Biggest Wild Freshwater Fish You Have Encountered

[Rob Snowhite]

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

[Jeffrey Silvan]

When I was young - maybe 13 or 14 - I was wading in a local pond on Cape Cod and going after bass in some tall reeds. I remember seeing a monster fish being between 3 and 4 feet long, although that very easily could've also been my younger eyes not comprehending size properly. I made one cast at it and it spooked. At the time I had no clue what it was, but looking back, I'm 98% certain it was a carp. It feels like that was the biggest freshwater fish I ever encountered, but who knows. Next biggest is probably the ~35lb grass carp I caught in my parents' old backyard in Bluffton SC. I feel like I'm forgetting another, but who knows.

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[Andrew Sarcinello]

I saw a flathead catfish in the Potomac a few years ago that I am confident was close to 4 ft long. Can't think of anything larger that I've seen in freshwater.

[Williard, David]

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

 

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[tperkins]

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

[Jamie Carracher]

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. 

[Carl Z.]

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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[namfos]

About 5 years ago I went down to Smallwood State Park for the Snakehead tournament  for the weigh-in and sample some microbrews and cooked snakehead. Admittedly they weren't in the water, and all were dead, but there were plenty of very very large blue & flathead cats as well as snakeheads.  Some encounter. The snakehead dishes were delicious.

Mark

[Jeffrey Tucker]

These are the two biggest freshwater fish I’ve encountered. These were both caught on baitcasting gear, and I’ve not yet managed a carp on the fly but these two fish are what convinced me that carp fishing is the most fun you can have on the water…

 

From: namfos
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2020 11:48 AM
To: Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders

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[Lane Smith]

I grew up outside of Philadelphia in a little town called Gladwyne, which abuts the Schuylkill river. When I was around 9 years old, my father and I snuck into the gated portion of river at Flat Rock Dam, figuring that, since the current was so strong, the fish must be as well. There were two noteworthy catches that day. The first was by far the largest bluegill I've ever seen, taken above the damn, which measured 13 1/2 inches. The second, however, was the monster, taken below. My father was using a thick, almost no flex rod, which nevertheless became quite bowed during the encounter. After fighting this fish for a good 40 minutes, coaxing it in and out of various holes, struggling all the while to maintain our footings in the gushing dam ejaculate, we finally brought to sight an enormous carp which, when laid out next to me on the bank, was longer than I was tall; probably in the neighborhood of 4 feet. It was an incredible rush. I regret that we didn't have a camera to capture it on film.

Lane

On Wednesday, September 9, 2020 at 10:55:31 AM UTC-4 r...@robsnowhite.com wrote:

[Misha Gill]

I caught a glimpse of a monster fish in a florida (freshwater) canal while peacock bass fishing. It was so large it startled me. I only caught sight of the back 2/3 of the animal though, and I was very confused about what it might be. Talking to my buddy who directed me to the spot, we concluded it must have been an alligator gar. It was really big around the middle, in addition to being over five feet long. I have to guess it was over two hundred pounds. It was a cool experience.

[Williard, David]

200 pounds seems like a lot of girth for a gar. You reminded me that I routinely saw very large tarpon in some freshwater canals in Broward County FL. when I lived there in the 80’s. I’ve never heard that confirmed by anyone but I know what I saw.

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I caught a glimpse of a monster fish in a florida (freshwater) canal while peacock bass fishing. It was so large it startled me. I only caught sight of the back 2/3 of the animal though, and I was very confused about what it might be. Talking to my buddy who directed me to the spot, we concluded it must have been an alligator gar. It was really big around the middle, in addition to being over five feet long. I have to guess it was over two hundred pounds. It was a cool experience.

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