Do you prefer quality or quantity?

The jury is still out for me, but in a perfect world I would prefer a quantity of quality fish![emoji275] We got in a short trip yesterday afternoon, and my infrequent trips require a lot of hunting. We didn’t load the boat, but we caught some quality fish for these parts.
Water temps ranged from 64-66, and we stayed in water 18 ft plus, hunting new brush as well as fishing waypoints. Some fish were relatively shallow while others were relatively deep. I set a new personal best with this guy.
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I don’t think I’ve ever caught a fish this small on a #2 hook with a 2” plastic!
My wife continued her quality fish run, which once again included a T.A.R.P. White Crappie!
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She kept it going, as usual!
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The new time really shortens the trip, as the sun was setting just after 5:30. Beautiful day, but that is changing for the next week or so. We did catch several under 10 inches, but kept 4 nice ones for a meal. Several lures caught fish, but a dark/light contrast seemed to be preferred.
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So, which do you prefer? Quality or quantity?


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I am happy just catching something. Most time's I'm not planning on bringing any home so its just fun to be out fishing and have something take my offering.

Those are some nice ones

Quantity is always good, but I tend to hunt quality. For me, after you fish a lake for a while, you know where spots are that you can go and catch fish, so then the challenge becomes the hunt for the bigger fish.


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Good report ET

A quantity of quality for me... that being said the quantity can vary depending on the quality I am after. Example: little bream fried whole or big slabs filleted and fried to a golden brown... both are quality that require different quantities [emoji39]



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Being limited in the time I can fish I first just hope to not get skunked. Then the more the better, I love the thump! I do like catching the nice ones as it is an extreme rush but I'm not going to leave a hot spot to look for the occasional big one.

Quality. If I am not fishing for the table.

Both,Quantity..Then up grade to Quality..

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neither!

I'm happy with whatever comes in the boat!


(just need to CATCH fish!)

Quality only. I do not keep crappie less than 12". Rather have 4 12" or more than thirty 10" dinks.

Both, I just like to catch fish.

Nice catch on the crappie. I spent 21 years catching GT’s.....cobia.....snapper....tuna.....grouper. If it swam in the Red Sea or Persian Gulf I caught it....and lots of them. Fish so big inferior equipment would just break. The whole time I was doing this I was thinking about catching bluegill when I would come home for vacation. About 11 years back I went to all UL gear. About a year ago I bought some super ultra light and xtra ultra light rods. On each trip I will have a couple of UL rods and either an XUL or SUL. So no matter the size of the fish I’m having a ton of fun. Yesterday I caught crappie in the 10-13 inch range and was using a super ultra light rod. So to my way of thinking they were all quality. Being close to 70 it is all about the fun for me now. We all like to catch big crappie but that don’t always happen.

Regards


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Obviously, everyone who replied was a better fisherman than me. I did not know you had a choice (grin). I just fish for any crappie that will hit then cull based upon my needs or keep more than that if I plan on educating my neighbors on how good crappie is with a fish fry.


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The older I get the less quality enters into my goals. I get much more of a 'kick' out of catching a bunch of 'em these days, regardless of size. And if a few are above being called "decent", all the better. Besides, it's all catch & release for me anyway. :)

Three to six 10 to 12 inch fish is enough for me for one meal. Then I get to fish again if I want to eat again.

ET I see you suffer the same as I, having the wifey catch the fish.
"gene"

I’m with Randy, and I am in my 70s. With an UL rod I had my most fun this summer wading the creek for pans and crappies. I have a new JDM rod on the way that I think is going to really ramp up fun with any size fish, big or small. I like action and plenty of it! LOL At my age it is all about non stop action.
Bob

Quality. I hate cleaning fish under 11”.


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Quantity for me if I'm single poling. Quality if pulling or spider rigging.

I was discussing this with BigFin earlier about an overpopulated lake of stunted crappie. I love quantity, especially if I'm catching eaters. He prefers quality. I didnt realize how stunted they were so I said yeah a quantity of 5-7" crappie, or one 12" I would choose........ man that's hard!! I just love catching! So probably the dink fest over one mega slab.

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Love to feel the thump ! But like catching slabs and the best eaters to me are the 10-12” turn the bigger uns loose unless im on the waters where the bigger uns are the little uns then I keep em all over 12-1/4” :biggrin

I've been testing different lures in different lakes and tend to fish lakes with quantity to get a good idea what works best that increases the odds of catching vs hours of casting and no strikes. But I always ask the same question: where are they and what will they strike? If either are incorrect, the original question posted is mute.

11-12” or perfect to fillet and eat

I just like catching them.


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I like keeping the rod bent. I have spent an entire day boating almost a hundred fish, but I was hard pressed to get a keeper for dinner. I was learning crappie habits at the time and had a blast doing it. Nowadays I like to single pole with very light tackle and small jigs targeting bigger bluegill and crappie. Nothing like setting the hook and the rod stops, abruptly, and then the drag starts talking. I guess that I don’t have a preference but if I’m hungry, a few big ones is my target.

lots of bites is my goal , size is what it is and finding large fish in a heavily fished metropolitan area is really not all that easy from the bank,
there is something to be said for a brute crappie that wont give up easy no doubt , but little fish are great entertainment too .

Numbers for me. If the size is their I’ll keep my limit but when I find a school of hungry fish, I ain’t goin nowhere for a while. I’ve had some 200 fish days in my time. Those are the days I see what they won’t hit and eliminate it from my arsenal.

I'm into quality t this point in my life. I throw back everything under four inch's!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don Fischer

I'm into quality t this point in my life. I throw back everything under four inch's!

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:Rofl

If I had my choice it would be quality but I'll take either and be happy.

Are these the only choices?

Do I have to choose one? I try'n make both happen every trip.....:Rofl

Depends on who I'm fishing with. I'll take quality any day. If I've got somebody with me who likes to catch I'll try to make that happen. That's easier said than done though.

One of my best trips I've ever had though me and Dad went through over a hundred minnows and only had one keeper LoL. I don't have a clue how many we caught but it was a bunch.

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I love catching big fish but with that being said. I do lot of fish frys for church so I would say quantity.
LittleJohn

A few hundred low quality fish is ok as long as reels are lubed and I got plenty of 55 gallon drums.

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Honestly, though If I'm bream fishing for catfish bait, sheer quantity. If I'm fishing for fun with the old cane pole, I like quality.

Catching for me, the quality slabs come from the mix of sore lipping many crappie.

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As much as I love to catch the slabs my choice would always be quantity over quality. If given a choice of catching 100 dinks in a day or a dozen slabs I would chosed the 100 dinks every time.

I just love the catching, bragging rights don't mean much to me. :)

Dinks can be fun with ultralite gear. They can thump a jig as hard as a slab.

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