Big fish caught on light tackle

Yorkshire Boy said:
I'm not a carp fishing expert but I do know that English carp fishers either feed them on the surface or on the bottom, not both at the same time.

Could you use a bubble float, the type you fill with water to get casting distance and then leave 6ft of trace to your hook link.
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I often dont fish and just feed them. If I feel like fishing then I get them started on a little floating food then fish with corn or wheaties on the bottom.

Next time Im at a fly shop Im gonna try to find a little brown floater and try some fly fishing for them.
 
I live in Missouri and fish for big blue cats on the mississippi and missouri river systems. We just catch and release them for fun and pics. Last week on the full moon night i caught a 63 lb. blue on a slab of big head carp/asian carp. Its easy to get bait thats for sure they just jump into the boat when you motor into the shallows. But you may want to wear a helmet. :D
 
dipbait said:
I often dont fish and just feed them. If I feel like fishing then I get them started on a little floating food then fish with corn or wheaties on the bottom.

Next time Im at a fly shop Im gonna try to find a little brown floater and try some fly fishing for them.
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In England you can buy flies in the shape of dog biscuits and bread!
 
d762nato said:
I live in Missouri and fish for big blue cats on the mississippi and missouri river systems. We just catch and release them for fun and pics. Last week on the full moon night i caught a 63 lb. blue on a slab of big head carp/asian carp. Its easy to get bait thats for sure they just jump into the boat when you motor into the shallows. But you may want to wear a helmet. :D
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Thats the type of fishing id like to try. I fished the Mississippi wing dams for channel cats, but was never prepared to take on big blues. That will change when I get my next boat.
 
No pix but dad caught an 11 pound drum on 4 pound mono spinning rig and 1/16th oz chartruese maribou jig.
 
When we fish in the Cancun area, we pretty much exclusively use 20 lb mono on 12-16 size conventional Shimano, Penn and old Fin-Nor reels. That covers everything from 15-35 lb blackfin tuna and 15-50+ lb dolphin (mahi), wahoo and sailfish and white marlin, all three of which can get over 100 lbs. Sailfish are the primary target down there and they tend to run on average around 40-50 pounds, which is a fair bit larger than what we normally see in South Florida. Pound for pound, the blackfin, like most tuna, are probably the toughest fighters of the bunch, but a big 50 lb+ wahoo is the most likely to strip all of the line off your reel on the one very long initial run they tend to make when they strike your bait at 50 mph.:eek:;) The biggest fish that I have caught on light tackle was a sailfish in Key West a number of years ago that was close to 100 pounds. I was useing a big Penn spinnner with 20 lb mono and the fish destroyed the drag plate on the reel. I ought the thing for like 90 minutes and for the last 60 or so, I was applying "thumb drag" like a fly fisherman.:D I think that a lot of guys in place like Palm Beach still use spinners for sailfish, but I don't since that episode.
 
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Yorkshire Boy said:
I'd love to hear the story behind this and what tackle etc...you used.
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I went down to Flamingo, Florida to fish the flats for Snook, Redfish, etc. My cousin is a guide there. I caught alot of fish, but the majority were trash fish. (Ladyfish, Jacks, etc)
My cousin said next time I hook a Ladyfish to keep it and he would rig up a rod for Tarpon. The stoutest Rod he had was a 7' med action spin rod, with a 4000 reel. I told him that there was no way I would be able to land the Tarpon we have seen but it would be fun to try. ( The Tarpon were 80lb+ easy!) Anyway, about a minute after we put the Ladyfish in the water, the reel started to scream. (We didn't have a baitrunner, but we loosened the drag all the way..) I grabbed the rod, tightened the drag and reeled it tight. Added some pressure to and dug the circle hook in good! I waited for the high flying acrobats of the big Tarpon I thought I hooked, but after a couple of minutes of the big fish just taking line with out breeching the surface my cousin said, "hmm shark" After about a half our or so of a give and take battle I finally had the shark worn out enough to land. My cousin had my camera and was videoing the fight on and off, and his comentary was quite funny. However that camera would never make it back home with me :(

So thats it. I landed the 6+' foot Lemon Shark, with 15lb braid, the leader was 25# Seagar Flouracarbon. (No wire) 7" spinning rod and a 4000 Shimano Stradic reel.
 
tonym said:
I went down to Flamingo, Florida to fish the flats for Snook, Redfish, etc. My cousin is a guide there. I caught alot of fish, but the majority were trash fish. (Ladyfish, Jacks, etc)
My cousin said next time I hook a Ladyfish to keep it and he would rig up a rod for Tarpon. The stoutest Rod he had was a 7' med action spin rod, with a 4000 reel. I told him that there was no way I would be able to land the Tarpon we have seen but it would be fun to try. ( The Tarpon were 80lb+ easy!) Anyway, about a minute after we put the Ladyfish in the water, the reel started to scream. (We didn't have a baitrunner, but we loosened the drag all the way..) I grabbed the rod, tightened the drag and reeled it tight. Added some pressure to and dug the circle hook in good! I waited for the high flying acrobats of the big Tarpon I thought I hooked, but after a couple of minutes of the big fish just taking line with out breeching the surface my cousin said, "hmm shark" After about a half our or so of a give and take battle I finally had the shark worn out enough to land. My cousin had my camera and was videoing the fight on and off, and his comentary was quite funny. However that camera would never make it back home with me :(

So thats it. I landed the 6+' foot Lemon Shark, with 15lb braid, the leader was 25# Seagar Flouracarbon. (No wire) 7" spinning rod and a 4000 Shimano Stradic reel.
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Tarpon are very acrobatic, but compared to other fish their size like a yellowfin, they aren't quite as tough. A 100 lb+ yellowfin can strip all of the braid off of your 50 pound rig and just laugh at you. Guys go after big tarpon all of the time with 20 pound gear. You would never dream of going after a big yellow fin with that.
 
I won the Tunkwa Lake tournament in the Kamloops area of B.C. in 1997.

6 lb 12 oz rainbow on a 5 piece diawa 5.5ft packrod with a little quantum reel with a 2 lb leader.

Had to chase him with my electric motor off and on for 25 minutes.

Everyone was flyfishing including me but it was mid august and 35 celcius and the deepest part of the lake is 22 ft.

Switched to gear with the 2lb leader a stick bobber and a quarter worm on a red # 10 gamatsu and our boat was putting 20 fish a day!!

We caught a few small earlier and were full of leeches but every damn pattern was usless.

Worm and bobber was the hottest ticket on the lake, guys were snobbing us but I went home with 350$ for biggest fish and 250 for most fish weighed.
 
jdm61 said:
Tarpon are very acrobatic, but compared to other fish their size like a yellowfin, they aren't quite as tough. A 100 lb+ yellowfin can strip all of the braid off of your 50 pound rig and just laugh at you. Guys go after big tarpon all of the time with 20 pound gear. You would never dream of going after a big yellow fin with that.
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I hear you, I have caught Yellowfin and blackfin Tuna before. Their runs are amazing and they wore me out quick, and that was on 80lb line...
 
There are lunatics out there that go after what we call "rat" blue marlin with heavy duty fly rods. A rat is a "small" male marlin that weighs less than 300 lbs but they typically still weigh at least 150 lbs..:eek::D
 
tonym said:
I hear you, I have caught Yellowfin and blackfin Tuna before. Their runs are amazing and they wore me out quick, and that was on 80lb line...
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Where you run into real trouble with yellowfin is when the go deep. You might as well be trying to reel up a piano.
 
I was bank fishing for crappie with 4 lb test and an ultra lite with a minnow on board, when I thought I was snagged, Low and behold the snag started moving. All I had was a pocket scale so how accurate it was who knows but it read close to 7 lbs. so probablly closer to 5.5 or 6 , LOL!

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dipbait said:
I dont know if they are any good or not. My neice got knocked out of a canoe by one. A commercial market needs to be found for them. Maybe zoos would buy them for food.

Youve all seen them on TV. They are a very bad invasive spieces.

[youtube]9iLKbtZsIsk[/youtube]
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there was a commercial fishery for Asian Carp on the Illinois River. I read an article in 2007. They hand haul large mesh gillnets from 30 foot skiffs. I think they were taking 13,000 lbs a day at around 4 cents a pound. I also think the fish were chopped up for animal feed and fertilizer. I don't think that there is a food market for them outside of Asia. We used to have them come aboard the towboat. They would break windows and at night when they were thick we could not go on deck or tow. The company worried that one would knock someone out and they would go overboard in the dark.

The biggest fish I caught was a 10 foot Nurse Shark about a mile off of Clearwater Beach while blacktip shark fishing. I can't remember the actual tackle but it was medium weight conventional gear with approximately 30-50 lb test. We didn't weigh the fish but guessed it to be in the 150-200 lb size. It ran for about 10 minutes then planed out and the next hour or so was reeling up deadweight. It was enjoyable though. :)
 
gradall5200 said:
I was bank fishing for crappie with 4 lb test and an ultra lite with a minnow on board, when I thought I was snagged, Low and behold the snag started moving. All I had was a pocket scale so how accurate it was who knows but it read close to 7 lbs. so probablly closer to 5.5 or 6 , LOL!

7lbbassedit2.jpg

75lbbass0012.jpg
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between 6 - 7 lbs should be about right. without seeing a width view its hard to tell. either way, fine fish bud! :thumbup:.. congrats
 
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