Fishing vs catching

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

How often are your fishing outings successful? Sure it's called fishing, not catching, but without catching sometimes would you still fish?

[RumRiverRat]

Define Success?

Rarely ever get skunked.

[Getanet]

My fishing buddy and I get skunked so regularly that we joke and say we're going casting, not fishing.

But yes, even without catching something regularly I would still fish. The older I get the less it is about catching fish and the more it is about getting away from the city, unwinding and catching up with my thoughts. One of my favorite places in the world is up north on a boat in the evening when the water is like glass, the sky is all shades of color, and you have a clear reception of a Twins game on the radio. Doesn't really matter much then if the fish are cooperating.

[Nick Kuhn]

Even when muskie fishing I rarely get skunked. Hammerhandles love big jerkbaits. A successful outing results in at least 1 quality fish. Not to say I don't enjoy the other trips, I just don't consider them to be unsuccessful.

[tinytimmy37]

I've always said catching fish is a bonus but I do prefer catching to not.

[TruthWalleyes]

Don't matter much to me. I'll spend 20hrs on the MN River in a weekend, skunked, and still be relaxed...as long as there isn't someone else along telling me how bad the fishing is...This explains why i fish solo 90% of the time.

It's not about catching for me, it's about getting away from buildings, shutting off the phone, and enjoying the scenery.

[RiverFish]

Use to be about catching fish for me, the older I get the less I need to catch fish. I get more enjoyment recenlty watching my wife and kids catch fish. Still though, my heart gets going when I do catch fish.

Read my signature!

[harvey lee]

I typically most times out get fish of one specie or another.

To be honest, I enjoy my time on the lake but, I want fish also.

I may not keep that many but I love to catch fish.

If I am on a mission to get some fish, then fishing is usually pretty good as I fish much harder.

if it is causal trolling on a nice evening, then not near the pressure to get fish.

Depends on the day.

[marshmallow]

I Fish With a Buddy Who Gets Very Angry When I Let Fish Go.. Even After I Take Picture Etc.. I Out Perform Him Most Of The Time .. He Tends To Have A Trait Of " Greed "..He Also Throws Out A Bobber Then Goes To Sleep.. While I Am Cranking .. Casting .. Ripping .. Jigging .. Thumping .. Verticaling .. He Likes To Keep Very Small Stuff.. Also If The Fish Are Not Jumping Into The Boat.. Or Getting Limit.. Then everyone Is Full Of It.. And The Lake Is A Dud..

[PerchJerker]

I do a lot of prefishing for my league and the other tournaments I fish. A lot of my prefishing is looking at maps, exploring new areas, and fishing new spots or new baits or new techniques I've never tried before.

If success means catching fish then a lot of times I'm not too successful --- but I learn a lot, and I've found a few really great spots and baits I wouldn't have tried otherwise. And I usually go prefishing with my kid, or with some buddies who I don't get to fish with too much. They're really fun trips and one of my favorite reasons to get out fishing.

If I am going out strictly to catch fish, I tend to stick a lot more with known locations and baits. It's great when fish are going in the boat but can be a bit frustrating when they're not. On these trips I'm usually focusing on just 1 or 2 specific species, and there's some days when you catch them and some days when you don't. But I like that too.

Probably the biggest make-or-break thing for me is to have fun and to have my boat, gear, electronics etc. working like it should. I get really frustrated really fast when I have a problem with my boat or equipment and that takes a lot of the fun out of it for me.

[harvey lee]

I agree Dave that when something does not work on the boat I get somewhat frustrated. I try to keep everything clean and well taken care of and if it stops working, I have a tendency to get a little upset with myself.

[Comit 2]

I say I'm going fishing but I'm mostly catching. It has been one of those years where it is getting old ( what another fish on? I don't even have my line out all the way.). Then other people see us catching fish and anchor on our trolling path. Then when 11 am comes around the water skiers see all the boats in the area and have to show off and ski through the boat. It just get old! 11:30 am time to leave the lake!

[GlassEyeangler]

it's a species thing for me. i almost never get skunked, but i have a handful of lakes i know very well, and when to go is the key. i fish at least twice a week regardless, and really don't care if i catch fish every time. to explain the species thing a bit...it goes like this -

pre Opener: Panfish (of course)

May to 1st part of June: Walleye

1st part of June to end of July: Panfish

End of June to end of August: Musky

September: Walleye (because we go up north to prep the cabin for hunting)

October: Crappies

November: DEER...and Crappies

and then first ice...tip ups for Northerns

ice season: mostly crappies and a few walleyes

never bass (although they seem to bite my jig a lot...yuck!)

for me, i get antsy to get out there during the prime times and focus on "catching"...in between - doesn't matter. i realize i mentioned big time frames and covered the entire year...but i fish twice a week. i was completely done with walleyes the end of June. i have been throwing back all walleyes for a couple of weeks now. i'm currently looking for bigger panfish and hitting up some muskys.

gotta know when to go, and almost all of my fishing takes place south of the river.

[jac714]

I rarely get skunked but would still fish without catching. It is all about relaxing for me, not the fish. I am pretty much a total CPR guy so I am never really looking for the meat so not catching something is no big deal.

[ted4887]

Don't matter much to me. I'll spend 20hrs on the MN River in a weekend, skunked, and still be relaxed...as long as there isn't someone else along telling me how bad the fishing is...This explains why i fish solo 90% of the time.

It's not about catching for me, it's about getting away from buildings, shutting off the phone, and enjoying the scenery.

Ditto!

[OnAFly]

PerchJerker is right on. As long as you learned something, your trip was a success.

That being said, I always keep my options open when I got out. If all else fails, I pull out my 2wt (ultralite) fly rod and have at the sunnies

[itchmesir]

There is two parts to fishing to me.. fishing and the adventure getting there... as long as one of them is interesting.. that's all that matters.. that's why i enjoy fishing streams.. walking for miles.. surrounded by amazing scenery more often than not.. birds chirping.. random wildlife.. usually when the fishing is not that great i always delve into the geo-nut side of me and start picking rocks and checking out flora

[mainbutter]

With the exception of two ice-out trips to a lake where it seems that the entire panfish population (where I used to see THOUSANDS by a fishing pier) suffered a winterkill, I haven't been skunked this year.

I purposefully bring my fly rod along to catch a few sunnies "just in case" I need a little confidence booster to keep chucking some lures.

[OnAFly]

I miss that part of fishing SE MN. Walking up trails for an couple hours then fishing back. The walking was as great as the fishing. It's a beautiful part of the state.

[TyGuy02]

I've found this year that the harder I try to "catch" the less productive it gets. I have more fun (and luck) when I think outside of the box, and I believe that adapting is part of the definition of "fishing". For the past few years, actually most of my young, 27 YO life, I was taught that the only way to catch fish was by trolling lindy rigs or spinners. Being versatile with both my attitude and equipment can help a ton, for both productivity AND fun.

[Down Deep]

If I fish local lakes I usually get a enough fish to have a lunch if I wanted to. But there are those days........

[Slabasaurus]

Don't matter much to me. I'll spend 20hrs on the MN River in a weekend, skunked, and still be relaxed...as long as there isn't someone else along telling me how bad the fishing is...This explains why i fish solo 90% of the time.

It's not about catching for me, it's about getting away from buildings, shutting off the phone, and enjoying the scenery.

This is exactly how I feel... although I am usually on the mississippi, not the MN

[Fever]

Primarily a bass guy but I used to spend alot of time trolling, jigging, drifting, and rigging for Walleyes and Pike. I too do the season thing.

Ice out / Pre opener - panfish

opener to bass opener - eyes

Bass opener to ice - Bass, a couple eye trips to where good populations exist, along with a few musky trips.

Ice- walleye on the river, crappies, sunfish, Pike on tip ups.

I too like to learn to use different methods. Thats why I transitioned into Bass fishing. There are so many different techniques it can boggle your mind. I like to learn different ways of catching fish, Topwater, Deep weed edges, Jigs, cranks, spoons, Spinnerbaits, Huge variety of soft plastics... the list goes on and on... I am a teacher so it's no coincidence that I too like to learn something on my excursions. I prob get out about 3-4 times a week in the summer and about 1-3 times during school year. Some days are great others not so good but I can say that I do learn something each time out and file it away in the mental file cabnet. Catching fish is still important as it tends to validate the spending and the time commitments. I teach Biology so just getting out there is a bit of a treat each time out.

[LightningBG]

I'll be the first to admit that I suck at fishing. Patience is not my virtue, so I've gotten used to not catching anything for days on end.

I'm not sure how I bowhunt or ever gun hunt, because I have no problem waiting around then. One of those mysteries of life I guess.

[PerchJerker]

Patience is not my virtue

Same here ......... and for one of the guys who taught me the most about how to be a "good" fisherman. If something isn't working, we don't stick with it. We try to analyze why it's not working and try to figure out something else that we think will work.

One of my favorite sayings is "the definiton of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".