Size vs Numbers

[Amarok]

Watching a video this morning and the guy was talking about his previous day's catch. He was targeting the biggest walleye and only wanted big ones, so he was tailoring his technique to that effect.
He ended up catching a bunch pushing 30 inches, but only caught 12 or 13 fish for the entire day, on a very productive, lightly pressured northern lake.

My question to you is, would you rather go for size or numbers?

Personally, on a day-to-day basis, I'm happy to catch a bunch of smaller ones with the chance of the odd hawg, rather than waiting all day for a few chances at a trophy. I'll donate a day to that once in a while, but it isn't as much fun as having a wrinkly-wet hand from constantly releasing 'normal' sized fish.

----------

One thing this section keeps reminding me is that what I do isn't fishing, it's only a small part of fishing. It's so easy to think that what I do and what I see is the 'normal' or 'right' way, but it's just a tiny part of the game. I'll see a technique or piece of gear and think "oh that's no good", as opposed to 'oh right, they are in different water bodies, with different environments, seeking different species. of course they do things differently". I'm slowly learning though. 👊

 

[Hugh Jass]

That's an interesting question, and I think my answer changes with my location.
When I go (went?) to Florida or a new or different body of water, then I'm super
content to just hook up and take what comes my way. I think it's because I have
no real expectations. But when I'm on my home stretch of river, then I do hone in
more on the larger shoalies. Even that's come over a long time, though. When
I first started fishing my home stretch, I was happy to get a bluegill. Now, though,
I'm not content to fish the riffles for the little 'uns, whereas somewhere else like a
trout stream, that'd be a lot of fun.

 

[Psychobilly]

It's a Variable:

Here, I don't care normally, though I do place out more than one thing, to see what is going to hit what, and get an idea of what's swimming around near by. I'll put smaller offerings on one setup, and larger on another, and see what happens. I mean I'd be lying if I said I didn't want a 200 pound Sturgeon to nail my bait one day. But I'm also not going to eat that.... In fact, for stuff I plan on eating, there's a lot of stuff in that too, because smaller Catfish are too cute to kill unless we're starving. On the other hand, I don't want to eat a 10 pound fish either, unless we're starving, because those genetics are what I want breeding here.

Now, if I was in Texas, at the Trinity River.... I'd be gearing up HEAVY and using bait design for a Monster Alligator Gar, because that is what I'd want to see there.

In Florida, I'd be going for a pretty big Tarpon, so I could see what that is really like.

In Louisiana I'd be doing the same thing; I want a 80+ pound Flathead to take my bait, or, a 100+ pound Blue Cat in South Carolina's Santee Cooper Reservoir. Virginia would be the same; Buggs Island or whatever it's called... I want a crack at that river too, but I'm not going to toss out small baits there, because I know what might be swimming around.

The idea for me, would be to chum the shit out of the area I'm going for, and then show up with GOOD live bait. I'm not going to use a Perch as Live Bait there... I'm going to use a nice sized Walleye on a Stinger Rig, because I know deep down, that if it's not the Middle of Winter, a 100 pound or more Catfish isn't likely to waste the calories going after something small. The 123 Pound Flathead (The Tackle World Record, though not the actual heaviest ever caught) had like a 20 pound Buffalo in it's stomach. My go to scenario to up my chances, would be to use a decent sized Walleye or Carp, alive, and send that out. I'd use my Lever Drag Reels to ensure that the fish I'm using for bait couldn't pull drag, but anything taking a crack at it would be able to. With a Lever Drag Reel, that isn't hard to do, and ups my chances.

I'd use either a Circle Hook on the mouth, Octopus Hook in the Tail set up, or I'd use straight Octopus Hooks. They're good for reeling down being enough to set the hook, but I can still "set the hook" with them. I also have large ones that can actually handle the incredible strength of a giant.

If I got to go to Europe, and fish the Rio Ebro in Spain, or one of the water in France that Wels have been stocked in.... I'm going VERY heavy. I'm not going all that way to catch a baby 25 pounder, I want 200+ pounds, and both those rivers are likely to produce that exact size.

In Thailand or India, again, I'm going with HUGE gear. I want a Goonch, and a Wallago, and those both are likely to take different sizes of bait.

In the Amazon..... LOL shit I'd need new line before that.... People who catch Piraiba Catfish there use 400 pound Mono..... That's what I'd want too. Piraiba are apparently one of the hardest to land, because people go there thinking "Well this is 200 pound line, it should work!" and it doesn't. Piraiba have flipped Canoes on their runs, and even partially dislocated shoulders when they try to land them. I'm not exactly going to spend all that time in THAT amount of heat, trying to hunt an Elephant with a .22... I'm going super large gear, and hoping I don't try to pet a Leopard or a Jaguar depending on continent LOL

But yeah there's some places, where I'm not going there to catch fish to eat or keep, I'm going to see if I can view a fish I dream about. So for those exact conditions, I'm using huge live bait, and tying rope around my waist so I don't get yanked in.

So, as I said, it depends honestly. I mean it's not like I'm "trophy hunting" because there's no way I'd kill a Catfish for a wall mount. I just want to see it, pet it, play with his barbles, and send him back into the River. I don't want him to die because I landed him, I want to stare at him and let him go. If I hooked into a Red Tail, and it didn't live because I landed it.... Honestly, I'd be not OK mentally / Emotionally for a while.

 

[Frimpong]

I don't usually eat what I catch so I'm going for size and throwing big bait whenever I can.

 

[Amarok]

Only once did I really put a lot of time in chasing something specific/big, when I went after my first sturgeon. I put in a lot of long days over the course of many months before finally getting one(in downtown Edmonton, no less).
I was so sick of the process it was a few years before I went dino hunting again. The fun to tedium ratio was too out of wack.

Now I've learned better times and places for the dinos, so I chase them during peak and go after other species off-peak. I enjoy trying to pin down the best use of time during the specific points in the annual cycle.

 

[Psychobilly]

Only once did I really put a lot of time in chasing something specific/big, when I went after my first sturgeon. I put in a lot of long days over the course of many months before finally getting one(in downtown Edmonton, no less).
I was so sick of the process it was a few years before I went dino hunting again. The fun to tedium ratio was too out of wack.

Now I've learned better times and places for the dinos, so I chase them during peak and go after other species off-peak. I enjoy trying to pin down the best use of time during the specific points in the annual cycle.

That's actually important advice there; You have every CHANCE of landing a species of a given fish pretty much whenever, but at the end of the day, you're spending a LOT of time catching nothing if you don't know it's habits, spawning time, and so on. It's like how Flatheads here CAN be caught through the ice, but you aren't REALLY going to feel the power of that fish, when his metabolism is almost shut down for his winter nap, so you're better off on a summer night when they actively search for food.