Top 5 Species to Target?

[Esox_Magnum]

Muskies

Walleyes

Perch

Gills/crappies

Smallies

[MattL]

Strictly walleyes for me. I will target crappies or bluegills through the ice a few times a year.

[chirp]

Nick

[J2M]

Weird how no one's matched up exactly.

1. Walleye

2. Bass

3. Pike

4. Trout

5. Panfish

[Stick in Mud]

Good question...but like most of us, I suspect this is a VERY difficult question to answer. What time of year? Does "target" differ from "catch"? Hard water or soft? What kind of technique? I'd much prefer to catch a walleye on a slipbobber as opposed to a lindy rig...

For me, it depends on all these things, and also on which kind of boat I'm in (silly, I know, but it's A LOT of fun to catch bass from a canoe in the Boundary Waters, and less fun for me to do it out of a bass boat or a jon boat in the river).

That being said, I'll say...

1) Slip-bobbering at night for walleye.

2) Fishing out of my canoe for largemouth.

3) Smallmouth bass, anywhere, anytime.

4) Catfish, through the ice.

5) Catfish anywwhere/anytime else.

[Shawn Kellett]

1.Smallies

2.Esocids (muskie/pike)

3.Panfish

4.Sturgeon

5.LM Bass

Note walleyes don't even make the list.

[fishnowworknever]

1. Walleye

2. Salmon

3. Panfish

4. Northern Pike

5. Small mouth

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

My list-

1.) Walleye everytime im on the water except when im fishing for #2

2.)Flathead Kitty cats

3.) Crappie

4.)Lake Trout

5.)Pike/Muskie

6.) Perch/Smallies/Largies

7.) whatever else bites and bends my rod over!

[No_Net]

1. Gar

2. dogfish

3. big buffs

4. carp

5. anything else I can legal force feed fiberglass

With a rod

1. walleye

2. muskies

3. crappies

4. perch

5. trout

[mike1125]

1. Northern Pike

2. Stream Trout

3. Largemouth

4. Walleye

5. Carp Spearing

[OnAFly]

1-Pike w/fly rods

2-walleye

3-carp w/fly rods (sight fishing)

4-Bass w/fly rods

5-Panfish w/fly rods

Honestly, this list probably shuffles around a bit depending on what is hitting best at the time. If I had the choice to have good fishing on any day, that's probably the order I would choose.

Honorable mentions:

Bowfin (insane fighters)

Trout (dry flies are darn fun)

[Dan L]

1. Pike

2. Smallmouth

3. Largemouth

4. Walleye

5. Panfish

[Raider4ever]

SMB

LMB

SMB

LMB

Bluegill

[Fish Head]

This is harder than I thougth it would be... Especially the #1 spot.

1a Walleye

1b Muskie

3 Northerns

4 Smallmouth

5 Largemouth

[itchmesir]

In no particular order...

Trout w/ Fly Rod

Panfish w/ Fly Rod

Pike w/ Fly Rod

Bass w/ Fly Rod

Redhorse w/ Fly Rod

[live4chrome]

Steelhead

Laketrout/ salmon

Walleye

Big pike

crappie

[Fish Head]

In no particular order...

Trout w/ Fly Rod

Panfish w/ Fly Rod

Pike w/ Fly Rod

Bass w/ Fly Rod

Redhorse w/ Fly Rod

It's easy to do if you don't put them in order. Putting them in order is the hard part.

[Comit 2]

What ever is in the lake. They are all fun to figure out.

Carp on a flyrod is #1

[Schollmeier]

Really tough, I'm going to stick with MN species - otherwise it gets tougher.

1. Lake Sturgeon

2. Greater Redhorse

3. Bowfin

4. Flathead Catfish

5. Burbot

If I could catch a Blue Sucker that would take #1...

Other contenders include any of the other Sucker, Redhorse, or Buffalo species, Channel Catfish, Mooneye, Brook Trout, Musky, Shortnose Gar, Shovelnose Sturgeon, and Lake Trout

[KrabbyPatties]

1. Catfish - Channel or Flathead

2. Largemouth Bass

3. Smallies

4. Crappies

5. Walleye

Those are just my favorite 5. I'll literally fish for anything.

[Brad B]

depends on the time of the year.

1. bluegill

2. crappie

3. channel cats

4. walleye

5. perch

6. northern

7. bass

[20lbSloughShark]

1 Northern Pike (Not sure why, I just feel good fishing for them)

2 Large-mouth bass

3 pan-fish: crappie, sunfish, perch

4 Bullhead (night fishing these is a blast)

5 Dogfish (never actually targeted, but I loved the ones I caught)

Taste

1 (2-3lb) northern pike tied with walleye

2 3+lb northern pike

3 sucker (try these with a blindfold, they are good)

[UKCM]

1) Bass

2) Big Pannies

3) Walleyes

Pretty much anything else that will bite my hook

[goblueM]

Mine varies so much by where I am or the season, so its hard to put together an all-encompassing list.

I guess by percentage time it'd be

1) Bass (shading toward smallmouth)

2) Muskie

3) trout (fly rod)

4) Panfish

5) Carp

[Wabamskee]

Interesting that nobody has the same order. With as many 'fishing groups' and target focus as we seem to get with specified seasons, I was expecting to see a lot of consistency here, but it is refreshing to see that everybody has developed their own style and focus.

May the holes in your net be smaller than the fish in them!