Tagerting larger fish

[Anderoo]

I like this pic:

 

 

 

Read the intro to Stillwater Angling, it tells you everything you need to know.

 

Also, be wary of listening to other people. Do your own thing and find out for yourself; most information you're told is wrong in one way or another - either that big fish are present when they're not, or that there's nothing worth catching when there is.

[Phone]

Spinner,

 

Everyone seems pretty much in tune with each other. Specimen fishing is a "different" challenge from fishing.

 

However, don't give up. Every year for the past 3 years our record Blue Catfish (a prize in Missouri) has been broken. Twice by specimen "target" fishermen and once by accident.

 

Phone

[Andy Macfarlane]

I've often found that, for want of a better word, 'lifeless' baits work for bigger specimens of many species. While smaller fish can be taken easily on maggots, grubs, redworms, dendrobes, larvae etc., the bigger fish are often taken on baits like bread, berries, caster, corn, peas, nuts, deadbaits and so on.

 

I think with smaller fish, there remains a memory or an instinct towards eating live animals, which began with a diet of zooplankton, increasing to bloodworm, daphnia, snails, insect larvae and so on. As these juveniles increase in size, so does the size of their diet, which opens up the potential for baits like maggots, grubs, slugs, worms etc. Once these fish reach a given size, they are then able to take on foodstuffs which were previously too large or indigestible. It may also be that larger fish have to include these previously off the menu items to meet a dietary requirement.

 

I find that by using the types of 'lifeless' baits I had suggested earlier, you can almost fish to the exclusion of the juvenile members of a particular species.

 

Obviously there are exceptions. Small fish will sometimes attempt baits which are well beyond their means and larger specimens are still taken on tiny live baits but by fishing with larger, 'lifeless' baits, I feel the numbers of bigger specimens increases considerably, albeit at the cost in numbers of fish, which is a reasonable price to pay, since specimen anglers, by their very nature, have given up targeting multiples in favour of large, single individuals.

[kev jones]

you have not actually said what species you are after?