Fishing

This thread is for us to pick one picture of your fish of the year. In my case it was a tough decision to make. I like catfishing so much that I wanted to pick my best cat of the year. It was an amazing year for me. I had many FANTASTIC trips for several different species. When it boils down this is my fish of the year Pontoon Sturgeon AKA the Nantucket sleigh ride. Ron

Sure do wish i knew how to post a picture from my phone. The catch wasnt even mine but my dads.. he caught a 30" 20lb carp. And my wife's catch of a 12" perch. I however havnt really caught nothing to special. Maybe my 18" lmb. Wish i could share the pictures. I dont have a computer to share them..
JEREMY R PEACE
Lava Hot Springs Idaho
83246.. and by the way reader advised there is a very good chance I am writing from my phone so there is a 99 percent chance for punctuation and spelling errors thank you for bearing with me..

It is a hard decision to choose just one.

I picked this one because it was such a beautiful cutthroat, and it totally floored me when I caught it. The stream wasn't that big, and the spot this fish was holed up in was a brushy maze that took an amazingly lucky cast to get it to the fish. After I released the fish I waded up the pool to retrieve one of my flies ( first cast wasn't so lucky! ). When I got to my fly, I found two other flies there also that someone else had donated to the same branch.

I wish I had gotten a picture that really showed the colors and vibrancy of this fish.


I thought I would add another view of this same fish. Measured along my fly rod it was about 22 inches. It sure was a fun catch!

Ron, that sturgeon is a great catch from a pontoon. If I had a catch like that I would choose it too!

Jeremy, I think I remember seeing the picture of your Dad's fish. Maybe you can look back in the posts and link to it. I would love to see your LMB too.

This king salmon hit within minutes of hitting the water. He took a kingfisher lite spoon. Emptied the spool of my saltwater reel in no time. I was fighting him while Kali was chasing him all over the ocean! 20 minutes later, she caught his twin, and the Keystone Kops routine was reversed. A good morning with 5 kings and tons of pinks. All but 8 were released. Lunddude, frequent contributor on this site, made it even better by trolling with us, and sharing info. The king weighed in at 25# on the mechanical scale, and 27.5 later on a digital scale. We were back at the docks by 10:30. I've been fishing Sekiu since the 60's, but last year was one of the best. Mike

I'll be the first to cheat. 2011 has felt like two very different years. In February I fished twice - first time a skunk and the second I was blessed with sharing a moment with this 8 foot sturgeon.



Six months later after a 6 month tour to Afghanistan I was blessed once again with a crankbait bite beyond anything I have ever seen or experienced. 8 keeper smallies on 12 casts and about 40 keepers on the day. A great memory for Dad and I.

heres mine since i only fish for bass. heres a buddies fish caught on a trip.

This was mine by far. It has been the only trout to take me to my backing in my life. And I have caught some beasts. I just couldn't get over how perfect this bow was.
www.centralpatroutbum.blogspot.com
check it out

Great pic's everyone lets see some more. Ron

Great Post!
I'll join in. Mine was a coho salmon caught from the bank on a spoon in Lewiston in early October. I didn't get any official measurements or anything before the release, but I guessed him to be around 32 - 33 inches or so and about 12 lbs.




www.bryanlikestofish.com

This is two pictures, but of the same fish. It wasn't the largest steelhead anyone has ever caught, but it was thick and beautiful.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/...00/IMGP0976-Edit.JPG

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/...00/IMGP0977-Edit.jpg



The blog, have a look.
www.livingflylegacy.com

These are from a trip down the snake river by our place in october we each landed several those being the best two. We lost a couple other nice one at the boat.

I ended up with lots of fish and memory's. The one that stands out the most was my daughters. I was so proud of her she did a perfect job landing it and the rest of the year every time someone caught a nice one she would say mine was bigger or to listen to her tell the story of how she caught it and where it was priceless to hear a 9 year old sound so grown up





Wife's best and im really thankful she was able to get out and fish this year with her 4 wheeler accident summer
before last










Great pic everyone Im glad we enjoyed time on the water with our friends and family and i hope you have an even better 2012

great day. really great day.

A lot of great pictures have been shared so far. This was my favorite fish of the year to catch. I watched him cruising the shore munching and put the sneak on him. I threw a crawdad looking wooly bugger and let it sink a few feet in front of him. A few seconds later my line started to straighten up and shot straight out. Took 15 minutes to land him with 0x and an 8 wt. Definitely the funnest fish I caught all year even if he's a little ugly.
-Shane

My Blog...Check it Out!

http://thefishhunterchronicles.com

One fish is really hard to decide on. I guess my best specimen for a particular species would have to be the 14" perch I caught while drop shotting for bass.




http://gregsfishinglog.blogspot.com/

This was one of my most memorable cause I was trying out a hopper for the first time with my Fly Rod and I saw the water swirl under it and then disappear! I had no idea what I caught and was so scared I'd never know. So I babied it in! 5.4 lbs cat!

My best catch of the year ended up being a Brookie. Never thought that would be the case.



Keep your gun powder dry and your fishing hooks wet....

My best was the giant smallie I slammed on topwater at Arrowrock...she was a beast!

I could not decide on which one so I put both. Bear lake cut or big walleye. It was a pleasure to catch each of them! i am looking forward to what this year brings. Sorry i am really going out of bounds and adding the Salmon River steel head on a fly rod also. It is hard to choose which was the most fun. Thank Idahoron for posting this, the memories from the year as i looked through the photos got me amped to get out again.

That would have to be Avery's first alaskan salmon, a nice red. After months of planning it all came together. He went on to catch 4 of the the 5 salmon species only missing out on a dog.

Very cool Rod! That boy is getting bigger. Great pics guys. Ron

This was my most memorable. I have fished the Salmon River for years and moved to Salmon in 2010 for the fishing. I had never floated the river. I always bank fished it. This fall I had the opportunity to float with some friends and it was great!!!! Plus this picture has a very rare smile on my face lol. Not this biggest steelhead I caught this year, but definitely my most memorable trip of the year.

My big walleye

I was fortunate to catch several good smallies in the Snake in 2011, but the fish below was the largest. This one went 21" and probably weighed around 5 pounds. This fish had a look to it that just said "I'm a bad boy - you wanna fight?" I hesitated to post the photo because it doesn't look anywhere as big as it was, and the mean look it had doesn't come through.


However, to reminisce a moment, the fish that I have talked about to friends the most was not photographed. I was fishing a shallow flat with a Fluke when I met the storied fish. I made a fairly long cast and as the Fluke hit the water there was a huge boil a few feet downstream and a submarine V wake torpedoed toward my bait...
Then nothing.
Nothing at all. The fish never hit the bait. Something I did was wrong and the fish turned away. This is not common with smallies, as they are very aggressive fish.
I guarantee this was a huge smallie. I returned to the area many times afterward, but never caught a picture fish from the spot.
Just wait 'til next year. It'll be even bigger, and I'm ready.
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'There is no use in your driving 200 miles to fish when you can be just as unsuccessful near home."
--Mark Twain