For me, a quality trout fishery is where there is a good number of fish over 17" with a good chance of catching some fish over 20". Of course skill and experience will affect the catch rates. If you fish all day and catch a good number of fish that are all under 14", I wouldn't call that a quality fishery. It is true that a lake stuffed with huge fish doesn't offer much challenge. I've had some fun fishing in high density/huge fish scenarios. It gets old pretty quick unless you challenge yourself to catch the fish in a more difficult way. I'm looking for the opportunity to catch a few fish over 4lbs MOST days that I head out. I realize catch rates change between days, but experienced anglers always seem to catch most of the fish. Someone once said 10% of the fishermen catch 90% of the fish. The numbers seem too be not to far off. So even if I don't catch the fish over 4lb, I would like them to be present for the opportunity.
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