target species

[Phone]

All,

 

What would you say is the success rate in catching the target species? UK anglers, at least AN anglers, seem to be considerably more skilled than we are on this side of the pond at catching what they are fishing for.

 

For example, I fish the Missouri River, yellow perch, white bass, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, walleye (zander) pike, channel catfish, musky, bluegill, crappie, rock bass and fresh water drum will all fall to the same presentation (not to mention carp will eat anything, including lures). Sometimes, in fact, most times it is for no apparent reason. I would say my predator fishing "bycatch" is as high as 10 - 15%, maybe more. With all purpose live or dead baits (i.e. shrimp or worms) probably 10 more species can be added to the list.

 

Phone

[Andy_1984]

Not sure about the percentages Phone but it is easy to be selective like when I was talking to Dales about the perch off pontoons.

 

Roach and Rudd can be selective too since we know their feeding habbits are different where rudd will take off the surface/sub surface or on the drop far more readily than roach would.

 

Pike I can be almost 100% selective since the only ever perch to take a deadbait from me was in 2006 http://www.anglersnet.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/62069-andy-1984s-latest-capture/.

 

Got to remember too that we take into consideration the likelihood of a certain species we want to target being in a very specific place than other species would be (pontoon example again) and the baits we use. A roach for example would be more inclined to take sweetcorn than a perch so percentage of roach is higher than perch.

[Andy Macfarlane]

Phone, what you describe is the difference between the straightforward pleasure angler and the single-species/specimen angler. Naturally we catch fish we have no intention of targeting also but by doing some homework and selecting upon certain variables, it's very possible to fish for certain species to the near exclusion of others.

 

I dare say it's also harder over your side of the World since you have so many different species of the perch family as an instance. In Scotland we'd have 2. Perch and Ruffe. You have several. Of the pike family, we have one. You have pike, muskies, tigers, pickerels, mud minnows?? I think. Of the Salmonids family, we have several but the seasons and likely habitats are so varied, you can almost fish for each one to the complete exclusion of the other.

 

It appears to me that you don't have that kind of luxury. I'm sure I'd have the same problems fishing selectively if I had the vast numbers of species, many of which came from the same families, much of the time all living in the same spaces.

[Anderoo]

Hard to say really, I tend to be quite blinkered in my fishing in that I prefer to target one species at a time, so I usually go out of my way to try to avoid the others. How successful that is depends on a lot of things, like the ratio of target species to other species, how selective the bait and method is on a particular water, what time of year it is, and so on. Generally, I do OK. I wouldn't know how to translate 'OK' into a percentage though. Off the top of my head, from some recent fishing, I would guess:

 

- Spring tench fishing with bolt rigs and fake baits: 95% selective (the rest perch, eels, and pike)

- Autumn river perch fishing with livebaits: 60% selective (the rest pike)

- Autumn zander fishing with lures: 99% selective (the rest pike)

- Winter chub fishing with bread/cheesepaste: 100% selective

- Autumn/winter river roach fishing with bread: 100% selective

- Winter commercial perch fishing with prawn/deadbaits: 95% selective (the rest chub)

- Summer stalking carp fishing with floating baits: 100% selective

- year-round big bream fishing with bolt rigs and fake baits: 5% selective (the rest tench, pike, perch, eels)

 

Other times, mainly when trotting small rivers, I'm the opposite, and I'll go for a catch-all approach. That's fun too, not knowing whether the next dip of the float will be from a 4oz dace, a 3lb chub, or a mental brown trout

[wunnus]

It is not as simple as changing bait. Just about anything is possible with a worm, but how you fish it will raise the probability of a specified species. A mixture of experience and knowledge will help here.