Your preference: large fish or most fish possible?

Today was a good day: 63 fish caught under a bright sunny sky and 88 degrees. Now if I was using bass lures which are on average much larger than the lures used today, that number would have been far less or zero. I've got to admit it: I'm a finesse fisherman and go for numbers of fish and different species using different lure designs and sizes. Now just because I or anyone else casts small lures doesn't mean only small fish bite them. One bass went 1 3/4 lbs. and another close to 2:


Crappie - many of which were 12", struck the same lures as sunfish, yellow perch, white perch and bass. Catching fish on a day like today from 9 am-3:30 pm was a learning experience considering the fact that fish hit hard regardless the hour! Small fish hit larger lures, larger fish hit small and large lures.


This outing was a fact-finding mission to see what had changed in the lake since I last fished it 9 years ago. Gotta say, I wasn't disappointed by:
1. the quality or quantity of fish caught
2. the number of species caught
3. the variety of lure designs that caught everything.

Guess the lake has changed but in a good way.

If it’s not over 6 lbs, it doesn’t excite me. Caught enough dink’s in my lifetime, I prefer bigger. But if you prefer quantity, that’s cool.

Being fairly new to fishing I'll gladly take the quantity. Considering multi-species fishing produces small fish anyway, give me the numbers.

I am usually after records, so I am looking for a big fish. But depending on the species, that may require catching lots of fish till you get the one you are after.

Isn't that the truth!

I thought maybe I should wait until the cold front moved through that evening and fish the next day, but sitting home on another hot day didn't make it. Besides, I had some new and old lures to try! Here are a few:

Spike tail on a different body:


Overhead spinner and French Fry segment with curl tail added:


...same grub:


Float with soft plastic:


Thin flat tail grub right from the mold:


Thin flat tail added to a Big Bite grub:


Caught this 11" and 5 more 12" crappie in one section of pads:


No-tail grubs have done very well this year and yesterday:


Kut Tail worm rigged on light jig head:


Species variety/ lure variety/ presentation variety* make for one heck of a day, especially when these numbers were unexpected, many that were not added to the total:


* flipping/pitching, steady retrieve using spinner, twitch grub retrieve, float fishing with soft plastic, jigging off bottom, jerk worm-with-pauses retrieve

Lurecraft and coming up with new lure designs and modifications are a big part of why I fish besides which I'm addicted to the strike. Exciting is when fish hit multiple times on the same retrieve which happened many times yesterday (I'm assuming because the front was coming.)

Depends.........grandkids with me I just want them to catch fish,size doesn't matter.On my own I want the biggest blue/flathead/striper in the lake to choke down my bait.IMHO more fun to spend all day reeling in one giant than spend all day catching bait.

Sounds like a lot of hours spent casting and far fewer hours catching.
Today I went out on a different lake and finding fish was much harder. Only 40 to be exact. But finding and catching in a high wind was a challenge and the challenge is different for every angler. Mine used to be mostly bass having been hooked on TV shows that promoted bass fishing and tournaments. Grew out of that and found challenging the asking of different questions on the water and finding answers to them - like today.

I like a mix, but would gladly sacrifice some quantity for greater quality fish. I hate catching undersized fish all Day long. Even if I caught 100, I would rather have 10 fish with some pull.

Depending on the mood I am in and past catches. I don't mind some days walking the banks and casting lite tackle and catching smaller fish, but some days I don't mind just siting back with a live or cut blue gill and waiting for my rod to bend.