Angler “BS” Factor

Did anyone read the article in the Outdoor News (I believe it was that mag) about the multi-year study done on 22 different bodies of water that assessed an angler’s ability to accurately report catch rates?

To really sum this baby up, anglers would over-report their catch by 220% when fishing was good and up to 400% when the fishing was slow.

Makes a guy think about all those pounds that were assessed against anglers for catch and release due to delayed mortality last season.

I found this very, very curious. And aggravating.

Makes a guy wanna’ yell “no duh!”

yeah, i read that article.

actually if you think about it, it makes sense. i’m sure a lot of the 40-50 fish days reported by some folks are really only 20-25 fish days. when the fishing’s good, it’s only natural to make it sound really good.

a 400% increase sounds like a lot , but if you consider a bad day to be 1-3 fish, a 400% increase isn’t really that much. if you actually caught 1 fish, you would say you caught 4. if you caught 2 fish, you would say you caught 8. definatly an exageration, but not as bad as 400% makes it sound .

now if you consider a bad day of fishing to be only 8-10 fish, that 400% doesn’t sound right. you can’t hardly catch 10 fish and say you caught 40.

i think there is probably just as much or more of a BS factor when it comes to the size of a fish. especially if the fish isn’t weighed or measured.

i also think people already take that into consideration when someone tells them about the fish they caught. if someone tells you that they caught a 8 pound walleye, you probably think it was actually around 6 maybe 7 pounds .

the only way to get rid of the BS factor is to take a lot of pictures and have witnesses .

This study reported equally innacurate reports from anglers regarding size and numbers and personal experience enforces the averages guy’s inability to judge a fish’s weight. All winter long I hear guys tell tales about all the 5 Lbers they’re catching. When they tell there stories all I want to know is did they measure them. If they say no, we move on to talking about the weather and what a good thing it is to be alive and fishing. If they say yes, I swear 9 times out of 10 the guy will say those DANDIES were 20″ long. Yup yup. Nice fish. But not 5 Lbers. Not even close. They get no arguement from me, just a nod and a smile, but I am constantly reminded that to most a “true” 5 Lbers is an un-weighed 8 Lber to most. And there’s countless “10 lb” seven lbers caught all winter long. True 10 lbers are rare. Like most will NEVER catch one on the river. But I’m rambling….

i agree with every rambling word you just said .

Quote:

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But I’m rambling….

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Ramblin’……….gamblin’ man? Born to be a Rambler? Rolling Stone? Rebel? At least you have a point James! Maybe one day I’ll graduate too!

I could not agree more with the size of fish that I hear constanly from anglers on Mille Lacs all year long. I would love to think that a 26 incher would be 6 pounds, but truthfully that fish probably runs around 4-1/2 to 5lbs+ maybe. Truthfully speaking, I have seen numerous fish over 28 inches in my boat in June alone that maybe 1 fish hit the 7-3/4 on the scale. I have yet to see a 29 inch fish this year that was even remotely close to 9lbs. Lucky if it hits 8 lbs. I am not taking anything away from all of the anglers whatsoever, because I may be guilty of it to unless you weigh the fish. 99.9% of the time, we all talk inches. We all understand inches and how nice of a fish that is!

Now, in the fall thats another story!!

Sorry if I got off the original subject here, I saw James post and decided to add my own odsevervations.

I have to agree also. Last year there were so many people saying that two guys caught 75-100 in 8 hours but they didn’t realize that would be one fish every 4.8 minutes which is about impossible. When the fish are biting good, it sometimes feels like you have caugh that many. Then when people hire a guide and they read on the net people were catching 100 fish in a trip, they get disappointed when they only caught 50 with a hired guide.

Overall I would agree that a lot of the reported catch rates were improbable. However, I started using one of those little clickers that count golf strokes to count fish. Several days resulted in catches up to ninety fish. The best day was on Father’s Day when myself and my Grandpa caught 38 fish in two hours. He only caught six.