This one’s for you buddy. Hardly had this in the net before I started telling my customers that I needed to get a pic “for Carp Chaser!”
<br>
<br>Apparently this one thought I was trolling a “sweet corn” pattern shad rap… Regardless, it was one heck of a tussle.
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>Definitely one of my prouder moments!
<br>
<br>Good fishin’,
<br><br><br>James Holst
<br>Moving Waters Guide Service
<br>http://www.movingwaters.net
Hey James, What a BRUTE. Canyou take a guess at what it weighed? How long did it take you to get it in the boat?
See ya later, Hawg
dang…!! James… that looks like a buffalo.. and a BIG one…. did you take any length or weight on that beast?
did it hit a crawdad pattern? buffalo seem to LOVE orange for some reason… I wonder if they feed on crayfish…..
I have no idea how long that fish was and couldn’t even throw a decent weight estimate out for anyone. Big. Real big. I’m 6′ 3″ and it stretch from the top of my head well past my waist. We were trolling cranks for eyes and really snorting along, nearly 4 mph, rod in the rod holder was set at 145 feet. Initially my customer supervising that rod thought it was a snag and for a second, so did I. That is until I got a good look at the rate of speed that the line was coming off the Diawa. For the first half of the intitial run my customer could NOT get the rod out of the holder as the momentum of the fish had the rod wedged. To make a long story short, by the time we got that fish stopped on its first run it had ripped off all my spiderwire and we were into the mono backing. My counter stopped at 450 feet! That’s a 300 foot run. (Touchdown!) Took quite awhile to land the fish and I needed to back down hard on it with the kicker motor to get it near the boat.
We’ll have to get Carp Chaser to take a stab at the weight. My ruler goes to 32″ and I knew there was no point in laying that thing down for a measurement since my ruler would have come up way short.
Ya’ never know what you’ll catch in that there river!
James Holst
Moving Waters Guide Service
http://www.movingwaters.net
Oink Oink! That’s a Piggy!
Nice job!
The nice part about them, you get all that Spiderwire re-wrapped on the spool! It’s good to do once and a while!
LOL
Tuck
What a monster! I bet I know what James dreams about now when he’s sleeping and it’s no longer Walleyes. Couldn’t resist James, he’s a BIG one!!!!! Bill
I could have weighed it… I had a digital scale in my boat. Just opted to snap a shot and let it go. I really don’t have experience judging size with that species but it would have been close to that weight.
I wish walleye got that big!
James Holst
Moving Waters Guide Service
http://www.movingwaters.net
James fishes with a Mn license so is subject to their records. According to the Mn DNR website the record carp is Carp: 55–5, Clearwater Lake (Wright County).
They are really fun! Caught a 26 lber using an OLD Pflueger Supreme (no drag! just back reel) quite a few years ago. Before I realized the size, tried to use my thumb for drag…after it got chewed up I had to follow it for a while…broke the net handle bringing it in the boat.
I could be wrong… but I think that fish is a bigmouth buffalo… Mn record 41# 11oz… they have a slightly different look than a carp……
RiverEyes,
Thanks for the correction. I took a quick look at the pic and assumed carp…I can’t say I’ve ever seen one of these guys before.
Wow, that is a huge fish. I happened to be lucky enough to see the new SD state record a couple months ago. That fish was 39 pounds, 38 inches long, 28 inch girth, and this one looks at least that big. Either way, it’s a heck of a fight.
Eyez
It is a Buffalo and I’d say you’re pretty close on the 40# for weight. Pictures are aways tough to guess from but I had a 43# with a bow last spring and this one looks darn close to it.
James, at the very least, I think that fish deserves a spot on the visitors photo page! It’d be nice to refer back to it once in a while.
Wow! What a fish H2O, congratulations. That thing has to be over 40. When I first saw it I thought it was a big drum but after looking at the head closely, it definitely is a very light colored bigmouth buffalo. The solid black eye (like a marbel) gives it away. A really cool fish, thanks for sharing. By the way did you see that 70 pound paddlefish someone caught out of Lake Pepin? It was in Outdoor News recently.
Hey “chaser”
No, I didn’t see that article.
I have seen several ENORMOUS sturgeon floating on the surface of the lake recently that absolutely dwarfed the 48″ and 52″ specimens that customers caught this spring. I’ve also seen several smaller sturgeon floating or washed up on the shorelines. ????? Is the higher water unusually hard on this species or what? Those buggers are absolutely awesome fish!
Again, I wish WALLEYE got that big!
James Holst
Moving Waters Guide Service
http://www.movingwaters.net
Do you suppose silting is choking them?
Could be. In the last week I’ve never seen so many huge (dead) floating fish. Carp, sturgeon, paddlefish, walleye, pike, sheepshead, etc. These fish started showing up immediately after the water started to rise this past week. Silting, stress from the crazy water levels, or natural mortailty? All the fish I’m catching seem to be in great shape….
James Holst
Moving Waters Guide Service
http://www.movingwaters.net
I suppose…………….weeding out the weak………..survival of the fittest…………it’s not unfathomable. I actually saw some of the same on Lake Winnebago last weekend but that was mostly perch and sheephead I saw and they weren’t real big. But the big ones you’re seeing may have just lived out their days………………just seems odd that so many species are being sighted by you. Do fish always float when they die?
fish most often float when they die…. decompostion usually causes gasses to form, lifting the fish to the surface…. the only time this might not be true is if the fish is torn apart by scavengers like turtles or birds……
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
