FISHING TIP # 327

QUANTITATIVE AND QUALATATIVE ANALYSIS RELATED TO FISHING

My two favorite Chemistry courses were Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis. Maybe I liked them best because they are generally rated as the two easiest Chemistry courses. P. Chem. was an entirely different ball game however.

Relating Chemistry to Fishing isn't easy. Chemistry is sort of like religion to me-- you just gotta have faith and believe. You can't always see what is going on, just like fishing. I could see and relate to Physics a lot easier.

Anyhow, to get back to the subject at hand---
If Quantitative =s the # of fish in your box
and
Qualitative =s the size of the fish, we ought to be able to figure some things out to where we ALWAYS catch more and larger fish every time.

Yep! Naaaahhh! Maybe!

Unfortunately, there are too dang many variables in fishing. One of the basic tenets of the “Scientific Method” is “Define the variables.”  Just because you caught limits of big Trout on one tide yesterday on the edge of sand holes on the flats don't necessarily mean that you are gonna’ hammer them again today.

Keeping a log of where, when, how, conditions, and everything else you can think of will definitely help. Think about Big Bend Brian (Brian Kiel) and his great, detailed, posts of his fishing trips. I don't know but I'll bet he keeps a fantastic log and not just in his head. When he posts a trip report, I read it carefully and try to see WHY I think he caught or did not catch fish. What would I have done in the same situation?

Some days I think I understand what is happening when we are or are not catching fish. The days that we are NOT catching fish, are sometimes the most educational. When it is too easy, I tend to get complacent and grin a lot. When catching is hard, I grit my teeth, scratch my bald head, and try to analyze the situation.

On hard days, the easiest approach but not always the best approach, is to keep moving--hit lots of spots. Granted, this works because somebody is hungry every place you stop.

Figuring out why you are not catching fish and then knowing what to do to turn the situation around is most satisfying.

Last Saturday I had one of the exasperating days where I had to fish right down inside rocks and wrecks to get bites. Mighty hard on tackle and precious few fish landed. I did not understand what was happening until the last stop and, by then, it was too late to put much in the box. Actually, there wasn't a helluva lot I could do.

Every where we stopped Saturday, there was sort of a "Haze" of bait all over the bottom and up in the water column, thicker sometimes and then not much for a while. That was the key but I did not recognize it until very late in the day. The last Grouper of the day spit up 20 or 30 2" Spanish Sardines. When tiny baitfish are around, Grouper feed heavily on them. When little Spanish Sardines are over Snapper rocks, it is darn near impossible to catch a Snapper. They become extremely selective.

Maybe I should have recognized what was happening. (Captain's error) What could I have done to improve the catch? Basically I did everything right by fishing tight to the rocks and wrecks we fished. When Grouper gorge on these tiny fish and have full bellies, you have to drop a big bait right in their mouth. To do that, you have to fish right in the wreck where they are sleeping it off.

There are two species of baitfish that give me the most trouble when they are tiny and in great abundance. This is just a personal observation but one that has repeated itself for lots of years for me. Spanish Sardines and Menhaden are soft, and possibly slower than Pilchards and Threadfins the same size. When they are available in huge quantities, Grouper darn near turn off on eating conventional bait.

Luckily for me, these tiny baitfish travel so they aren't always on every rock. They grow fast and change habits slightly and move more and faster.

I had another clue early in the day Saturday and it just this minute crossed my mind. The first fish in the box was a big Flounder. It spit up a bunch of tiny baitfish too.

Several years ago, when I was having one of "Those" kinds of days I snagged a 2" Sardine or Menhaden on my Sabiki rig. Just for the helluvit, I dropped it to the bottom to see what would happen. Big Flounder. Later I snagged a small bait, dropped it down and caught another big Flounder. That particular time, I picked up a spinning rod, tied on a 1/2oz PeeJay and proceeded to hammer the Flounder. I'd have to look back in my log to be sure but I think we caught 38 Flounder that day--my personal best day out off Crystal River.

If we pay attention, take notes, experiment, and stay open for suggestions, we may not always catch more and bigger fish but sometimes we will understand the day's pattern and catch a bunch of bigguns.

Fishing is not "Rocket Science" but if you use a somewhat scientific method, (A log book for instance) sometimes it makes sense.

Life is too short to catch little fish.

Honestly, my logs have mostly been a hodgepodge of notes, with ideas or speculations underlined.  A couple of times per year, I've gone through and compiled relevant stuff. (Or that which I thought was relevant)  

I started keeping notes as a child.  I still have a drawing of the first fishing gizmo I ever made, a hook disgorger made out of a popcicle stick.  A lot of my short stories have come from notes made when I was a kid.  Although I'd never heard the term chumming, I made reference to "Feeding hot dog buns to Bluegills then catching the heck out of them" when I was about 8.

With the advent of computers, this has become a lot easier, especially with compilation.  I've thrown away many note books in the last 20 years or so as technology has allowed me to store the good stuff in electronic files.

These E-Books are the result of many hundreds of pages of my notes, read, re-read and compiled.  I also have a ton of information from many friends and fishing buddies who have kicked ideas around with me for most of my life.  I've had some great mentors over the years and still have some.  It is mighty nice to be able to have questions answered by experts.  I still have access to a few mighty knowledgable people. 

Date, time, weather conditions, depth, water temperature, current speed and direction, observations, questions, and catch are most important.  Anything out of the ordinary like "I saw 10 Ocean Sunfish, Whales, Whale Sharks or huge tide line today" might point to some unusual conditions that existed--possibly a spin off of the Loop Current.  If something intrigues you on that day, try (PLEASE TRY) to get an answer that very day if possible.  I have a ton of unanswerable questions because I didn't follow up soon enough.

When I was chartering, I kept up with the very basics, where, when, fuel burn, catch, crew, and mainenance problems in addition to "The Good Stuff."  What worked that day was good stuff.  Things mentioned in the paragraph above was good stuff too.

When you hear a fishing story that you are pretty sure is true, take a few notes. Treat this as a DOT.)  Sometime down the line, there may be enough dots to connect to give you a better understanding of what is going on. 

We are dealing with a very complex natural system.  It takes a long time and a lot of data to even "Kinda prove" something.   Whether you prove anything to science or posterity or not, you feed your own desire to learn something.

I've had the great good fortune to spend a huge amount of time in and on the water.  My son spent time in diapers on my boat and we share the same love for our time on the water.  We both know that future generations will never see what we've seen because who can afford to burn thousands of gallons of gas and diesel any more?  He spends as much time as possible on the water when he is not teaching or with his family.

We have way more than 1000 pages of illustrated tips.  How many will make it to an e-Book remains to be seen.

OK, my answer was a hodgepodge too but I am not trying to be ambiguous.  Anything that makes you wonder is worth taking notes on.  The biggest deal is having time to research all of this stuff.  Of course, if we don't wonder, we don't learn.

Rhett and I are always open to questions.  Questions make us wonder. 

Ken

Life is too short to catch little fish.