Coolest Fish You've Ever Caught

[ozark trout fisher]

What's the coolest, oddest fish you ever hooked into-maybe something that you weren't at all expecting to catch, or a species of fish you didn't even know lived in the water you were fishing?

Mine came on a trip to Montana a couple years back, on a tributary of the Bitterroot River. It was a pretty small stream, about the same size as Mill or Spring Creek. This was before I really became a fly fisherman, but I knew even then that a fly-rod was the only way to go on these little creeks. Anyway, the drill was to swing Woolly Buggers in the mornings while the water was still too cold to trigger a rise, and fish Royal Wulffs in the afternoons. I was after Westslope Cutthroat trout, and the fishing had been very good for them the entire time. Early one morning, I decided to hike further upstream to see if I could find some different, possibly more productive water. Eventually I came to what had to be the deepest, fishiest looking pool on the whole creek. I knew there had to be a huge cutthroat at the bottom of it. I cast my Woolly up into the riffle leading down into the pool, let it get down near the bottom, and gave it a couple twitches. I got an incredibly hard take, and the fish started taking line pretty much right away. The cutthroats and cuttbows I'd been catching had all pretty much been between 10" and 15", so this was a little surprising to say the least. Anyway, the fight went on for maybe 5 or 10 minutes before I got a clear view of the fish. When I saw it, it was a deep green color instead of golden color of the cutthroat. When I landed it, sure enough, it was an honest to goodness Montana Bull trout, and it went a little past the tape on my fly rod that marks 20". Bull trout are a threatened species, and there numbers had gotten to be pretty low across Montana. You aren't supposed to fish for them on purpose (and I wasn't), but I guess it's not all that rare to catch them on accident based on a conversation I had with a local in the campground that night. That was the only big one I caught, but I actually did catch some smaller ones on dry flies when fishing for cutthroat -the little guys look a lot like brookies,and that's actually part of the reason they're threatened. Montana has a liberal limit on non-native brook trout, and people have been known to keep small bull trout they mistook for brookies. Anyway, I'd have to say the Montana Bull trout is the coolest fish I've ever hooked into.

What's yours?

[Gavin]

Ugliest...definetly a bowfin...Coolest...havent caught one yet...Chased em for two days in Florida, but never got a hookup...Got close...saw a 50lb er suck my fly in 3 times but I never got a hook into that Tarpon. Gotta get back down for another go at them sometime. Cheers.

[gotmuddy]

The coolest I have caught is flounder. They look prehistoric with their gnarled teeth

[T Hood]

I caught a very mature Gizzard Shad in the Meramec River. I was throwing a double-bladed spinner for bass. It was very surprising to see a Gizzard Shad hit something that big.

Coolest Fish - 5# largemouth in a very small pond in about 18" of water. It was a short battle but very explosive.

[eric1978]

I once caught a bowfin in a neighborhood pond when I was a kid. I have no idea how it got in there, but I'm certain that's what it was. Maybe not the coolest, but definitely the most surprising.

[ness]

Coolest? I s'pose it's the Colorado River cutts I caught a few years back. They've been darn-near extirpated in their native range (west side of the Divide in CO, WY) by introduction of rainbows and brookies. Hard to get to, at least where I was, and hanging on by a thread above a natural barrier that kept out the bad guys. Small fish that have really got the odds stacked against them.

[Geoff]

Probably a toss up between the Greenback Cutthroats in CO or the big carp I have been getting into. they are such cool fish seeing them up close and personal.

[fishinwrench]

The oddest catch I've experienced was a 20+lb. Spoonbill on a 7wt. flyrod, hooked in the mouth with a clouser While fishing for Smallies in a small LO trib. The bummer of it is that after I released him he went belly up, I spent the rest of the evening holding him upright and trying to revive him, but to no avail. It was out of season so I had to leave him for the coons.

Also caught a gull on a Rebel Pop-R once, that was kinda nasty.

A buddy of mine caught a topless sunbather on a 5/16 Stanley jig and pork frog

[troutfiend1985]

Cool topic OTF.

I guess my coolist fish would have to be either the 19.5' rainbow I caught in one our wild trout streams or the 20.5' Mountain Whitefish I caught on the Gallatin this summer. I know, some people will snub their nose at a whitefish, but this thing was pretty neat with its uglyness and fighting. Or maybe it was the setting of Yellowstone and all, or the fact that I lost a really good rainbow right before I landed this whitefish(the rainbow snapped 4x tippet).

I can't honestly think of any fish that I have personally caught and said it shouldn't have been there, but I know of two. I heard that a guy caught a muskie in Smithville lake, and those aren't stocked there by the trucks(maybe by buckets though;) ) And, I have a friend at law school who caught a trout out of lake shawnee in June. That was a shocker, then to read in the topeka capital journal that they have found trout with tags on them from over a year old, so something weird is going on there.

I like this topic!!

[Gavin]

Caught a Bat on a dry fly during a hex hatch once...Sucker grabbed my fly off the surface and wouldnt let go.