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

I've seen one of those monster carp.  We used to fish the outflow of the StateLine power plant on the Indiana/Illinois border.  You could look down from the 20ft high breakwall into the outflow pond where there were usually carp cruising.   A neighbor's son hooked into a 4ft one with a little zebco reel.  They finally got the extendable landing net on him and I don't know how they hauled it up.    By shear biomass, it's the largest freshwater fish I've seen when fishing.  

But the zombie salmon in the Lake Ontario tribs are the ones that I've personally encountered.  When they get spawned out, they turn light colored and are easy to see.  So you can see 4 or 5 hanging out in a run that is a few feet deep.  They can be caught, but only by drifting a fly near their mouth and setting the hook if it bumps their nose.  Not very sporting and questionably legal, but if the other fish aren't biting, it can be done.  

Carl

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Carl Zmola

On Wed, Sep 9, 2020 at 4:41 PM Jamie Carracher <jcarracher@gmail.com> wrote:

The biggest I've seen are a pair of gar I saw swimming way back in the weeds in Mattawoman Creek at low tide when I was exploring on my SUP. I think they were around 3 foot long. I was right on top of them. Come to think of it, I think that is the only time I've seen gar outside of in pictures online. They didn't care at all about my hanging right over them. 

On Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 4:24:44 PM UTC-4 tperkins wrote:

I caught some massive mekong catfish on bait in a stocked pond in Thailand. Which was awesome. but not wild. 

On Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 3:51:31 PM UTC-4 Electriclight wrote:

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-potoma...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: {Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Biggest Wild Freshwater Fish You Have Encountered

 

EXTERNAL EMAIL: Stop and use caution before clicking on links or opening attachments.

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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