180” Deer or 30” Trout

[Ginja Ninja]

Happy with either, hopin' for both.

[txtrophy85]

Big deer do turn my crank but all this kick and pop breeder deer stuff has really watered down the uniqueness of them. But I'd dang sure be happy to stumble on a 180 one day..

Agree but the same can be said of Texas deer hunting in general. Low Fence, High Fence or Kicking out Breeder deer most are taken out of a blind over a feeder anyway.

Go hunt a 180" Mule deer on the side of a mountain in Colorado or Idaho and its much more of a challenge.

[TXhoghunter94]

180" low fence bow buck would be my preference

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[Calitexembalmer]

180 inch LF.

[Bruiser]

30" trout not even close

[Smart]

Go hunt a 180" Mule deer on the side of a mountain in Colorado or Idaho and its much more of a challenge.

ok...thanks for the heads up...

[breederbuck33]

I've never thought of this, and I think my answer will change depending on time of year. A true low fence Texas 180" deer probably happens less than a 30" trout though. I don't know, I've hunted and fished my whole life and I've never been close to either mark! lol I've got a couple 27" trout, and some 140" whitetail but those big marks are just goals right now. I do however have a 13 lb largemouth, but it doesn't count because it was in Florida not Texas.

[knighttime]

180" LF bow kill all day. Yes money can get you there a lot quicker but you still have to capitalize on the moment and execute.

But I'd have to agree that finding a 30" trout would be much more difficult even with money. But I don't know much about saltwater fishing so I'm biased.

[RifleBowPistol]

There are so many variables here, both can be great accomplishments. If you pay to shoot a 180 deer, on a high fence ranch, that has canned hunts. You did not really accomplish anything, other than having the money to buy a deer, that you shoot, then take home. There are many options on how you came by that money to buy the deer. You don't get any respect as any form of good hunter, just a trophy for the wall.

But you could scout most of the year on public land, map out a plan to shoot the deer and eventually after a lot of time on a stand, you finally get a shot and are successful, that deserves a lot of respect as a hunter. But really is it any hard to kill a old wise 120" buck than it is to kill a old wise 200" buck? Depends on the buck and where the buck lives. I know one of my sisters sat in a deer blind on a place we were leasing. She had never been there before, sat in the blind for 20 minutes, a nice big 8 point stepped out, she dropped it dead. That buck turned out to be the biggest buck we ever killed off of the place. We hunted the place for two years. Two weeks later, same sister sat in the same blind, for about 20 minutes again and shot a nice 19" spread 11 point. She killed the two biggest bucks, out of two years of us having that place, and she only hunted a total of 40 minutes.

A for a big trout, you could pay a guide that knows areas where big trout hang out, he will set up up with bait or lures that work best for the area, and tell you what to do. Your chances are much higher of catching a nice trout. Usually your going to catch quite a few fish before you catch a 30" plus trout. Try a lot of spots, before you pull it off and the time of year helps improve your odds, some guides know when and where it's best to catch those big trout.

But then you could do things like my mother did back in the 70s. We used to go out almost every weekend fishing. Most of what we caught were specs. We would come back with a large Igloo full of trout, back when the minimum was 12". There was not much to it, put a live shrimp on the hook toss it out and give it about three minutes typically and you had a trout on. We would catch quite a few in the 18" to 21" range, but most were 12" to 14". We were out there to fill up the Igloo, we ate a lot of fish back then. One time, were catching trout, one after another, then my mother got a bite, she set the hook and brought the trout in. As she looked down, before she went to pull it out of the water, she and I saw she had a huge trout on the line. At that point, the fish took off. She had a fight on. Before, that point, the trout fought like any other 15" or so trout. Once it saw us, it took off and gave her a fight. She landed it and we took it home. If I remember correctly, that trout was 33" or bigger. She kept that fish in the freezer for probably 15 years. She would pull it out and show people every so often.

A buddy of mine and I used to fish, fish pass all the time. We caught a lot of trout over there. We knew the area very well. The trout we caught there, ranged from 12" to 22". We caught quite a few in the 18" to 21" range. Then one day, we showed up and some guy was walking up to the bank. He had one fish on the stringer. I am pretty sure it was a 36" trout. That was a huge trout, I wished I had a camera, that day. It was hard to believe that was a trout and the guy caught it out of the same spot we fished regularly, with the same bait. He just happened to be there at the right time.

To catch big fish on a regular basis, you need to get out and fish on a regular basis, learn them, learn what they do, under different conditions, where they go at different times of the year and different conditions. If you only go fishing a few times a year, you will never going to figure that out.

Same with killing big deer on a regular basis, you need to spend a lot of time learning deer and learning how, why and when, deer move in the area you are hunting. Then if you want a big deer, you need to scout as much of the area, as you can and, to try and figure out what deer are in in what areas or travel what areas.

You got to spend a lot of time out in the area you are going to fish or hunt, to really know the area and be good at finding whatever you are after.

I used to know the bays and rivers where I grew up, very well. I had a lot of spare time and fished a lot. A lot of things have changed the bays since I last lived there, now I only go down there maybe once a year. Only going once a year, it's hard to find the fish, in one weekend. When I last lived there, Packery Channel was sanded up. Since then fish pass has sanded up and the other passes near fish pass got sanded up. So all the grass died on the back side of the island for years. Those nice sandy pockets, in the grass, we used to catch all the trout in were gone. It was just sand or marine mud bottom for many years. But after they got Packery Channel opened up, the grass came back. But now the water is flowing through at a different point. I think Packery Channel was open back in the 70s, when I was a kid. But in the 80s and much of the 90s or all of the 90s it was sanded up.

Since all of the changes to that area of the bay, I have not had the time to learn those areas again and figure out how and when to fish the areas. As well I we used to know the area, I never caught a 30+ inch trout, we caught a lot of 20" to 23" trout, but that was about it.

[Saltyag15]

Take buying a canned hunt out of the equation, I'll go for the 180" buck.

I've saltwater fished my whole life, so I know how hard it is to catch a 30" trout. I've never done it. But if I'm faced with hanging one or the other on my wall, it's a deer for me without hesitation.

[PYBUCK]

I've killed a low fence 189 with my bow, in West Texas of all places. A 120" low fence Whitetail with my bow means more to me than ANY fish.

[breederbuck33]

I didn't realize there were so many post when I posted, but I gotta say that I'm quite surprised with the difference in opinions!

[Greenheadless]

I think a lot of people who’ve caught a lot of 30+ trout use the “close enough” school of measuring.

My oldest boy caught two big trout back to back 5-6 years ago. He told a friend of mine he caught two 30” trout. When that friend asked me if it was true I said nope. One was 29 1/4, and the other was 29.5”. NOT 30”.

That’s why you should add a 30” mark on your rods like I did.

[Tabasco]

I’d take the wall hanger all day.

[Smart]

180” Deer or 30” Trout

I’d take the wall hanger all day.

They are both wall hangers...[emoji848]