Trophy Hunting

[polkaroo79]

Introduction

The purpose of this thread is to help people interested in winning a trophy. This will be a compilation of tips, ideas, and information from everyone, and I will merely be consolidating/updating the info on the front page.

It is my belief that a trophy hunt can be broken down to:

75% time and effort
20% finances
5% skill

We can argue those numbers, but the basic principle is that the time and effort are more important than the gold or skill requirements for a trophy.

I'm not an expert, but there are a lot of talented fishers in this guild who have won lots of trophies before, and so I hope we can get everyone's input and put together something that helps all of us, whether it is our first time going for a trophy or whether we're interested in pursuing a different trophy.

Feel free to post your advice and information, and I will constantly update the first page with this info for everyone.

Post 01 - Introduction - You Are Here
Post 02 - Time Management
Post 03 - Mind Management
Post 04 - Gold Management
Post 05 - Reserved  

[polkaroo79]

Time Management

A lot of first-time trophy hunters try to fish as much as they can in a day, then repeat the process. While you do need to fish a lot, fishing without a plan can often lead to burnout, which is why so many drop out of the hunt within the first week or two.

This section will cover managable schedules (stolen borrowed from other places) as well as different ways to reach your goals, including filtering strategies and average points per hour. You don't have to match these numbers, but they give you an average to start from.

Trophy Schedule:
All figures may vary depending on competition. A special thank you to Pearlystar for digging out figures.

Low and high range are daily averages based on the low and high trophy winners from the past few months. Silver is not projected yet, as it is a bit more unpredictable and is closer to the gold range but ahead of the bronze. More info will come on this. All projections based on a 30-day month.

Bass'ken: 1.6 to 2.4K - Bronze. 4.7 to 6.0K - Gold.
Gambino: 3.7 to 7.0K - Bronze. 12.6 to 14.8K - Gold.
Durem: 6.0 to 13.3K - Bronze. 15.9 to 20.3 - Gold.
Junk: 8K - Bronze. 20K - Silver. 25K - Gold.* Junk numbers are estimates and vary due to no official stats being tracked.

Per Hour Schedule:
Once you've figured out the point totals you need to get above, you need to figure out how you want to gain those points. Below are different strategies per lake.

Shows lake, point expectation per hour, type of filtering, type of bait, rod/cast, and submitter. If cast is not mentioned, it's assumed to be as far as possible.

Bass'ken:
1.0 to 1.2K - filter out junk and yellow guppies - Grade A - DRP - Polkaroo79

Gambino:
1K - filter out junk - Grade F - Ariela Steadfast
1.5 to 1.8k - filter out junk - Grade D - DRP/not a full cast - Pearlystar
1.8-2.4K - filter out junk - Grade A - DRP or PRP - Pararrayos22
2K - filter out junk/green seedkins - Grade A - Ariela Steadfast

Durem:
1.6 to 2.2k - no filtering - Grade F - SRP/not a full cast - Pearlystar
3.2 to 5.8K - filter out junk - Grade A - Ariela Steadfast

Junk:
50 to 70 pieces - at Durem - Grade F - Ariela Steadfast

Post 01 - Introduction
Post 02 - Time Management - You Are Here
Post 03 - Mind Management
Post 04 - Gold Management
Post 05 - Reserved  

[polkaroo79]

Mind Management

This is where you learn to overcome the challenges that come up in the trophy hunt. Right now, three simple sections:

General Advice
- Fish on day 1. There's no worse feeling than starting off behind everyone and trying to play catch-up.
- If you have a pace for the month in mind, beat it for the first few days if you can. You will feel better being ahead of your pace, plus you may intimidate your competition.

Trying To Catch Up
- Scoreboard Stalking: Don't stalk the person you're chasing. Pick someone stagnant. Then you can see how much ground you've been making, and it constantly goes down.

Trying To Stay Ahead
- Scoreboard Stalking: Again, pick someone stagnant so you see the lead increasing.
- Add to the lead. If your opponent has gone to bed or stopped for the day, tack on another 1K to your lead at least. There's nothing more frustrating than waking up to find the lead has increased while you slept.

More to come...

Post 01 - Introduction
Post 02 - Time Management
Post 03 - Mind Management - You Are Here
Post 04 - Gold Management
Post 05 - Reserved  

[polkaroo79]

Gold Management

Post 01 - Introduction
Post 02 - Time Management
Post 03 - Mind Management
Post 04 - Gold Management - You Are Here
Post 05 - Reserved  

[polkaroo79]

Reserved

Post 01 - Introduction
Post 02 - Time Management
Post 03 - Mind Management
Post 04 - Gold Management
Post 05 - Reserved - You Are Here