RE: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Biggest Wild Freshwater Fish You Have Encountered

I did catch a 45 pound flathead catfish on a nightcrawler and spinning gear below Truman Dam in Missouri.

However, on the fly, it was a 27 inch brown trout I landed when I was 11 years old.

 

We used to go to "Fisherman's Paradise" in Belfonte, PA every year for preseason tune ups. In those days it was a big deal with tons of water and fish and fisherman, (fly fishing only, no wading allowed).  There was also a well maintained fish hatchery on site.

And that one time, I was due to meet the family back at the car at quitting time (they blew a siren). I was walking along a small four foot ditch that ran out of the hatchery and there I saw this enormous trout chomping away on a 10 inch trout that must have escaped the hatchery somehow. I drifted my nymph by him one or twice – but why would he notice it with that big hunk of fresh meat in his mouth?

So on the third try I "accidentally" drifted my nymph into  his mouth and set the hook. Back and forth we went, up and down that little ditch. For probably 15 minutes.

I finally landed it and measured it by scratching a mark on my pole.  While that was my least proud moment of "trophy fishing", I can't say I wouldn't do it all over again.

 

 

Sent: Wednesday, September 9, 2020 10:55 AM
To: Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders <tidal-potomac-fly-rodders@googlegroups.com>
Subject: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Biggest Wild Freshwater Fish You Have Encountered

 

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I spent the holiday weekend in Ohio chasing fish in the small urban creeks around Columbus. I fished below one dam (got a smallmouth on a black bugger under a bridge). About .25 mile below the dam I encounter a school of common carp, catfish, and buffalo. One of the carp was the BIGGEST WILD FRESHWATER FISH I HAVE ENCOUNTERED. This carp was massive. It looked like a feed lot hog with fins. I've seen some big carp before. The ones at Rio in Gaithersburg but nothing like these. I've seen some torpedo size grass carp in Florida but none had the girth of this fish. 

 

None of the fish in this spot would eat a fly. 

 

What is the biggest freshwater fish you have encountered? Where were you? Did you catch it? Did someone else catch it? 

 

Rob Snowhite

 

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