BLOG: Quantity or quality?

During a hot bite do you make hay while the sun shines and reel in school fish hand over fist or are you likely to forgo the action and aim for a trophy?

Catching a large specimen of any species is one of the most rewarding achievements in our sport - a hefty mulloway shimmering in the late afternoon sun or a trophy king that pushes your gear to the limits are prize catches in my neck of the woods, however, the larger specimens are often wily and far less common. I guess they don't grow to be that size by making silly mistakes!

The effort required to go trophy hunting can sometimes mean you use significantly larger baits or fish locations and techniques that preclude the capture of smaller, schooling fish and you can often come home empty handed. In contrast however, when kings are schooling over the inshore and offshore reefs in plague proportions, they're generally a smaller class of fish that are kamikaze like in their approach to life, often hitting baits and lures with gusto. When I know the fish are on, I'll often duck out at the first inkling and in a guerilla style session will fish hard for a short session to land and release a stack of little fellas, which really is great fun.

"Remember that 20 kilo fish we landed mate" or "remember that day we caught a bucket load ... there were fish everywhere"; these sort of comments highlight experiences that leave endearing memories that last a lifetime. Generally though, you won't experience the two scenarios together.

Some days I'll want non-stop action and other days I'll be happy to press my luck to chase a trophy. Quality or quantity - I'm undecided on what I’d pick if I could only choose one. Luckily I'm not forced to choose so I'll happily chase the little fellas if they're around then spend a few possibly slower sessions in hope of landing a trophy! How about you?