Coolest Fish You've Ever Caught

[MOsmallies]

The coolest I've heard of was one of my fishing buddies catching a 40" muskie below the Carlyle lake spillway. He was trolling crankbaits for Sauger and Walleye when he hooked into it. He thought he had a snag or big Asian Carp for a while until this Muskie catapulted itself out of the water repeatedly like a Tarpon. It's a hell of a picture and story.

The coolest fish I have caught have all been smallmouth. All smallies are sweet, but these are three that stand out...

First would be my 20 1/2" out of the Black River. I actually sight fished her. I saw her cruising along a deep, shady bank filled with basketball size boulders and rootwads. Cast about 7 or 8 feet in front of her and she hammered my bait. Still my biggest smallie to date.

Second, was two nice smallmouth out of a small Mississippi tributary back in college. Another one of my buddy's families owned property along this small creek and he had told me about catching decent size smallies out of it, so he finally took me one day. When I got to the creek I told him he was full of it. I could literally jump across this creek and the deepest water for the first 200 yards was shin deep. As soon as we found a little depth (knee height), I caught 16" and 17" smallies back to back. Needless to say, I was stunned. I have since been fishing different sections of this creek and have caught numerous 16"-19" smallies.

My last one, was a 12" smallmouth caught out of the Midlake section of Lake of the Ozarks on Labor Day Weekend 2009. I caught him half way back in a pocket in about 3 feet of water on a baby brush hog. It was a rocky bank with water willows and it was void of docks. I have heard of people catching them closer to the rivers (Niangua and Osage), but never in the Midlake section. Still the first and only Lake of the Ozarks smallie I have ever caught.

[laker67]

The creek you are referring to at eldon, is saline creek. There was a private hatchery at the upper end, just above the conservation access. It closed in the early 90's as I recall. My oldest son and I caught about 30 one day in december several years back. The creek at gravois is gravois creek and Trout Dale Ranch is located there. Before winter seasons at the trout parks, I used to fish it in the winter time. They even had goldens back then, that would occassionally escape to the creek.

[Mitch f]

Caught a large hellbender on the Gasconade 10 years ago on a crankbait. the lure was stuck to the side of his head, I guess I snagged it

[jah]

ame='jah' date='03 December 2010 - 10:00 AM' timestamp='1291392053' post='169908']

The creek you are referring to at eldon, is saline creek. There was a private hatchery at the upper end, just above the conservation access. It closed in the early 90's as I recall. My oldest son and I caught about 30 one day in december several years back. The creek at gravois is gravois creek and Trout Dale Ranch is located there. Before winter seasons at the trout parks, I used to fish it in the winter time. They even had goldens back then, that would occassionally escape to the creek.

Thanks Laker! That sounds right!

Jim

[taxidermist]

Maybe the oddest thing I have caught was on Norfork Out in the middle of the lake throwing huge Rooster tails for stripers and found a school of 2 pound smallmouth bass.

Or the 5 pound largemouth bass across from Gastons on a rouge in Feb four years ago.

Been catching several Walleye in the White River and even small yellow perch.

While fishing for yellow perch and Northern Pike on the Regnitz River in Germany my buddy and I caught grass carp. Neither of us had seen grass carp before and they were hitting #5 Gold Blue Fox spinners. They did not taste worth a crap.

Possibly the oddest thing to see in the water was on a night dive in Cozamel. I was swimming along and saw an huge yellow tang (these fish are oval shaped and blue with a yellow tang on the tail) then from out of the darkness came a huge and I mean huge Jew fish, it was gently easing toward the Yellow tang, I could hardly swim fast enough to keep up.

The suddenly the Tang was gone, it was in the jew fishes mouth. I could see it trying to get out, the jew fish was huge and marked much like a smallmouth bass.

[SgtChuck64]

In October I was fishing off a pier in Virginia and catching speckled trout like crazy when I hooked something with a little more weight to it. As I'm lifting this strange looking fish up onto the pier, I said out loud, what the heck is that ? A local screamed out, don't touch it, it's a stargazer. I get it on the pier and he comes over and unhooks it with my pliers and pitches it back into the ocean. I said what's wrong with it ? He says if you touch it in the wrong place , it will give you a shock. I said thanks and kept on fishing.

[Mitch f]

In October I was fishing off a pier in Virginia and catching speckled trout like crazy when I hooked something with a little more weight to it. As I'm lifting this strange looking fish up onto the pier, I said out loud, what the heck is that ? A local screamed out, don't touch it, it's a stargazer. I get it on the pier and he comes over and unhooks it with my pliers and pitches it back into the ocean. I said what's wrong with it ? He says if you touch it in the wrong place , it will give you a shock. I said thanks and kept on fishing.

Always trust local knowledge; except when it comes to their honey holes

[emjay]

In October I was fishing off a pier in Virginia and catching speckled trout like crazy when I hooked something with a little more weight to it. As I'm lifting this strange looking fish up onto the pier, I said out loud, what the heck is that ? A local screamed out, don't touch it, it's a stargazer. I get it on the pier and he comes over and unhooks it with my pliers and pitches it back into the ocean. I said what's wrong with it ? He says if you touch it in the wrong place , it will give you a shock. I said thanks and kept on fishing.

had to google what the heck it was....

"Stargazers are venomous; they have two large poison spines situated behind the opercle and above the pectoral fins. They can also cause electric shocks. Venom from this fish has been reported to cause death in humans and therefore it should not be handled."

[mhall02]

Looks like a sculpin on steroids!!

[Bman]

Saltwater- a Tarpon fishing with "Bouncer" out of Miami.

Tailwater- The 17lb Male Brown in my Avatar.

Ozark stream-The awesome Smallie on my profile page while fishing with the Smallie Guru.