"Wish I had known the record" club

[Hardyreels]

Originally Posted by flygrlz

Both are beautiful catch.

Ard... that must have been one hell of a fight. He's HUMONGOUS!

That big bright one; actually he ran strait upstream and into a huge pool about 80 yards above me. I went up there and once I turned him toward me and got him coming to shore head first and fast I scurried back into the bushes and slid him onto the sandy shore with little commotion to speak of. It just took a little while to hoist him toward the surface and get him turned, after that is was short and uneventful. I've had smaller fish take off down river and make me follow them hundreds of yards all the way to the surf.

This one grabbed a size 6 'Ard's Nine Three' tied on a little Partridge Bartleet hook while I was trout fishing about 3 weeks ago. It was almost 33" long and very fat for a ripe male. I was using my 1979 Far & Fine 5 weight and a Featherweight reel when this mistake took place. Same deal got him up, turned him and brought him in. The only worry here was the 8 pound fluorocarbon tippet I was using, like I said I was trout fishing............... Even though he was ripe I thought it was beautiful and showing no signs of deterioration as of that time.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Diver Dan]

Here's a new one for the club.
sea monster

[fishingguru]

Lots of nice fish here!! Well, nice would be an understatement. Good work with the 8lb. tippet, I'm sure that was a fun fight! My biggest king was about 21 lb, but my grandpa has a pic from Alaska of a huge one, probably close to the 50lb range.

Fishing for Trout

[theboz]

Far to many times. Use the IGFA phone app now just in case.

[Diver Dan]

Originally Posted by cb

Here some good methods of estimating a salmon's weight - all vary though!

That's a good quick way but not horribly accurate. Any formula that does not incorporate girth, particularly on big fish can be off by a lot. For example, I have seen Pike that were 40 inches long go from as little as 16 pounds, to as much as 21. It was all in the girth.

[jokeandcolor]

Ive landed many largemouth bass in my time through the ice and on spinning gear in the 7-10 pound range so I know how big one is first hand. Well I was flipjng through a photo album when i was 18 or so and came across some picturss my mom had taken of me fishing the housatonic river when i was maybe 10 years old at a relatives house. I remember always drifting hellgramites and crawdads througn thepools and slamming the smallmouth. I came across a particluar largefish my younger self was posing with in a photo and my jaw dropped wheni realized k was holding a picture of one of the largest small mouth I had ever seen. It was so big I tookthe photo to my uncle who is a taxidermist that day and he estimated the weight consertivley at 8 pounds and even offered to replicate it on the cheap. However, as life tends to get in theway it kept getting pushed off tothe side and by the time I got serious any photos of the fish were lost. My mom felt guilty for long time about not springing for more polaroid cartridges after I told her about the potential record breaker lol.


Another time I was flyfishing for bass on a small lake and lost about 3 or 4 Daves Hopper to nasty pickeral along a weed bed before adding a few jnches of braid to the leader. Sure enough a few casts later j hook into that old pickeral in after a long fight and wading waist dep to hoist him out of the weeds I looking what amounts to decent northern size wise. I take a quick measurement with my rod, retrieve my flies, and toss the beast back into the lake.It wasnt until that night sitting at my computer looking at records thati started to think that maybe i should have taken some photos. Oh well

[Hardyreels]

Although it won't change the facts, at least you know, knowing is the good part and being careful not to look backward on our mistakes to harshly................ well sometimes that part can be harder.

When and if we were to talk trout or small mouth from my past, the largest fish I ever hooked of either species came loose from my hook before I could land them. At the time, at the very moment that each fish was lost came a crushing sense of disappointment. However, each occurrence was what led to my desire to try harder.

I've been trying to break the 2 foot ceiling on rainbow trout ever since I moved to alaska. I have gotten right at 2 feet and know that some steelhead had to be a little bigger but had no measuring tape with me so I'll never know. One of these years it'll happen, I just know it.

Ard

[parsond]

Ill never know for sure, but I suspect I caught a Wyoming state record Carp and released it. The record is in the 30 pound class and one fish I landed last summer may have been kissing 37-38 pounds. I will be hunting him again this year... this time better enlightened, with a camera, and hopfully with a witness!