped temporarily so that I can make one quality cast at a good but difficult spot. I'm sure I miss some big fish by not getting out and wading more, but I think I may also catch some big fish that would have been put down by crunching gravel.

[Al Agnew]

It also strikes me that a lot depends upon time of year. I'm perfectly willing to slow down and pound a pool in the colder weather months, because I know that's the only way I'll be catching fish. But once the water temps get up there around that 60 degree mark, I'm going to be covering lots of water and looking for active fish on the rivers I usually fish in the summer. I believe that there isn't a right way and wrong way to go about it, because I know lots of guys who catch just as many fish and just as many big ones as I do by fishing slow and really concentrating on good spots. But they probably don't catch MORE fish than I do. It all depends upon what you like to do, how you like to fish. I've always been partial to fishing fast. I've always wanted to give every fish in the river one chance at my lure, which means making a lot of casts and really combing the water while keeping moving. I've caught a LOT of big fish from spots that most anglers wouldn't even glance at, and especially wouldn't take the time to spend five minutes fishing them with something slow. But I make one cast with a crankbait or spinnerbait or topwater lure to that spot, doesn't cost anything more than 15 seconds. Somebody fishing behind me would probably be frustrated that I didn't leave them any "virgin" water to fish, but on the other hand, they would probably catch fish that I missed by slowing down and fishing the good spots thoroughly, because the way I fish, even the best spots only get one quality cast.

And that, I think, is more than anything else what separates the real "trophy" fishermen from the average Joe. Efficiency. The ability to make quality casts most of the time. The ability to wade carefully and quietly or to handle a boat or canoe precisely, to get yourself into position to make the best cast that a particular piece of cover or a particular spot in the current calls for. With accuracy. Without backlashes or loose line. With your body in position to fish that cast well and be able to set the hook when the fish takes. And it only comes with experience and practice.