Trophy Fishing - Catching the Big Fish

Everyone can be seduced by trophy fishing. Everyone likes catching big fish, the bigger the better.

“Big,” in fact, is often used as a synonym for “trophy.” Indeed, all the record books are based on the size of the particular fish.

To me, trophy fishing of this sort has always seemed rather unfair. In the first place, location can determine the size of a fish. The potential size of a largemouth caught in Florida or California, for instance, has little to do with how big that same fish grows in, say, Illinois or Connecticut. That’s one of the reasons we have state-level, as well as world records. It helps to level the playing field when trophy fishing.

Even so, there’s more involved in determining trophy fishing status than size alone. Indeed, very often a smaller fish can be a “trophy” to the angler who caught it.

How you caught a fish can contribute to whether or not it’s a trophy. My best brown trout on a fly only went 19 inches, for example. Not a bad fish, but certainly not a monster. The circumstances of the catch made it a trophy to me. I’ve caught bigger browns. Browns measured in pounds rather than inches. But none of them are a memorable as that Ausable trout.

Memorable! That’s the word that should go with trophy fishing status, rather than size. When my youngest son, Chad, was only eight, he caught his first salmon; a coho running about four pounds. He caught it on a beginner’s spincast outfit, with a pick-up pin that was on the blink. Until then, his fishing had consisted of bluegill and perch. So while trophy fishing “rules” would pass over that catch rather quickly, that coho was a trophy in his eyes - and mine, too.

When George Mead and I flyfished Dale Hollow Lake we had a guide who thought it couldn’t be done, and said so in no uncertain terms. The fact that the biggest fish of the day went to George, on a fly I had tied, made it a real trophy to us, even though it only weighed about a third of the trophy fishing world record which came from that same lake.

Still and all, everyone does like to catch big fish. The bigger the better. And the plain truth is, anybody can catch a record-book fish. All you need do is put your heart into it, and spend a lot of time and money pursuing that bragging fish. Sure, there have been a few caught by accident---the world record largemouth bass is a perfect example. But most records fall to trophy fishing anglers who set out specifically to set a new record.

You don’t have to go through that drill to catch big fish, though. There are numerous species swimming in our lakes and rivers that are big by definition.

When striped bass on their spawning run were trapped behind the dam at Santee-Cooper, it started a whole new inland fishery. Now there are striped bass in many states. Rockfish weighing more than 30 pounds are fairly common, and nobody is overly surprised when some of them tip the scales at forty and even fifty pounds. That’s big on anybody’s scale. Some striped bass fishing techniques mimic those used in salt water. But through the decades since the gates were closed on Santee-Cooper, fisherman have come up with methods for inland stripers that have never been used in the salt. Nor is this a stagnant fishery. New techniques show up every year, and the count on giant linesides is exceptionally high.

The pike family, too, consists of inherently large fish. Pickerel are an exception, of course. But both musky and Northern pike grow huge in most waters they inhabit. Anglers, especially in the northern tier of states, have been chasing musky and pike for more than a century and a half. And you’d think there was nothing new in baits, tackle, and techniques. Such is not the case. New methods appear all the time, particularly among musky fisherman in the southern states.

Northern pike have been transplanted to many waters, and can now be found as far south as Tennessee. Even more widespread are the various pike/musky crosses, such as tiger musky. This makes the water wolves readily available to most fisherman interested in trying for them.

Most of us think of catfish as being on the small side. “Fiddler” channel cats of about 14 inches, for instance, are considered by many to be the perfect eating size. And a catfish running three to five pounds makes most catfisherman happy.

But when you start fishing for some of the other cats you realize how big they can grow. The world record (there we go with records, again) blue is a whooping 109 pounds. And flatheads pushing the century mark are caught all the time.

Certainly there are specialized techniques and heavy-duty tackle involved when fishing for big cats. But they’re found everywhere in North America if you know where to look and how to fish for them.

Not all big fish are commonly thought of as gamefish for trophy fishing purposes. But it you’re in it for the sport, there’s not much that beats the fun of a 30 pound carp, a 40 pound bigmouth buffalo, or a 100 pound alligator gar.

Nor should we forget the prehistoric throwbacks. Even in the ocean you’d be hard-pressed to land a fish like the white sturgeon, which can easily exceed 12 feet. Or a paddlefish that could tip the scales at 200 pounds. But they’re both found in the fresh waters of North America.

So, if you’re really after big fish, you don’t have to spend time, money, and energy trophy fishing and chasing world records. Just fish for those species that naturally grow large. Your success rate will be higher, and your frustration level much, much lower.