Fishing

What has been the toughest fish for you personally to reel in? For me it would be my most recent cutbow I caught the otherday 23" 5 pounds. here is a couple pics my son wouldnt let me throw them back so we kept two of them... first picture is a 22.5 inch hen cutbow caught her on a 1.5 inch cutt'r bug second picture is a 23 inch buck cutbow also caught him on the 1.5 inch cutt'r bug. that was the ticket caught three of these in 40 min time..

these on a day like that






on an 8wt 9ft Sage z-axis

I caught a 3.11 smallmouth on a crappie jig using a St. Croix ultralight and 2lb test. It ran at will, and I could feel my rod flexing all the way down to the cork. I had a kokanee do the same thing, it actually passed the boat it was running so much.

For us first is a 45" plus Tiger Muskie on the cast..second is a 45" plus Tiger Muskie on a short line troll. Talk about a heart pumping experience with a hot fish...ohhhh boy....

I would have to say that the fish that have fought the best are all of the monsters that I have had on but got away!

Besides those, then I would say fresh run salmon on the coast.

The 24 in trout through a little ice hole was nerve racking, thought I was ginna have to cut a bigger hole. The 8 1/2 foot sturgeon was from the bank and jumped 6 times, bout wore me out, afterwards I rebaited and recasted. Any body want to go sturgeon fishing on tuesday let me know. Lower Salmon boat ramp in Gertrude.

Tight lines . . . . Dale :)

For me it was a skate. I hooked this fish in Prince William Sound. Took all of 400 yards of line then I fought it to within 25 ft of the boat and it took off again. After 4 times doing this I landed the Skate. It was about 4 ft long but the hood acted like a kite and the tide was going out. The next was last May 2012, I caught a 100 lb. tarpon south of Tampa, Fl. Great trip but no picts.

Skates put up a pretty good fight. I remember jigging for squid at night when I used to live near Seattle and watching a guy in a dinky pool toy type rubber raft getting towed around by one for like an hour. He finally got it to the surface, and ended up cutting the line because there was no way he could get it in the boat. Unfortunately he managed to opo a hole in the boat during the process and barely made it back to the boat launch.

Smallmouth for me, though maybe I should have voted for the channel catfish that took off with my pole. I was about to leave, so I set it down against a bush. I had caught another and it was on a stringer tied to the roots. As I bent over to untie the stringer, another one hit the bait, causing the pole to launch right off my back. I stood up and saw the pole under the water. Waded in after it, but the fish made another lunge and it was gone. Ran back to my car where I had another pole and threw my wet shoes and in the trunk. I tried to snag it unsuccessfully by casting around for an hour.

When I gave up, I went to get my other fish and found the stringer had come loose and it had swam away. I was pretty ticked off at myself, but not as ticked as when I found my keys were missing. I ended up walking barefoot to a gas station a half a mile away, waiting for my dad to get home after his night shift ended and having him drive for an hour to come pick me up. We had to come back the next day to get my car. The only lucky thing about that day was I didn't have to call a locksmith. It turned out I had dropped them on the trail where the park ranger found them instead of locking them in the trunk.

Fresh Water: Sturgies and Alaskan King Salmon.

Salt: Tuna, Billfish

Those are some good looking fish. I caught a 20"



and a 22" bow



on a 4wt in a river a few weeks back that both put up great fights. The 20" ran me right into my backing almost immediately, the 22" didn't but leaped in spectacular fashion and ran me up and down the run for about 10 minutes.

Other contenders would be the 26" walleye I caught on the fly,


a river dwelling carp I caught on a 3wt, every bluefish I ever caught, a few incidental tiger musky I caught on a light action rod while fishing for bass,



or any of the smallies over 16" that I've caught.




It's hard to pick just one really.

I went hunting in Alaska in the 90s and got my first graphite rod and Spider Wire to take along. The first cast by the tent, I hooked a grayling and was shocked and amazed the way the vibrations came from the fish to me. Everything seemed to rattle, after a lifetime of monofilament and glass rods. I suppose it still feels the same, but now I am used to it and don't notice.

I noticed that too, even going from IM6 graphite to higher modulus rods, and definitely when I started using Power Pro a lot. You can feel every movement of the fish so clearly.

lb for lb of the trout, I would have to say that the kamloops and brookies for me are in the same ball park. Not sure on warm water stuff. Cuttys tend to roll over and play dead unless the water is cold. The kamloops bows they planted in blackfoot res a few years ago are tanks when you get them on.

Kamloops are awesome. They stock them in the reservoirs around Preston too. I've been towed around in my tube by a number of them.

Tuna in Salt
Silver Salmon in fresh.
At least pound for pound.
Big sharks fight pretty hard but I've yet to land one over 6 ft- which is fine with me anyway.

Striped bass....Hands down.

Cats fight harder than almost anything. Except Sturgeon. Trout will jump and they have an explosive start but in my opinion they don't have the staying power.

Of course I voted other because Sturgeon fight harder than ANY fish in Idaho. For my best fight I caught a Sturgeon in the 7 foot range with a 6.5 foot trout rod. The Reel was a Mitchell 400 spinning reel with 30 pound test. I caught this fish in my inflatable pontoon. This fish tried to wrap my legs in the line. It tried to land on my jumping. This fish jumped 7 times and threw everything at me. It was epic. Ron

Here is the pic and video.

http://www.youtube.com/...=channel&list=UL

Amen brother. Love the Kamloop The Cutts at Henry's however have straightened many a hooks and I am not talking little hooks.
I had a rather large Rainbow at Strawberry that fought amazingly long and hard.
CARP. Big 30+" carp on a 6 wt rod in the river.

Spring Chinook in small tribs. Have had a few go unbelievably crazy. One on the SF Salmon actually ran to the opposite bank, jumped on to land, and flopped 5-10 yards up the shore before returning to the water and breaking me off. All that occured in the blink of an eye.

honorable mention goes to big smallmouth, steelhead within spitting distance of salt, and sturg gotta be in the mix somewhere.

Idaho: 27lb carp on a 7 weight rod that I had to shoot to land; it ran me into my backing so many times that I couldn't get it close enough to net it. A week later, my fishing buddy caught a 32lb carp on a 7 weight rod that he couldn't stop either. We tag teamed that one. Or trying to land two 6lb plus Kamloops that I hooked at the same time while fishing from my pontoon boat. In Alaska, before I even knew what was happening, my first King jumped 200 yards down stream from me. I put on the rodeo just trying to catch up to it! In Canada, it is hard to beat catching large pike on a fly rod. I haven't had that much fun or laughed that hard or ever had such chewed up hands. In the magic lake, pike will chase a large mouse pattern like a shark chasing a seal. Or throw them a frog pattern to see them come out of the water to attack it!

I said "other"

I can't choose between my last Chinook Salmon (14 lbs),
my largest Steelhead (9 lbs) or my biggest Lake Trout (14 lbs) or the biggest Coho Salmon that I never landed (? lb).

I would have to cast my vote for the ocean-caught coho. I love how they get about half-way out of the water and literally fly across the ocean surface at incredible speeds. The schizophrenic salmon! Mike

Mine would have to be the 51# Kenai King I caught in 2008. Close second may be 108# Halibut that just didn't want to come up to the boat. 3rd place goes to 8 lb pike caught through the ice on 4lb line while chasing perch.

Those are probably the best, but as we all know... every fish we get on the line is an awesome experience!

Fly,

Show your biggest? Please. Here are mine.Smoked.

Idaho

My biggest I posted on the Henry's post, but here are a couple others


Carp, this is one of the bigger