Coolest Fish You've Ever Caught

[Troutdude]

Coolest? A tie between hand fishing for smallies off a dock in Canada when I was young or the 26" rainbow I pulled out of Taney.

Oddest? A 3'+ carp caught in Indian Creek at 103rd and Metcalf in Overland Park, KS. I guess thats not too odd other than being smack dab in the middle of Johnson County. Surprised me at least.

[MOFishwater]

Coolest-

I hooked into a Tiger Musky at Busch Wildlife when I was a kid and with the help of my grandpa we had it boat side, before it got loose. They are long gone by now but it was pretty cool at the time and seemed pretty darn big. I caught it on a worm, bobber, and Zebco 33.

Stangest-

I caught two nice Crappie back to back on buzzbait.

Busch Wildlife has musky stocking in Lake 35, FYI:)

One of my favorites was my first tiger musky, caught up in N. IL at my wife's grandmother's house.

Murdered a big swimbait and jumped like a tarpon a few times when I set the hook, not very big but very strong. Had been trying to catch one for a few years...funny thing was I caught 2 that weekend and the next month we came back for another visit and I caught 2 more in the same afternoon (#3 was 27" and the biggest of all of them, hit a Zoom fluke after I saw a big swirl as one made a dash in on a school of bluegill).

Haven't caught a ton of smallmouth, but I hooked a 3lb even on Lost Land Lake in Hayward, WI a few years back. We were at the cabin BBQ some burgers, I was sipping on a beer and just mindlessly casting off the dock for about 20 mins when the rod nearly ripped out of my hand. Thought I'd hooked into one of the big muskies that people flock to that lake to catch.

And my personal best largemouth, 7.0 even on our lake out near Hermann.

I know there's a much bigger one in there, broke me off after my dad's old reel locked up when it was peeling off drag She came up and jumped and snapped the line while I held on for dear life...I will catch her eventually!!!

[Mitch f]

Busch Wildlife has musky stocking in Lake 35, FYI:)

One of my favorites was my first tiger musky, caught up in N. IL at my wife's grandmother's house.

Murdered a big swimbait and jumped like a tarpon a few times when I set the hook, not very big but very strong. Had been trying to catch one for a few years...funny thing was I caught 2 that weekend and the next month we came back for another visit and I caught 2 more in the same afternoon (#3 was 27" and the biggest of all of them, hit a Zoom fluke after I saw a big swirl as one made a dash in on a school of bluegill).

Haven't caught a ton of smallmouth, but I hooked a 3lb even on Lost Land Lake in Hayward, WI a few years back. We were at the cabin BBQ some burgers, I was sipping on a beer and just mindlessly casting off the dock for about 20 mins when the rod nearly ripped out of my hand. Thought I'd hooked into one of the big muskies that people flock to that lake to catch.

And my personal best largemouth, 7.0 even on our lake out near Hermann.

I know there's a much bigger one in there, broke me off after my dad's old reel locked up when it was peeling off drag She came up and jumped and snapped the line while I held on for dear life...I will catch her eventually!!!

Nice fish and an equally nice picture! One of the big pet peeves in life is my fishing partners' ability to take a great picture with my big fish, they usually screw it up.

[MOFishwater]

Nice fish and an equally nice picture! One of the big pet peeves in life is my fishing partners' ability to take a great picture with my big fish, they usually screw it up.

LOL, my wife will be glad to hear that. She's always saying "Why do you need so many pictures of all these fish?"

Those being the exception since they are special achievements to me, but I have a LOT of standard fish pics. Just get fired up when I catch a good fish I guess. I'm always amazed at how much smaller they look in pictures when revisiting them.