Whats The Best Fish You Ever Caught?

[jackinbkk]

Hi fellow Angling fanatics,

I'm sat here watching the rain poor down from the black overcast sky that seems to have become so familiar to Phuket recently.

I'm hoping it stops soon so I can go and tussle with some sawaii.

So in the mean time I want to open up this thread.

If all the fish you had ever caught were all scaled to the same size, weight etc what would be the best fight you ever had?

It might be for power, stamina, or just a memorable days fishing.

For me the fish I had most fun catching was a 15 kilo red tail catfish. It took a small dead bait (sardine) and the reel screamed as the fish took off. I immediately pounced on the rod and engaged the spool. Using a heck of a lot of drag the fish just kept going. I could do nothing but hold on and hope the hook, line and rod were up to the task.

The fish began to go straight for some strutts in the water where I presume it lived under some bungalows. Before that was some nets set up for baby fish to grow but it dived under these and I didn't snag anything.

I had to set my drag even higher to try to stop this fish. I cranked it up to around 8 kilos but the fish kept going as if it was free spool.

After about 3 minutes the fish had changed direction and began to head towards the middle of the lake. Here free from the threat of snags I lessened the drag. The fish had started to tire but he wasnt coming back to me without a fight.

The power these fish have for their relatively small size versus a mekong catfish is quite incredible. They don't have the stamina to match pla buek but if I ever had the chance to hook a 50 kilo red tail I think it would be very tough.

So finally I got the red tail to the bank and the battle was over. The fish was safely returned to fight another day. I had great respect for this fish. So powerful in the water but the calmest fish I have ever seen out of water.

Watchig lots of fishing programs I've seen there is a fish called the 'Piraiba'. It too comes from the Amazon but this catfish has been caught up to 200 kilos. Are there any Thai lakes that stock this predator??? It's very similar to the red tail but looks like it's bigger meaner brother.

http://www.clubegaivota.com.br/clubegaivot...nay/piraiba.jpg

p.s. For all you fishing fanatics try to have a watch of this:

http://i28.tinypic.com/34yphz6.jpg

The Fishing Show - Giant Tuna Adventures 2008

I watched it and I was amazed. They say one person spent 21 hours playing a giant bluefin tuna. At one point the guy has to crank his Tiagra 80w up to 25 kilos of drag! The fish range in the 200 to 300kg range and the reels are filled with 1000 yards of line.

[Mosha]

Are you talking anywhere? If so 8.5 pound barbel on the River Swale in Yorkshire, A 30 minute fight and I was shaking like a leaf when I landed it. In Thailand, it was a Red Bellied Pacu on light tackle. I never weighed it but it was the size of a large dinner plate. Like the barbel instant power.

[lovelomsak]

I amnot sure on this one I have 3 favorites actually. One 135 lbs swordfish in Mexico because of its strenght and lenght of time it took to boat it. Another mexican catch a 15 lbs Dorado shear flurry when clearing the water and loved the colour changes from blue to gold when dieing. Last a 5 lbs rainbow trout in Elk River bc Canada ,best fight for pound .

[69690jay]

18lb rainbow trout Shuswap lake B.C Canada. Tail walking deep diving on 8lb line small 2" rapala imitation fry. best eating freshwater fish. Sorry I don't have a picture as it was twenty years ago.

Salt water 12kg to 20kg long tail tuna from the rocks NSW Australia, as shown in the photo. 10kg line with circle hook and small yakka.

[69690jay]

northern blue fin; 138kg. long-line out of Port Lincoln Australia again twenty years ago when i was a deckie. Long line does not really apply here but the photo is....

[69690jay]

Sailfish Racha Phuket island 6 months ago. What a sweet fighting fish. Caught and released. note he was missing his bill!

Snapper Racha Noi night fishing best eating snapper, put up quite the tug-a-war as well.

Edited October 10, 2009 by 69690jay

[lovelomsak]

Oh forgot one that was the strongest fish i ever had the pleasure of catching. It scared me and my buddies it was so strong.It was an 80 lbs spring salmon up in dickson entrance near alaska This fish was so powerful it tipped the boat to whichever side it went and we were in a 50 footer. The water turned white when it was on top the water. when we boated it the hook came out ,the force of its pullimg had straightened out the hook and it was a huge commercial hook. Its belly was as solid as a rock. I have never seen any like it before or since.

[thaigold]

A dear old friend of mine used to go panning for gold in the lower Sierras – for you non-North Americans, it's where we Yanks really fine-tuned our greed and sense of empire. At any rate, my friend David would spend his weekends slopping around in the tailings of old mining sites, in the hope of capturing a nugget, it was not to be.

His wife, not enamored to her husband's manly aspirations, said enough is enough. This was partly do to my chiding, in that if I wanted a gold nugget, I would just go to a gold shop and buy it. Easy – no freeways, mud, or slush.

Needless to say, my old friend accused me (obliquely) of being a sissy boy.

So – if I go to a restaurant and order shark or swordfish (in Hawaii) as my repast, then if I be a sissy and pussy, so be it.

Dig in dudes, it's delicious.

[jaidam]

My choice for the best fighting fish pound for pound would be the milkfish. The best place in the world to readily catch adult milkfish would have to be just on the right side of the "no fishing" sign next to Doctors Gully in Darwin. Larrakeyah base side of the tiny marine reserve. Bait is a whole slice of bread with a small hook tucked in. A 10 kilo fish will easily take hundreds of meters of line( i was using 17lb test) and fight for well over half and hour. Jumps like a tarpon also! I think the huge forked tail had something to do with the unbelievable speed and power, although the endurance may be due to them eating hundreds of loaves of bread daily from the fish feeding place a few meters away.

Some also rans would have to be billfish but Ive seen a 4 kilo black marlin caught which was a hopeless fighter compared to just about every other 4 kilo fish you would get. King mackerel and snappers(ozzy call them jacks?) are very impressive at first but soon lose their strength. Trevallies good strong fighters but dont have the speed. Other impressive fighters I can think of are rainbow runners, mahimahi and threadfin salmon.

Least impresive fighting fish for their size would be baracuda. I have had better fights from snagging a plastic bag when trolling than from the average baracuda. Most sharks also crap on the line.

While not the strongest fish my favourite fish to catch are the king mackerel. They have so many dirty tricks and can be so fussy it is a real challenge to take the big ones. Always interesting fishing for them.

[Fishsiam]

The Giant freshwater stingray undoubtebly is the strongest fish I have ever encountered.

The stingray picture which I have attached was estimated by scientists present at the capture to weigh 265-350kg's.The monster stingray took 4 hours to land and was caught from the Maeklong River whilst filming with Zeb Hogan from National Geographic.

[Donnyboy]

p.s. For all you fishing fanatics try to have a watch of this:

http://i28.tinypic.com/34yphz6.jpg

The Fishing Show - Giant Tuna Adventures 2008

I watched it and I was amazed. They say one person spent 21 hours playing a giant bluefin tuna. At one point the guy has to crank his Tiagra 80w up to 25 kilos of drag! The fish range in the 200 to 300kg range and the reels are filled with 1000 yards of line.

yup, that Matt Watsons a real fishing adventurer,

Ive seen an episode where he jumps on the back of a marlin from a helicopter, another when he tackles a marlin from a jetski, and some other crazy stuff. They have taken great underwater footage of a marlin taking a teaser.

Theyve taken filming fishing to a whole new level.

Edited October 11, 2009 by Donnyboy

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

A bonefish off Cayman Island heck of a fight fot it's size.

[jackinbkk]

18lb rainbow trout Shuswap lake B.C Canada. Tail walking deep diving on 8lb line small 2" rapala imitation fry. best eating freshwater fish. Sorry I don't have a picture as it was twenty years ago.

Salt water 12kg to 20kg long tail tuna from the rocks NSW Australia, as shown in the photo. 10kg line with circle hook and small yakka.

Great fish!

Why can I never catch anything like this around Phuket? There are supposed to be long tail tuna in the water here. Is the water around Phuket very over fished? I have to keep resorting to freshwater stocked lakes. I'd much rather catch a wild tuna...

So what's a yakka? Is that a bait fish? I take it you use lead? What depth do you need to fish etc?

[Mosha]

http://www.fishraider.com.au/Invision/inde...showtopic=23886

Looks like something you can buy at the market here in Thailand

[69690jay]

18lb rainbow trout Shuswap lake B.C Canada. Tail walking deep diving on 8lb line small 2" rapala imitation fry. best eating freshwater fish. Sorry I don't have a picture as it was twenty years ago.

Salt water 12kg to 20kg long tail tuna from the rocks NSW Australia, as shown in the photo. 10kg line with circle hook and small yakka.

Great fish!

Why can I never catch anything like this around Phuket? There are supposed to be long tail tuna in the water here. Is the water around Phuket very over fished? I have to keep resorting to freshwater stocked lakes. I'd much rather catch a wild tuna...

So what's a yakka? Is that a bait fish? I take it you use lead? What depth do you need to fish etc?

Thanks,

Yakka is a small baitfish also know as Yellowtail, scad, in the local markets you will see tables full of them about 4" to 6" inch long.

Gar fish also know as Ballyhoo work well. Use a circle hook on a 80lb 10ft leader (fluorocarbon is the best) no weights: place the hook behind the head just through the skin as any deeper will cause the fish to die quickly. Above the leader put a small Styrofoam float or balloon. You have to be in the right location, deep water near rock structures, offshore, etc. You may not get tuna as other large palgics will take live bait. Be prepared, a good rod and overhead reel is quite essential, fishing for game fish land based means you can't use the boat to chase the fish when it does its first run. A shimano TLD25 is minimum with 10kg line, lots of it.

Here in Thailand far offshore you may find large tuna occasionally but you have a better chance of getting sailfish or marlin.

Off the rocks here in Phuket I have hooked up and lost one large sailfish, after three days of fishing, running the rig described, except the day I got hooked up I was using a 12" queen fish for a live bait.

Tight lines

Jay

Queenfish..............................................Yellowtail.

Edited October 14, 2009 by 69690jay

[69690jay]

yes we have tuna but they are very small 1 to 5 kg

the shown photo is a eastern little tuna or also known as Bonito. In the local waters there are few types of Tuna all small: Bonito, yellowfin, Albacore, Tongol, Skip-jack, Blue fin. Further offshore you may get into larger tuna.

Edited October 14, 2009 by 69690jay

[bangkokumpalumpa]

for fresh water fish pound for pound you cant beat the pacu!! that this is fast and if the fish are in good water that is not overstocked then they have BIG power! a 7kg fish will bend up 24kg gear and have it screaming, ok they dont last that long but man do they have so go!!!

[McFarang]

Hi fellow Angling fanatics,

I'm sat here watching the rain poor down from the black overcast sky that seems to have become so familiar to Phuket recently.

I'm hoping it stops soon so I can go and tussle with some sawaii.

So in the mean time I want to open up this thread.

If all the fish you had ever caught were all scaled to the same size, weight etc what would be the best fight you ever had?

It might be for power, stamina, or just a memorable days fishing.

For me the fish I had most fun catching was a 15 kilo red tail catfish. It took a small dead bait (sardine) and the reel screamed as the fish took off. I immediately pounced on the rod and engaged the spool. Using a heck of a lot of drag the fish just kept going. I could do nothing but hold on and hope the hook, line and rod were up to the task.

The fish began to go straight for some strutts in the water where I presume it lived under some bungalows. Before that was some nets set up for baby fish to grow but it dived under these and I didn't snag anything.

I had to set my drag even higher to try to stop this fish. I cranked it up to around 8 kilos but the fish kept going as if it was free spool.

After about 3 minutes the fish had changed direction and began to head towards the middle of the lake. Here free from the threat of snags I lessened the drag. The fish had started to tire but he wasnt coming back to me without a fight.

The power these fish have for their relatively small size versus a mekong catfish is quite incredible. They don't have the stamina to match pla buek but if I ever had the chance to hook a 50 kilo red tail I think it would be very tough.

So finally I got the red tail to the bank and the battle was over. The fish was safely returned to fight another day. I had great respect for this fish. So powerful in the water but the calmest fish I have ever seen out of water.

Watchig lots of fishing programs I've seen there is a fish called the 'Piraiba'. It too comes from the Amazon but this catfish has been caught up to 200 kilos. Are there any Thai lakes that stock this predator??? It's very similar to the red tail but looks like it's bigger meaner brother.

http://www.clubegaivota.com.br/clubegaivot...nay/piraiba.jpg

p.s. For all you fishing fanatics try to have a watch of this:

http://i28.tinypic.com/34yphz6.jpg

The Fishing Show - Giant Tuna Adventures 2008

I watched it and I was amazed. They say one person spent 21 hours playing a giant bluefin tuna. At one point the guy has to crank his Tiagra 80w up to 25 kilos of drag! The fish range in the 200 to 300kg range and the reels are filled with 1000 yards of line.

The Greatest Thrill I have had was my first Black Marlin only took about 45 Mins with the help of a great Skipper and Crew aboard Reel Chase out of Cairns but my legs were shaking for an hour after never enjoyed a cold beer more than after that I wish everyone could appreciate the feeling it was amazing.

A 500lb Black Marlin GBR that's a baby but as it was my first it will always be my most exciting until i get over the 1000lb Grander that is unlikely in Andaman Sea but you never know back to Oz for that one when I save up the pennies again.

McFarang (Neill) Founder Member Rawai Beach Fishing Club Phuket Thailand (The Only IGFA Fishing Club In Thailand) www.rawaibeachfishingclub.com

[McFarang]

18lb rainbow trout Shuswap lake B.C Canada. Tail walking deep diving on 8lb line small 2" rapala imitation fry. best eating freshwater fish. Sorry I don't have a picture as it was twenty years ago.

Salt water 12kg to 20kg long tail tuna from the rocks NSW Australia, as shown in the photo. 10kg line with circle hook and small yakka.

Great fish!

Why can I never catch anything like this around Phuket? There are supposed to be long tail tuna in the water here. Is the water around Phuket very over fished? I have to keep resorting to freshwater stocked lakes. I'd much rather catch a wild tuna...

So what's a yakka? Is that a bait fish? I take it you use lead? What depth do you need to fish etc?

Thanks,

Yakka is a small baitfish also know as Yellowtail, scad, in the local markets you will see tables full of them about 4" to 6" inch long.

Gar fish also know as Ballyhoo work well. Use a circle hook on a 80lb 10ft leader (fluorocarbon is the best) no weights: place the hook behind the head just through the skin as any deeper will cause the fish to die quickly. Above the leader put a small Styrofoam float or balloon. You have to be in the right location, deep water near rock structures, offshore, etc. You may not get tuna as other large palgics will take live bait. Be prepared, a good rod and overhead reel is quite essential, fishing for game fish land based means you can't use the boat to chase the fish when it does its first run. A shimano TLD25 is minimum with 10kg line, lots of it.

Here in Thailand far offshore you may find large tuna occasionally but you have a better chance of getting sailfish or marlin.

Off the rocks here in Phuket I have hooked up and lost one large sailfish, after three days of fishing, running the rig described, except the day I got hooked up I was using a 12" queen fish for a live bait.

Tight lines

Jay

Queenfish..............................................Yellowtail.

Good To See Jay another founding member and Vice President of Rawai Beach Fishing Club Phuket (The Only IGFA Approved Club In Thailand) giving some great Livebaiting advice from the Rocks. Also on light tackle with balloon on either Live or dead bait Lomtoms can be caught these give great tailwalking displays and can grow to 2+ Metres ,Cudas as well but if you keep getting bitten off feel the leader if its rough replace with wire trace as the cudas are around and will keep biting through even 80lb Mono.

Tight Lines

McFarang other wise known as the Machine or just plain Neill

[McFarang]

yes we have tuna but they are very small 1 to 5 kg

the shown photo is a eastern little tuna or also known as Bonito. In the local waters there are few types of Tuna all small: Bonito, yellowfin, Albacore, Tongol, Skip-jack, Blue fin. Further offshore you may get into larger tuna.

Hey Jay,

I am sure we will hook up a few large Yellowfin & or a Dogtooth or two on our 4 day Similan Trip Mid November saw some pics of Dans Boat in Shipyard a few Baranacles to be removed small re-fit and she will be great to go cant wait.

Neill

IGFA

Rawai Beach Fishing Club

[McFarang]

The Giant freshwater stingray undoubtebly is the strongest fish I have ever encountered.

The stingray picture which I have attached was estimated by scientists present at the capture to weigh 265-350kg's.The monster stingray took 4 hours to land and was caught from the Maeklong River whilst filming with Zeb Hogan from National Geographic.

Amazing Freshwater Stingray!! I have seen saltwater ones no where near this size but I have seen them jump right out of the water what a splash they make and an amazing sight like a Sailfish clear of the surface vertical.

Well Done

Neill

IGFA

Rawai Beach Fishing Club

[IanForbes]

A dear old friend of mine used to go panning for gold in the lower Sierras – for you non-North Americans, it's where we Yanks really fine-tuned our greed and sense of empire. At any rate, my friend David would spend his weekends slopping around in the tailings of old mining sites, in the hope of capturing a nugget, it was not to be.

His wife, not enamored to her husband's manly aspirations, said enough is enough. This was partly do to my chiding, in that if I wanted a gold nugget, I would just go to a gold shop and buy it. Easy – no freeways, mud, or slush.

Needless to say, my old friend accused me (obliquely) of being a sissy boy.

So – if I go to a restaurant and order shark or swordfish (in Hawaii) as my repast, then if I be a sissy and pussy, so be it.

Dig in dudes, it's delicious.

The true gold of the Sierras are the incredibly beautiful Golden trout. This tiny Golden trout was caught from a stream I could step across. It was the first Golden I caught on a cane rod I built myself.

I don't measure my fish so much in size as I do from the location where they were caught. Although I often catch large salmon, trout and steelhead, it is the special ones that are often much smaller that are highlights of my fishing career. This Brown trout was caught in the Willowemoc River of New York State and a place I had read about as a child and always wanted to visit. I finally did after 50 years.

And this is me stalking a large Brown trout in one of New Zealand's many crystal clear rivers. The trout are not numerous, but the ones you catch are usually big.

I live in a province where catching large fish is quite common, so it takes something special to get me excited. I've caught dozens of salmon like this and don't get as excited as I did catching a mahseer in Thailand last winter.

[quiksilva]

That's a fantastic Salmon, and some really great fish and stories here.. what about the size of that ray!! Whoa, that must have been a struggle!

Its a really good question and one I like to think about as it gives me a chance to reflect on those wonderful days on the water..

the fish which stand out for me is the King Mackerel, boy do they fight. I've caught a lot of Mahi Mahi here (aka Dorado/Dolphin Fish) which are great fun, but they dont hold a candle to the sheer turn of speed a King can unloose, those things fly!

I've never hooked a proper bill fish (Gar don't count in my book) and its very high on my list of things to do (Cairns beckons)... as I have seen them hooked and was very impressed by their speed and power (my mate hooked a small black in the gulf of Thailand once on very light tackle... wow!)

For fresh water the giant mehkong catfish has put up the hardest fight I have ever encountered, and that includes some big cobia, also off the gulf of Thailand.

However, looking back to my childhood I remember rock fishing very light tackle for Mackerel and Garfish and was always happy to hook a decent size Gar, which whilst not really a fish I'd like to eat (the green flesh puts me off) but pound for pound they are fantastic fighters, and almost always ready to put on a great acrobatics display with lots of tail walking.

Hmmm getting restless... I need to go fishing again its been far too long....

Edited November 4, 2009 by quiksilva