Okay, with my forum/computer/browser issues, I've decided to try a different browser with yall.

Anyways, so if you got a LMB, lets say it's a 5-6 pounder, in a public lake, how many times has that fish potentially been caught?

I would assume it got caught multiple times when it was younger, but lesser and lesser as it matured. So do we speculate 3-4 times, 6-8 times? or what?

It depends upon who catches it. Is it a responsible person educated in fish handling and a quality release, or some dufus who dances around with the fish for 5 minutes before chucking it back into the water like a football? One can never know.

I had not considered the physical aspects of the catch and release. That is a good point.

Mostly I'm thinking the number of catches before the fish realizes that line and lure might not be that palatable after all.

For about a year I cut a very small V between the #2 & #3 dorsal spines so I would know it was a bass I caught before. It was a very small V cut and would have to separate the spines to even see it. I did catch 5 or 6 I had marked, but the vast majority were not fish I had caught before. This was a 40 acre lake close to my house, and I did it just to answer the question you asked. It was clear after several months that this did not happen often. For everyone caught, there are far more in any body of water you have not caught.

I've caught the same fish from my home waters seven times in the last five years. It weighed just over 4lb. the first time 5.8 the last. All but the second time, she was caught on a 3/8oz. Arkie head jig with a craw trailer.

Pressured fish may shy away from baits they see a lot over the course of a season, but they also avoid predators they've encountered multiple times. It's survival instinct, not memory, IMO.

That’s a very good question…. I’ve seen the same fish caught within a couple hrs. My dad caught a small mouth, line broke at the shore, couple hrs later he caught it. It had his Texas rigged worm still his lip.

Now was it ever caught again, did it wise up, or meet the frying pan? I’ve often thought about that fish.

I don't think that hooking and fighting a fish really counts unless it's landed. The pulling of the fish through the water I doubt is very traumatic, but pulling it out of water, getting face to face with it, and unhooking it, that is the thing that causes a fish not to bite again.

Part of the reason I believe this is it's pretty common to catch a fish that comes off a lure upon throwing back at it.

In a private pond, I'd think around 15, but it would be caught less as it got older. In a lake, probably the same amount, but they are fished for more in a lake, but it's less likely they'll get caught cause theres so many. The only time I have knowingly caught the same fish twice was in a private pond. It gained about a third of a pound, being around 4.3lbs the second time it was caught. I knew she was the same fish because her lateral line pattern was identical when I looked at both pictures.

IDK. But I can guarantee I caught the same bass twice in one day. It was so deformed I told my buddy it was trying to die. I caught the one in my profile pic twice about a month and a couple hundred feet apart.

I’m a firm believer in once fish reach that size. They aren’t caught often. They get smart and didn’t get that big by being dumb.

Big fish don’t feed like small fish. Smaller fish feed on instinct and aggression. A large fish doesn’t eat as much or strike as much. I fish pond regular. That I just got my 6.5 pounder out of. And I mean I’ve caught a ton of fish in this pond. Over the last year. All small 1-2 pounder fish the big ones aren’t dumb and are a lot more selective. That big girl I caught may not bite again this year.

This will be an outlier in the data but I caught this fish twice 5 days apart.. in the same spot, I also had my worm pulled under a log and shook in the same spot 3 times in 3 weeks leading up to the first catch… I finally showed up with a frog ready for straight braid violence… second catch was on a Booyah Pond Magic Spinnerbait just outside the pads she’d been living under.

Interesting responses, thanks everyone for sharing.

4 hours ago, Bazoo said:

Interesting responses, thanks everyone for sharing.

Nice to see ya back man. And we always called the fish that got off at the bank. If ya could see them it was a sportsman’s release lol

Fun topic and nice to see you again Bazoo. I can definitely weigh in on this (pun definitely intended) - as I have caught a couple big girls multiple times (some in multiple bodies of water across multiple years) and others I have only caught one time and then they seem to learn my “presence” and avoid me before I even get a chance.

I truly believe it depends on the individual fish and not all of them are created equal. Some of them will never get caught and some of them will be caught many many times and then everything in between also happens. It just depends on the critter you’re dealing with and the way her brain works vs the other ones. I like catching the dumb ones. 🙂

Thankfully every school has a runt - even the big girl wolf packs. 🤣

Glad to be back. Thanks for sharing.