WOW, those Sailfish and Mahi are the largest I ever seen!!!
What the biggest fish you ever caught?
- Thread starter Ash
- Start date
This striped bass a couple of years ago
damn....how big was that beast? U caught that in Vegas????
I routinely caught steelhead in the 10-15 lb. range on Lake Michigan, and my biggest was well over 20.
Other than that, I caught a 40 lb. white sturgeon on the Columbia River, but that's actually pretty small. At the time, the smallest you could keep was 48"...
AZR
Other than that, I caught a 40 lb. white sturgeon on the Columbia River, but that's actually pretty small. At the time, the smallest you could keep was 48"...
AZR
LOL!!!! I love it when you catch a BIG-ASS fish, that's big to YOU and everyday average Joes, but then you realize that it's only a small fraction of it's potential size
Welcome to site, if you haven't been welcomed yet, always love to see more fishermen/fisherwomen here
Thanks. Yeah, there is a particular slough on the river from an old sawmill that was rumored to house an 18' and a 22' sturgeon. I never saw them myself, and I know they rarely get close to that size, but those are truly monsters.
Sturgeon are pretty phenomenal fish in general, ancient and enormous and delicately hanging in the balance between humans and overharvesting......I think the initial shock of seeing a 20' fish in FW would put most in a state of disbelief. I read an article a few years ago about a sturgeon being found here in the Phila/Tri-state area in the lower Schuylkill river for the 1st time in a century. While this river is the embodiment of jokes and sneered for pollution and being dirty and filthy, despite all this I have noticed a drastic increase in life, all the while it seems to be getting healthier and healthier every year since I was a kid. While heavily overfished, the smaller creatures on the food chains seem to be thriving and for the 1st time ever, I noticed Killifish in shallow pools of the dams' tailwaters, and various baitfish and small gamefish also thriving in areas where large Flathead catfish are abundant - of which people claim the Flatheads are eating all the gamefish however I don't understand why there would be an abundance of SMALLER ones in that case. I would expect there to be very FEW small ones if that were the case, since most catches occur on baitfish in the 3"-10" range.
Well it is called fishing and not catching for a reason.
I would think that the smaller gamefish that people aren't catching are probably feeding off of the pollution instead of their natural foods, so most people aren't catching them because their baits are too life-like instead of mimicking the garbage. I bet some wacky presentations are probably more successful.
But if they have to blame their lack of success on predators rather than their ability to present a bait that elicits a strike response, then so be it.
Furthermore, if Fish and Game felt that the proportion of flatheads was too high, they would raise the limit, lower the catch size, and promote them as a desirable and available species to fish for.
AZR
I would think that the smaller gamefish that people aren't catching are probably feeding off of the pollution instead of their natural foods, so most people aren't catching them because their baits are too life-like instead of mimicking the garbage. I bet some wacky presentations are probably more successful.
But if they have to blame their lack of success on predators rather than their ability to present a bait that elicits a strike response, then so be it.
Furthermore, if Fish and Game felt that the proportion of flatheads was too high, they would raise the limit, lower the catch size, and promote them as a desirable and available species to fish for.
AZR
the flatheads were introduced and are labelled "invasive" - unlimited size and creel limits, but the "kill-on-sight" law is no longer in effect as people are starting to embrace them realizing the chances of extirpating an introduced species, especially where they thrive
