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Location: SE Wisconsin | I for one am counting all musky. |
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Posts: 1168
| All fish are counted but it's how you break down the variables that make it useful. If I am throwing a crankbait 80% of the time I theoretically will catch more fish on that than I will on a jerkbait that I am using 5% of the time. However, if on certain bodies of water, under certain conditions that jerkbait is showing a better ratio of hours per fish than the crankbait does then it begs the question...what is the more efficient bait to use under those conditions? A high number of fish caught overall on that crankbait could easily cloud your perception of what baits are "better."
Then to break it down in size categories it could easily alter your approach as well. Information is useless if you are unable to analyze it in a way that is personally beneficial. It's sort of like applying Sabremetrics to muskie fishing and after a few years of doing this you might be able to hit well known water under specific conditions with a more calculated idea of where to begin having the data to back it up as opposed to just using what has worked before on all sizes of fish under all conditions. If my data shows that under high skies one type of bait has been more efficient on a particular lake than a different bait that I've boated more fish with on the same body of water and it's a high sky condition, numbers be #*^@ed, give me the better hours per fish ratio as a starting point.
Edited by ulbian 5/15/2009 11:12 AM
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| sworrall, I was just trying to get some interesting thoughts (and numbers). Some times on these forums the subject matter get bogged down with alot of BS. One of my flaws is I never back down...so when it seems to get negative I go to attack mode....please accept my apology. Anyway great posts, I find the numbers interesting. keep them coming |
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | No apology necessary, just trying to keep things civil!
I only counted legals in the records I have kept. |
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Posts: 619
Location: Verona, WI | I keep track of this pretty closely - in '07 I was at 7.75 hrs per fish and last year I jumped up to 10.3 hrs. If I look at total boat time including everyone it's about 5.5 hrs per fish. I get about 160 hrs/year to fish.
Looking back at the data I have found I am really streaky. I had a stretch where I caught 8 fish in 22 hrs and then had a 43 hr stretch when I didn't see a fish.
Shane
Edited by ShaneW 5/15/2009 1:06 PM
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| While you guys are counting your hours, I'm casting lures, fixing my baits or sharpening my hooks. I do think it's interesting, but I will never be that guy that keeps track of hours per fish. Not ripping on anyone that does, it's just not my style. I think of it more as days fished and not hours. 10+ hours fished is a full day and anything less to me is a 1/2 day. I averaged at least 1 fish per full day, but not quite 2. So, I guess I'm in the 10-12 hour range per fish for me, not counting other peoples catches in my boat. |
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| Its not hard to count your hours and fish, count them when you aren't fishing?? |
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Posts: 169
Location: Houlton, WI | some people say 1000 some say 10000, i think 1000 more realistric |
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | boy... reading about all this success is really making me crappy 
I'm lucky if i boat one a weekend. |
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| That's kind of old adage, Musky being the fish of 10,000 casts. It's certainly much less with many of the advantages we have with electronics, boats, knowledge, etc.
Maybe it was 10,000 cast in Grandads’ time---using oars in a wooden boat. But if you do some loose math (one cast and retrieve taking 1 minute), that's 60 casts an hour, or only 600 in a 10-hour day. USUALLY, there's a fish in the boat in a day for most these days. 10,000 casts would be---what---166 hours, or 20, 8-hour days?
I think we've whittled that down a bit from the days of wooden boats and oars when it that saying was launched.
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Posts: 380
Location: Michigan | Here is a sample of the stats I kept for the year i referenced. No big fish, but not bad for numbers... Sorry for the quality of the text... Can't figure out how to get better image...
Edited by Chadster 5/15/2009 5:53 PM
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Posts: 1287
Location: WI | In 2007 I caught 15 muskies in about 140hrs of fishing. 3-4 were short or around 30", one was 50". In 2008 I caught 9 with 2 under 30", and the median length around 40" vs 34" from 07. I fished approx 150hrs on 08. Largest in 08 was 43.5".
I think my numbers would be better if I fished longer hours per outing vs. just more outings. Lots of times I only head out for 2-4 hours before work or get blown/rained off the lake.
I fish both numbers lakes and lakes with trophy potential. My learning curve in increasing over the past 2 seasons. I hate to think how many I would have caught in 07 if I had figure 8'd all the time like I did in 08. Whoops.
To make it more interesting, I think I saw/follow/lost/etc about 30 additional muskies in 08. So I did have a lot more action than 07, even if I caught fewer fish. I don't count fish that others boated in my boat either (which would probably be about 2 in 07, and 3 ??? in 08 if I remember right).
I do skip around and try new lakes and different presentations (trolling for example) too which I think would lower my percentages.
Edited by JKahler 5/15/2009 8:45 PM
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Posts: 103
| I keep track of everything I can each year. It gives me something to look through each winter. In 2007 I fished 360.5 hours and caught 15 Muskies. Which would be 24 hours per fish. Lat year I fished 322.5 hours and boated 21 Muskies. Which would equal 15.5 hours per fish. I counted every musky I caught. |
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| Troy, I didn't keep track of man hours but with about 625 hours, I would say 500 of them I had a partner in the boat, so 1125 man hours 168 fish....
my personal ratio was a fish for every 6.7 hours in the boat but I don't look at it that way and look at the boat as one/team and figure it out that way, an avg we as a team/boat put a fish in the net under 3.75 hours on the water.
I also only count/keep track of fish over 30".
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Posts: 1220
| Well, here's my attempt at "Muskie Math 101." I'm guessing that if you track a whole lot of tournaments, and grant a little respect for the majority of the anglers being somewhat skilled, and the waters being somewhat decent--you will find a average tournament catch rate of about 15%. Now if you then take (let's say) 8 hours for a tournament day times a hundred guys to produce those 15 fish, then you have 15 fish into 800 hours or 53 angler hours per caught fish. Another way of looking at the same number is that you would need to fish 9 hours a day for almost six days to get the one musky that you have coming. Naturally, you also have to keep in mind that tournaments eliminate all the early daybreak and evening hours that can be so productive, to say nothing about no night times at all. Personally, I believe my own catch rate to be something around two legal fish for a hard fished three day weekend-sun up to sun down. Marty Forman |
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Posts: 1168
| Tournament numbers once again only give a raw number that is broken down into an hour per fish ratio. To me it needs to go farther so I won't use the data provided by tournament numbers for a hardcore analysis. If I can get verification on some of the other factors then it is a wealth of information. For instance...the PMTT that was held on Petenwell a few years back. Fish were caught shallow and fish were reportedly caught deep trolling bulldawgs. An hour to fish ratio is only beneficial in that regard if those two tactics are pulled out and examined on their own. How many hours were spent trolling bulldawgs like that by the entire field? How many hours were spent by the entire field up shallow? That's information that we don't have. Sure, if you start to see high numbers of fish being caught it does turn some heads but to me it's because out of a field of 30 or so boats you'll know that a wide variety of tactics are being used.
When I have been a judgeboat for some local tournaments I have worked with our fishery manager to provide him with a bunch of info that could be useful for him. Temps, depths, time of day, baits, locations, etc. When we've done this he's been along with me and we were also tagging fish for a project he is working on. Spending full days on the water with a biologist who is looking for this information has just increased my personal desire to use any variables possible. The biologist is not Pointerpride...when I fish with him we usually talk all day long about what TJ has told either of us that has made us laugh and/or shake our heads.
I won't put my info into graphs like Chadster does but I will run tables with a handful of other variables included.
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Posts: 264
| It always frustrates me when you here of first-time muskie anglers that go out and catch a fish in their first ten casts. Especially when you go out and try for days at a time and get no breaks that fall your way. So i guess to answer your question it can range from any side of the spectrum |
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Posts: 55
| too many casts, not enough fish! that's my ratio |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | tmusky,
It sounds like you and I have the same ratio.
I don't EVEN want to know, it would spoil all the fun that I thought I was having, Ha,Ha,Ha......
I don't care, just let me get out on the water and chuck some baits in the right direction of some muskies..
Jerome |
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Posts: 724
Location: Southern W.Va. | Fished this weekend for about 8 hours with no fish , so my ratio has dropped from 1 fish every 10 hrs. to 1 every 15hrs.
Still had fun!!
Mauser |
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Posts: 425
Location: Roseau | Trolling on LOTW here are the stats.
Avg. size = 40.5"
Total Hours = 71
Total fish = 16
Avg. Hours per fish = 4.4375
Thanks |
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| fisher, thanks alot !!... thats what I was looking for without all the fanfare |
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Posts: 425
Location: Roseau | No problem, I wont even post my casting results, I am a very unlucky caster!! |
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Posts: 717
Location: Grand Rapids, MI | Last year, I was at about a 10hr/fish average. Some days I'd go for 2 hours and bag one. Other times, I wouldn't get one until the 3rd outing. This year has been tough for me so far. about 30 hours in, and only one fish to show for it. Hopefully it gets a little better! I've been able to trigger them, just haven't got them all the way to the net. |
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Posts: 444
Location: Indiana | Fished the Indiana Muskie Classic this weekend. It was a tough bite. I don't know the total number of fisherman, but this is a reasonable estimate.
90 boats
180 fisherman
22 hours of fishing per fisherman
32 fish caught
Yields 124 man hours hours per fish. Like I said, it was a tough bite. |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Thats not bad, for a Tournament
Jerome |
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Posts: 33
Location: NE Ohio | You wisconsin boys don't know how lucky you got it.... I was up to about 120 hrs (some from last year) and finally netted a 39 last weekend..
I fish rivers and lakes here- there is a ton of pressure with few numbers of fish. When leesville (best numbers lake in Ohio) gets really hot- expect to be 5th or 6th boat in a line trolling a shore... Then the bass fisherman are throwing their spinnerbaits all year hooking a few and educating them.. Fun. Fun.  |
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Location: Contrarian Island | this May has started off pretty dang slow so far...72 hours in, 9 over 30" in the net with 4 lost...have had action from from 104 fish though...some big ones were moving yesterday ...one was pushing 50"
Edited by MSKY HNR 5/22/2009 3:58 PM
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Posts: 2753
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | The question was "Ratio fish per hours fished". It said nothing about legal versus 26" - In Rhode Island a 26" muskie is legal- there is no size limit.... For me worst was 1996-2002 Zero fish with very limited hours fishing. Moved back to WI, and went on the 1st MF Cass Lake Outing & broke the spell (~ 40 hrs - 1 fish -> a 44"). Saw & had on other fish. But that 44" spotted was sweet! My best in WI has been 9 fish in the net in ~7 hours of total fishing time - fishing alone. Best in Canada was 17 fish in ~ 60 hrs of total on the water time fishing muskies with my good buddy Mike Hoffmann on a fly-in. We also fished laker's and smallies on that trip. It varies, location , time of year, weather, feeding windows, live with it or become a couch potato! If you're fishing muskies to just catch fish, maybe you should try another sport or species.
Have fun!
Al |
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Posts: 724
Location: Southern W.Va. | My best week was in '03 on LOTW at the outing with MuskyFirst on Cedar Island. Caught 13 muskys in 6 days of fishing. Probably averaged about 12 hr of fishing a day. Can't even think of how many I saw or lost, probably another 10 or 12 as bloom was kinda bad and water off-colored. Still 1 musky for every 6 hrs fished or there abouts ain't too bad in my book. Best day was 5 fish with 2 days with no fish. Caught my largest there, a 45"er, but saw my 1st 50" fish while fishing with Steve Jonesi on " 10 Cast Bay" ( just what I call it).
For what it's worth
Mauser |
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