What's The Biggest Fish You......

[ozark trout fisher]

Well, this is not the largest trout that I have lost, but it was the largest rainbow that I had ever hooked. Back in "88", T-como was making a good recovery from the early 80's slump. It was in Oct., weekend, and I had caught 2, 8 pounders the day before at #2. Also one of the local guys named Pat, had caught a 14 pound rainbow the same day. Sunday morning # 2 was overcrowed with people, so I wandered up to # 1 for a look see. As I was fishing # 1, a huge rainbow made a swing through the outlet and continued upstream. About 20 minutes later, she came through again. I was fishing a # 10 grey sowbug, so I would lay the fly in front of her as she moved through. I could get 2 good cast on every pass. She did this pattern several times before I fooled her. Her first run was upstream, and then across. I worked her in three times before, for no good reason, the hook just pulled out. I had her on top of the water with my net dropped when the hook pulled out. Having just recently caught a 14.5 and a 15 pound rainbow, I am estimating the weight of this large female between 18 and 20 pounds. I have yet to hook another rainbow that large.

Wow! If that had worked out differently there might be a different name by Missouri's state record rainbow trout.

By the way, my best lost fish story just changed this afternoon. About 6:30 this evening I went fishing on a winter trout pond, fully expecting it to be completely fished out. Anyway, I went to a more secluded area a ways from the main access point, through out my Powerbait, and waited for fifteen minutes. When I didn't get a hit for fifteen minutes, I began to reel in, and then he hit. It was about a five pound rainbow (he came to the surface a few times, so I got a good view), but he took a big run, and I didn't have my drag set right, and he snapped that four pound line like it was a cobweb. That was the only trout I found today at all. It really wouldn't surprise me if it was the last trout in the lake.

[Bman]

Biggest fish I ever hooked that I didn't land was a tarpon in Florida, I had a guide and he told me

the fly rod I had wasn't big enough, (we wern't tarpon fishing) but I wanted to at least hook the fish, so he got me in range

told me what to do and I hooked the big tarpon, the guide figured it to be 150 + this fish jumped

and made a run, jumped again and threw the hook, well I reeled in the rig, happy I had at least

hooked the fish, just to find out I had never hooked the fish, the hook was smashed flat and was

not capable of hooking anything, the big fish had just took the fly, smashed it flat, jumped up and

laughed at us and spit it back at us, so I guess the guide was correct, I didn't have a heavy enough

outfit, kinda like walking into a gun fight with a knife

Ditto's on the Tarpon. Guide said it was 100 +

2nd was a Brown at Taney. Hooked him with 2 units coming on. I had to head for the bank...and he went to the other bank. He looked like a railroad tie in the water.

[tippett7]

My biggest fish I lost was a huge brown just below outlet 2. I was fishing in a tournament and had caught my 4 fish I needed and was pretty confident that I was in the lead, so I decided to spend the remaining time hunting big browns. I was fishing the north bank and saw a massive brown about 8 inches from the shore line. I threw my fly about 15 feet upstream from him and had a perfect drift right by his nose. He moved about 6 inches to sip in my fly and wammo the fight was on. I have caught quite a number of big browns, but nothing this size. From the looks of him he was all of 24" and maybe about 15 lbs give or take. Normally I like to land these big fish myself and bank them, it just seems easier for me, but the tournament director was there and asked if he could net him. I didn't want to be rude, so I said sure. The fish goes down to the rebar hole and then back up and then down for a second time and just as the net was w/i inches of the big brown, he shook his head one more time and broke me off. My heart was racing and I thought man that would have sealed the deal and put me in first place for sure. I got lucky though and took first place anyway.

[skeeter]

I don't care what Babler thinks, these are fun stories to read and why it's called fishin' and not catchin'.

Mine happened on The Rock in 1979 across the Lake from point 16 on the right end of that short bluff over there. I was, as usual, throwing a silver flitter Spook and walkin' it back to the boat when about halfway back I notice this large shadow right behind the Spook in the water that's still disturbed and stirred up from walkin' the dog. I thought, briefly, because of the size of the fish, " man, what a stupid carp to be following that Spook", so I slowed down and almost stopped the Spook allowing the water behind it to clear a bit. Well fellas, it wasn't a carp it was the biggest Bass I had ever seen at that time. Because the disturbed water started to clear up she started to see me and the boat and I realized that so I immediately started up the Spook again. That fish followed the Spook all the way up to the side of the boat without hitting it and I'm changing speeds and all and about having a cow ! I worked the Spook along the bluff side of the boat with about three feet of line out, around the trolling motor on the bow and down the other side and only when I went to lift the Spook out of the water in disgust, again, right alongside the boat, did that big Bass bust it ! She went straight down and pulled line off the drag of my Garcia 5000 baitcaster like I didn't have the drag cranked down at all. All I could do was hold on and pray that 10lb. Stren would hold up. She finally reached the end of her crash dive and swam back up as fast as she went down and I'm crankin' that 4.7 to 1 ratio reel fast enough to break the sound barrier trying to keep up with her and keep the line tight. Not 12 feet from the boat she did the classic big Bass surface with head shaking and gills flared wide and politely threw that Spook right back at me. I'd have to conservatively guesstimate the fish at 8 to 9 lbs but since it was post-spawn she may have been a bit less. Gave me a great thrill and an experience I will cetainly never forget.

[Al Agnew]

One fish that comes to mind...

It was my second year to flyfish in Montana...we'd gone out in mid-July, but it was the second record flood year on the Yellowstone and it wasn't quite fishable yet early in the week, so we went over to the lower Madison to do a drift trip. The Madison was up a bit as well, but fishable. It was the first time I'd really tried flinging big streamers on the fly rod--you gotta remember, I wasn't a very experienced fly fisherman at the time.

So we're drifting along this outside rip rap bank right along the highway, with the current really honking along it. I'm frantically trying to hit the little pockets in the rocks as we're flying by them. I get the big woolybugger into a nice little eddy behind a big rock, and before it even has a chance to sink this humongous brown rolls on it. I could see the fish's whole side, and it was easily as big around as my thigh. I'm in the back of the drift boat, and neither guide Tom nor buddy Tom saw the fish, but I certainly did, and shouted, "I got a giant fish on!" The fish simply shot out toward the middle of the river behind the boat, screaming the drag, and when it got to approximately the center of the river it just stopped and hung there in the current, as the boat got farther and farther and farther away, until I was far down into the backing. And then the hook pulled out. I can still picture that great brass side with spots the size of dimes when it rolled on that streamer.

[laker67]

One fish that comes to mind...

It was my second year to flyfish in Montana...we'd gone out in mid-July, but it was the second record flood year on the Yellowstone and it wasn't quite fishable yet early in the week, so we went over to the lower Madison to do a drift trip. The Madison was up a bit as well, but fishable. It was the first time I'd really tried flinging big streamers on the fly rod--you gotta remember, I wasn't a very experienced fly fisherman at the time.

So we're drifting along this outside rip rap bank right along the highway, with the current really honking along it. I'm frantically trying to hit the little pockets in the rocks as we're flying by them. I get the big woolybugger into a nice little eddy behind a big rock, and before it even has a chance to sink this humongous brown rolls on it. I could see the fish's whole side, and it was easily as big around as my thigh. I'm in the back of the drift boat, and neither guide Tom nor buddy Tom saw the fish, but I certainly did, and shouted, "I got a giant fish on!" The fish simply shot out toward the middle of the river behind the boat, screaming the drag, and when it got to approximately the center of the river it just stopped and hung there in the current, as the boat got farther and farther and farther away, until I was far down into the backing. And then the hook pulled out. I can still picture that great brass side with spots the size of dimes when it rolled on that streamer.

Seeing a huge brown with fly in mouth, is quite the experience. An experience that doesn't fade out with time. That picture will always be brightly painted in your mind. Your description, " as big around as my thigh", and Bman's, "looked like a railroad tie", are classic examples of the excitement generated by a large fish. Win or lose, it's all about the fair chase and how we played the game. When I stop and think, we "are" the victors even when the fish wins the battle.

[jay bird]

Not sure if it was the biggest, but at the time it was by far the biggest fish I had ever had on. I was about 12 and was fishing up in the San Juan islands up in the northwest corner of Washington State. We where in a 15 ft aluminum fishing boat. We got into what we called sand sharks or Dog fish ( they are just some type of shark) fishing for bottom fish. My mom had just got one up to the boat that was about 2ft long and my dad had lost his pliers. I was pulling something big in and it turned out to be a fairly good size shark that looked to a 12 year old to be about half of the size of the boat we where in. You could see a mouth full of teeth and the thing was really putting up a good fight. My dad to one look at the shark pulled out his knife and cut my line.

[rps]

47 years ago on the Lake of the Woods, my father and I fished a submerged island that was shallow enough to have weeds on the top. I was using a daredevle spoon (red and white, of course) and was fishing with my Father's new Browning Silaflex spinning rod and a Mitchell reel. A muskie grabbed the bait, ran under the boat, jumped on the far side of the boat and threw the lure back over my head.

It was probably somewhere between 75 and 100 pounds.

I miss fishing with him.

[Quillback]

Timely topic...

Just yesterday I was fishing Beaver in the Indian creek area, I have been tossing 1/8 ounce marabou road runners lately and having a lot of fun catching Kentuckys on an ultralight setup with 4# line. Last week I caught a 3 lb striper by accident that was quite a handful on that rig. Anyway, I thought that was a fluke, well yesterday I'm fishing the roadrunner around some scattered timber and WHAM! I see a big silver flash - fish looked to be 10#'s or so, I assume it was a striper, but not a hundred percent sure, anyway there's nothing I can do but hang on and start follwing it around with my foot on the trolling motor, like I said there's some standing timber and a couple of times the fish heads towards some trees but somehow I'm able to keep him away from them while at the same time manuevering the boat, but I just could not get him pointed towards open water where I might have been able to wear him out and boat him. Finally, inevitably, he gets hung on a tree, snap goes the line, and I was left with that deeply depressed feeling I get whenever I lose a big fish. Still bugs me this morning to think about it.

When I fished for steelhead and salmon in Washington state I lost several big fish that I wish I could have at least seen, just to see how big they were. Those fish are all now long dead but they live on in my memory.

[crappiefisherman]

I remember in the early 70s my grandparents still lived on a farm close to the black river, in northern missouri.That spring the flood waters where very high and flooded the farm for months.When the water went down we where cleaning up around the hog lot and saw a gigantic fish trapped in a pool close to the barn.It was the biggest flathead id ever seen in my life.It was over 75 lbs.The fish was scarred up and had to have been very old.No we didnt lose this fish and we didnt break any lines but still disapointed.We tried to clean the fish for a cookout, but it had so many hooks and sinkers and leaders in it we couldnt even clean it , but on the good side we got 50 dollars for her after we scrapped her out