Thread: does 2 people catch more fish than 1?

Redge, let's talk numbers not limits! You play tennis(15) and I play baseball (37). Haha.
we all have better days than others, but in general, you naturally pair up with someone like yourself. When you do that, most of the time the fisherman will run neck and neck throughout the trip. Example, I tourney fish with Fishers and the Professional, we catch almost same numbers. EB, Mark, Andy, Dstreet, and others generally fish with the same partners, because, they know their partner can catch just as many as they do.
lets now say, the pattern is established. Fish are dialed in. Will these "team members" catch similar amounts of fish if the other partner decides to take a nap bc the accomidations we lacking at Camp Mcfadden. Even if the single's slows down and picks the stuff apart. Do you only catch fish that are present or do more fish come to the action?

True on you playing ball!
I haven't witnessed more fish coming to the action. That doesn't mean they don't do that, but I haven't seen it. I also think that some will bite and some will not. Or I am just not smart enough yet to get them to all bite! LOL
I do think last winter when I went with you, more fish seemed to be filtering in as we fished! Alas I am used to watching my FF and not yours, so not 100% on that.

Originally Posted by fishn_a_ledge

lets assume you have 2 good crappie fisherman in the boat. At the end of the day, you have 32 fish in the livewell. If only one person would have been fishing, would you still have 32 fish. All this to say, do you think there is only "x" amount of fish on a piece of structure. Can one person effectively catch them, if they slow down. Does the second person just help them get "x" out faster? Or do you think more jigs or baits in the water cause reaction bites and more fish come to them from surrounding areas? Let me have some input.

Basing my answer on the conditions of one school of fish on one isolated piece of cover :

One person "can" catch them all, but usually doesn't. You may "fire up" that group of fish, or you may "spook" the school ... depending on the method you're using (single bait or multiple baits), depth/distance from them, the amount of commotion created (boat noise, landing noise, boat control noise/shadow), and mood/activity level of the fish at that time.

With only X amount of fish on a given piece of cover, you may or may not catch them faster with two people (for the same reasons as listed above) or you may spook them faster with the greater commotion level. Whether or not the feeding frenzy will draw in more fish from the surrounding cover ... ... as it may depend on how far away those fish are, and whether or not they're hungry/aggressive enough to expend the energy to move that distance. And it may also depend on whether or not there are baitfish in closer proximity to them, than the area you're fishing.

When the fish are concentrated in a single, small area, then having multiple baits "in their face" may not be the best idea .... but, if they're scattered over a larger area, multiple baits will present more targets to more fish, more often.

At any given time, even if there are 30 fish on a piece of cover, not all of them will be in a feeding mood. You "may" stimulate some of those in a neutral mood to go into a feeding mood, by catching some of the more aggressive fish ... but, you're unlikely to turn them all on. Those in a neutral or negative mood "may" be turned off even more, by the commotion and/or the removal of the more aggressive fish, and they may hunker down even deeper into the cover or simply leave the area.

That's just my opinion ... and I reserve the right to be completely wrong


... cp

What if you release the fish? Do you catch more, or do you catch less?

Originally Posted by fishn_a_ledge

What if you release the fish? Do you catch more, or do you catch less?

I've actually seen something about this. Way back in the day. Some thought that releasing fish alerted the school that there was danger.

How that happened,I don't know. Agitation when swimming back to the school?

Originally Posted by dennishoddy

I've actually seen something about this. Way back in the day. Some thought that releasing fish alerted the school that there was danger.

How that happened,I don't know. Agitation when swimming back to the school?

There's been theories about that ... caught fish are distressed and release chemicals that alert the rest of the school that something's amiss. BUT, were that the case, catching more than one fish out of a school would be very unlikely ... let alone catching "many" keeper size fish, while throwing back many undersized ones.

Even if you throw the fish on the "other" side of the boat, and see it swim away from the boat ... you still don't know if the fish rejoins the school or goes and hides somewhere else. I don't let it concern me, too much, since I've dropped fish right back after catching them & still continued to catch many more right from the same cover.

... cp

On the releasing fish, I definitely don't think it helps me catch more. I am sure I have caught the same fish more than once when fishing the same structure. Guess he was a slow learner, or enjoyed the ride! LOL

We actually tried the glass jars years ago with some success. It worked better in clear water. Today we are running 2 Quarrow Submersible 36 bulb green led lights on our boats, one on each end. We made 2 light holders about 7 ft long out of 1 1/4 in pvc pipe and capped the end. We drilled a 1/4 in hole in the cap and installed a standard 1/4 in threaded hook in the cap prior to gluing the cap on the pvc. We put the pvc pipe in rod holders and ran our led wire through the hook on the end. This kept the lights around 7 ft away from the boat. The green leds brought in a ton of baitfish within a short amount of time. You can't be to picky about the fish you catch because at times the sandbass will be there also. It's a lot of fun and not much boat traffic at night. The great thing with the led lights there's hardly any power draw so we just hook them up to our trolling motor batteries. The best advise I can give you is it works better with minnows over brush. Hope this gets you started.