During normal angling, the law of averages suggests you will catch the odd specimen sized fish, but we must accept these are lucky captures, notable though they are. There was no intent on our part to deliberately catch it. To move on from this to become a consistently successful specimen hunter you’ll need to change your whole fishing philosophy.
To achieve the consistent capture of bigger fish, you first need to define, in your mind, exactly what your target is and then devise a strategy to achieve it.
Where and how do you start? Here are some of the key things that will set you on your way to becoming a successful specimen hunter.
WHAT CONSTITUES A SPECIMEN FISH?
If you are a member of a club or national federation, chances are you should already have access to a specimen fish list governing the weights you need to achieve. National lists are ok but are likely to be based on overall weights across the whole country and not necessarily applicable regionally.
This can be a disadvantage if, for instance, you want to target bass north of a line drawn between The Wash and Anglesey. Specimen bass are far more common south of that rough line than they are to the north and more so the further south you fish. If you want a 10lb bass and live in the north of Scotland, you’re more than up against it and would obviously need
