What's the biggest fish you've ever caught, and what was the story behind it?
Feb 15, 2024 15:08:45 #
E.pa.al wrote:
Great fish John👍
Thanks Al, I don’t consider myself a Musky fisherman, but I lost one close to 60” right next to the boat while in HS. I hooked it on a #5 light blue, floating Rapala as we were crappie fishing. I was in the bow (with the tail beneath me) and my buddy tried to net it from the back of the 14’ boat we were in. Had we gotten that fish in the boat with us, we would have been torn up! FYI, there was a third fisherman between us in the boat.
All this on my Dad’s old Zebco 33!
Feb 15, 2024 15:17:49 #
Papafisher
Loc: Washington
84" sturgeon
Fishing for Chinook salmon when we hooked this one. My brother handed off the pole...said "I've caught lots of these, someone else take it." I fought it for 45 minutes, and we ended up downstream about 1/4 mile before it finally gave up. Measured it and released it. My brother was laughing, "You did everything wrong and still pulled it in!"
Was on my birthday...best present ever!
Fishing for Chinook salmon when we hooked this one. My brother handed off the pole...said "I've caught lots of these, someone else take it." I fought it for 45 minutes, and we ended up downstream about 1/4 mile before it finally gave up. Measured it and released it. My brother was laughing, "You did everything wrong and still pulled it in!"
Was on my birthday...best present ever!
Feb 15, 2024 17:02:05 #
I caught an 86lb Yellowfin Tuna on an overnight Canyon trip, back in the '90s. We were 90 miles offshore at Fishtails at Block Canyon, on my first 2 day trip. We had been caching a bunch of 35-50lb Yellowfin and Albacore all evening, and were getting tired. When I hooked this one, I knew it was bigger. It ran me completely around the 93' boat, but with a little help from one of the deck mates, we got a gaff in it. It was the biggest fish of the trip till 9am the next morning when one of the mates caught a 300 pounder, right before we started heading back in.
Feb 15, 2024 17:38:35 #
Ted A
Loc: Eastern Washington
Mine was a paddlefish that was 6' long and weighed around 84# above Fort Peck reservoir in the Missouri. Threw all the black roe back in for the fish to eat. Didn't know that people ate that stuff. The color just looked wrong.
Feb 15, 2024 19:14:18 #
MindfulMuser2246 wrote:
I don't have much to brag about, so for now just want to hear from more experiences anglers. Maybe as an inspiration for those days when it feels like I'm never getting a bite.
Caught an Eagle Ray in OCMD July 2022. It measured 51” from wing tip to tip, guesstimate it at 45#s because I have caught 25#ers and this one was much heavier. The tail was missing too. It took around 20-30 mins. to get it in because it ran up and down the coast, the drag was humming, taking line like crazy. By the time I got it in, unhooked, and released, I had an audience. It was fun and a good memory…
Feb 15, 2024 23:31:27 #
Personal best large mouth was in a 2day pro/am tournament at the Sacramento delta in Calif. Bass went 10.54#’s
Ended up taking 2nd place over all out of 98 anglers.
Ended up taking 2nd place over all out of 98 anglers.
Feb 16, 2024 06:04:38 #
Feb 16, 2024 07:42:39 #
7 ft plus sand tiger shark fishing for flounder with 7 ft rod and 17lb test pulled my 16 ft boat all over the lower Delaware bay. Lucky to have loran c on the boat or I would have been lost. Got him to the boat laying on his side. My buddy reaches out and touches him and a wall of water soaked the entire boat and he snaps the line. Probably 80-100 lbs. I have pics but it was 95 before I had a phone lol. Mike
Feb 16, 2024 09:06:59 #
Got a 137 pound halibut in Alaska in 1994 I think. Don’t have any digital pics. On same trip I got a large king that the guide said weighed about 55 pounds. We couldn’t boat it because king season was out.
Both are my best for total weight.
Both are my best for total weight.
Feb 16, 2024 10:04:23 #
HooknJack
Loc: Orland Ca.
My p b was a white sturgeon caught in the columbia river just out of Astoria. I was out of my 22 foot boat we could not take it out of the water but he was almost as long as the boat and we gussed he was close to 1000 lbs.
Feb 16, 2024 10:50:29 #
MindfulMuser2246 wrote:
I don't have much to brag about, so for now just want to hear from more experiences anglers. Maybe as an inspiration for those days when it feels like I'm never getting a bite.
not my biggest fish, but my biggest trout. (1956) 12 years old (junior mbr) anglers club, fly fishing. 5W rod, 2# tippet, #18 royal coachman. after fighting the fish for 45 minutes and being pulled into the water right up to the top of my waders, I finally netted what turned out to be a 26" rainbow. Barely fit in the net. everyone wanted me to have it mounted but I said nope and walked it around until it could swim away. no one at the club ever caught that fish again. best I've been able to since is 23" brown out of the west Branch of the Penobscot.
Feb 16, 2024 11:27:05 #
bapabear
Loc: Blaine, Washington
ripogenu wrote:
not my biggest fish, but my biggest trout. (1956) ... (show quote)
Totally cool. I never caught anything out of the Penobscot. That might be because I did not fish it much. There were so many small ponds near Castine that kept me busy with their great largemouth fishing. I did catch a good size brook trout out of the Chehalis River once when atlantic salmon fishing. That was the only trout I caught in Maine. A large brown is still on my bucket list. You did good.
Feb 16, 2024 12:21:00 #
Feb 16, 2024 13:18:18 #
Nothing so big for me; however, both my largest catches were about 35 lbs. One was an Amberjack (pictured in my profile pic) and the other was a Tarpon. The Amberjack was caught 40 off of Hilton Head Island and the Tarpon about 750 feet off of a keye in Belize. The Amberjack put up a 15 minute fight and the Tarpon about 10 minutes.
Feb 16, 2024 13:18:37 #
JackM
Loc: North East Florida
My biggest fish for decades was a 22# bluefin tuna caught on a party boat off NJ in 1971. Then I moved to Florida a few years ago. I've since caught a 33' Redfish and a 4' nurse shark. My biggest fish not caught was a shark??? that would have spooled me on the beach if I hadn't held my spool to break the line.
22 Pound bluefin
33 inch redfish
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