What is a good year for bass?

[Lunker]

What is a good year of bassing for all of you? A fish over 20"(i still havent got it)? 100 2 pounders? Just being on the lake? This is my most successful year of bassing yet(im only 17, been fishing bass for about 5 years) and have caught a ton of fish, including 5 fish over 4 pounds already. Just would like to see how my bassing compares to the other success stories out there. Keep reeling in the bucketmouths!

[Mark Christianson]

Hmmmmm Good question. To gauge your success I think you need to set some goals before the season, and if you achieve your goals; you had a successful year.
For me personally, my goal is to break 20 inches every year, and my ultimate goal is to break the 6 1/2 pound mark(maybe eclipse 7 pounds).
I really don't set a goal for quantity for the year. I do set a goal every year to catch more bass than I did the year prior, for the bass opener.
Am I on track for a successful year? I think so.
Have I successfully met any goals yet? No, but I have a lot of summer left.
I

[Iron Man]

Lunker,

Five 4lb+ fish sounds like a good year to me! You'll get that 20" soon enough. I think success is in the eye of the beholder. For someone who fishes tournaments every weekend on some of the state's best bass waters, five 4 pounders or a 20" inch fish might not cut it for them. Then again, someone who works a lot and can only get away to a cabin a couple times a year can only dream of success like you've had.

Personally, I've caught my fish over 20" this year, but my numbers have been way down compared to years past at this point. So my goal now is to get more fish. Not to say that I wouldn't take another 20 incher! But my goals and standards tend to change as the season goes on.

There are all kinds of fisherpeople with all levels of experience who set all kinds of different standards. You have to gauge what your expectations should be!

Fish On!

Iron Man

[Guest]

Success varies from individual to individual. Some guys are happy to catch a couple for the frying pan each time out...others look for numbers or size of fish.

For me it is how I do in tournaments. So far I have entered 10 tournaments. I have 4 2nd place finishes and 3 3rd place finishes and 2 10th places. Only one event did we not cash a check. So far not bad but I have not won any.....I need a little luck. But the season is not over....I may bomb out the rest of the year though.

[Guest]

I usually try to put a rough estimate on what bag weight I'd be weighing if I were fishing a tournament to gauge how successful the day was. That gives me a standard to compare to - I know if I average 4 lbs. a fish that I'd be in the running on almost any lake on any day. I'd be happier to have a 3 lb. average on 8 fish than one or two 20" fish personally. In my opinion your doing things right if your consistently catching decent size fish - even if you don't have any all year over 20". I feel the big fish are just a matter of time on the water if your doing things right to catch the decent size fish.

The days I can't get 8 decent size bass in the boat are the days I look at as unsuccessful and try to improve on those.

[Guest]

Lunker: I think you are doing great. Something I like to focus on is continuously getting better. I am always reading about new methods and tactics. Don't be afraid to try something new because you never know. I agree with some of the other posts that you need to set goals before the season...These goals can be flexible...(don't quit fishing if you can't meet your goals!) I have many methods that almost always keep me from being skunked...But if you try something you haven't done before and and get skunked, the day wasn't a total loss if you learned something that might make your next trip work out. It may take you a month of weekends to define a pattern but once it gets dialed in, that 20"er that you're chasing pratically jumps in the boat. Don't be afraid to be the only boat working an area... You're only 17...time spent experimenting and finding spots and finding methods that are surefire producers will help you turn bad days into good days and good seasons into great seasons.

[Blackstarluver]

When the strike to catch ratio is >90% of the time on topwaters!
God lyk!
JC

Oh, and Lunker don't mess up your fishing career by getting into less acceptable behaviors. I screwed up between the ages of 19 to 23. Five years of fishing missed out on because of misplaced priorities. Again a sincere god lyk!

[This message has been edited by Blackstarluver (edited 07-12-2003).]

[Dynasty]

Bronzeback88 nailed it. Just this last week me and my dad started trying two new methods for us. So far my dad has got a 5+lb. 21 incher, I got a 4 1/2 pounder and together we have five around 3 1/2, not to mention all the others we have caught along with these nice fish.

I dont really set goals on how many fish I catch. I like to set goals on learning new techniques and getting better at locating fish in a new lake. By doing this it usually results in catching more fish, or better fish though.

[This message has been edited by Dynasty (edited 07-12-2003).]

[RandyFish]

Lunker,

That's a great question. What makes a good season?

Let me give you my answer. In Feb, I had back surgery for a ruptured disc. This is the first summer in a decade that I stand in the front of my boat, work my trolling motor and cast without feeling like 1,000 volts zapped my leg with every wake.

Sure makes it enjoyable.

By the way, you've nailed some dandy fish. Nice work.

Randy

[Bobb-o]

how aboot what is a good day? was at my cabin yesterday and got a ton of large bucketmouths out of one little area. When i was out earlier in the day we found a huge school of lake shiners, we proceeded to catch aboot 2 dozen of them. Aboot an hour before sunset we went down to the little crick next to the road where the two lakes connect and proceeded to catch more big fish in one hour than i have all year. several 17"ers, 4 18"ers, 2 19"ers and 1 21".

[EBass]

WOW, that is a fantastic day! Heck I caught 8 bass all under 16" and I thought that was a pretty good day. 7 of them were on top water though.