Letting the Numbers Do the Talking

Had an email yesterday from my friend and fellow blogger, Charlie, talking about the fact he had had "another miserable day" on the water. He had gone to Straight Creek, where, as he noted, "even the fly rod let me down."

Yesterday's trip marked the second consecutive one that Charlie had planned to skip doing a blog post about until one of his readers urged him to write it up. "We want to see the good, with the bad," she said.

When Charlie had finished the post, he decided to research his bass stats for the past few years. Here is what he found:

2012 (as of Sept. 1) - 514

2013 (as of Sept. 1) - 521

2014 (as of Sept. 1) - 399

2015 (as of Sept. 1) - 286

"At this rate, I'll end 2015 with 429," said Charlie. "Sure hope this current trend doesn't continue into 2016."

Here's how his full-year totals look when combining all species that he caught:

2010 - 553

2011 - 568

2012 - 866

2013 - 799

2014 - 627

"Looks like we were spoiled by the 2012 and 2013 numbers," continued Charlie. "Back in the mid- to late-1990s, I was an 'ultra light with a beetle spin aficionado' and once during that period had more than 1,500 bass, including, of course, a plethora of dinks. Than I switched to much larger baits, and the numbers dropped by more than half, but the quality of bass caught took a big jump.

"My best year for big bass was last year when I recorded 19 fish over 3 pounds. So far this year, I have only 3 in that range. My math tells me I should finish the year with 5, if I'm lucky," Charlie concluded.

There is a certain amount of irony in all of this because, earlier in the day, I had spent some time mulling over the possibility of a blog post along these same lines. It follows several recent conversations I've had with different anglers, some of whom are "pretty good sticks," but who currently are struggling somewhat.

Using the same years as Charlie researched for his bass totals, I checked our tourney stats and came up with the following numbers:

2012 (thru August) - 592 bass weighed, for a total of 1112.60 lbs.

2013 (thru August) - 522 bass weighed, for a total of 1040.89 lbs.

2014 (thru August) - 609 bass weighed, for a total of 1163.46 lbs.

2015 (thru August) - 539 bass weighed, for a total of 968.52 lbs.

Make what you will of these numbers. They're provided for informational purposes only. I'm no numbers analyst, so you won't get any grand predictions. The only personal goal I have for the rest of the year is to get a little bit closer to my 192 total from last year than the 130 bass I've caught to date. With any luck, the frog bite will turn on, and I'll clean up with it--and if you believe that, let me tell you about my oceanfront property for sale in Arizona.