Long Fish Battle

[5 Dollar Fishing Game]

I was watching one of my favorite shows, rivermonsters. Jeremy Wade had a special with his best catches. He fought a bull shark for 2 hrs 45 minutes. And a stingray for 3 hrs 10 minutes. That is long! Does anyone else have a similar battle with a fish that took a while?

Joe

[S_Miketa6]

My dad fought a 42" pike for about an hour and a half on 10lb line with a Megabass crankbait on the end, it was pretty impressive but he was more worried about losing his Megabass than anything lol I still don't know how that fish didn't get away!!

[5 Dollar Fishing Game]

That's awesome! I start to get antsy when I fight a good bass for over a minute. Lol

[tomustang]

I had a ray walk me down the jetty for a half hour. What a fight, incredible suction power too

I seen that episode where Jeremy fought the ray, I didn't know what he meant about how the ray sucks to bottom, well I understood it when I caught that one.

[SirSnookalot]

I've never really looked at my watch to time a fight.  I've had many a fish that the fight time has been quite long.  Not my largest fish or the longest time, but my hardest offshore catch was a 100# amberjack, my hardest inshore would have been a tarpon maybe 70# off the beach running after it well over 1/4 mile.

[Bluebasser86]

When I was 6 I fought a fish on an ultralight and 6lb test for a hour and a half and never even saw it before it broke my line. There was people taking pictures and even video taping (back before every phone could take video). I was pretty disappointed not getting to see what it was but I'm pretty sure it was a big flathead.

[AJMichigan]

I love River Monsters. I actually e-mailed him once and he e-mailed me back! I still have the e-mail saved lol! I sent him the story about people catching Piranna's out of the Grand River up here last summer. Man I would love to do his job..

 

Anyway, I was in Florida back in 2010 for spring break my junior year. We went 23 miles off the coast of the atlantic deep sea fishing and one of the people on the charter was hooked into a shark for about an hour and a half. When they got it close I went up to the 2nd deck of the boat and looked at it. Thing had to be 15 feet at least. However the guy was extremely upset that the charter would not bring it onto the boat and keep it for him because he wanted to eat it.

[SirSnookalot]

There is a fairly lengthy list of sharks that must be released in Florida, your's may gave been one of them.  A 15' fish is going to yield a lot of meat, what were the plans not to waste the remaining fillets and steaks after a meal or 2?

[Helluva_Engineer]

In Costa Rica, I hooked into a roosterfish on a charter to find that the drag was broken and maxed out maybe had 2 lbs of drag on it. Basically had to fight the thing like I had ultralight on and was using my thumb for a drag. Fight went about 45-50 minutes. Other long fights were a 25-30 lb mahi on relatively light tackle, Snook from the beach on my bass rod and 8 lb test, and about a 120 lb tarpon from a kayak that I ended up losing at the last second after it drug me about a mile.

[Greeneye8181]

I hooked a striped bass on a creek off the Potomac River. Fought it for about 15 minutes on 10lb fluoro.  Ended up getting it in and it weighed just under 14 pounds.

Also snagged a carp with a crankbait. Fought it about 15 minutes until it got close to the boat and I could use a net to get the crankbait out.

[5 Dollar Fishing Game]

Are you all "making" the fight last that long? Or if you really wanted to could you simply reel it in as fast as the gear ratio allows? Or would doing that risk a line snap?

[Helluva_Engineer]

Are you all "making" the fight last that long? Or if you really wanted to could you simply reel it in as fast as the gear ratio allows? Or would doing that risk a line snap?

Hooks have a tendency to pull and lines snap at max drag. Additionally, some fish are just stronger than your drag.

For example, I've caught 70 lb tarpon on a spinning reel with a 20 lb max drag. If I tightened it down all the way, the hooks would pull out, but even if they didn't that tarpon is going to take line no matter what. So, you just have to be patient and wait until the fish wears down and keep pressure on him.

[5 Dollar Fishing Game]

That makes sense. It could also snap the line too I would imagine. My biggest is a 6.6 bass (my profile pic to the left). She fought hard. I can't imagine 70 lbs!!!

[Bluebasser86]

Are you all "making" the fight last that long? Or if you really wanted to could you simply reel it in as fast as the gear ratio allows? Or would doing that risk a line snap?

There was no rushing the fish I was fighting. I was pulling with all I had but that fish would just lay on the bottom (I was bank fishing) and I couldn't move it. If I remember correctly I was using a 6' Eagle Claw Featherlite with a 1000 Shimano TX RD with 6lb Trilene XL. I was just fishing for bluegills with a half a nightcrawler and a small jighead. The thing I remember most was when the fish got close to the bank the line was swinging side to side, a sign I now recongnize as the side to side motion of a large flathead catfish swimming along slowly. 

[flyfisher]

The longest freshwater was a approximately 20lb carp i caught on my 4wt when i was killing some time catching sunnies and i saw a carp feeding.  made a cst in the right spot, apparently, and the fight was on.  He took me into my backing quite a few times and one of those times took the backing down to where i could see the spool.  I was also on the bank so i was running around like crazy.  Somehow I ended up catching him after about 30 minutes or so.

 

Saltwater was a 45-50lb tuna that took me around an hour.

[Snakehead Whisperer]

Foul hooked and landed a 38lb. carp last winter while crappie fishing on 2lb. test. I didn't time it, but my friend said that I fought the fish for approximately 50 minutes. There was no way that I could have possibly got the fish in any faster than I did. Caught a koi that same night (also foul hooked.) That fish was probably less than 2lbs. but stripped my reel quickly and gave me a good fight that was probably at least 5 minutes if I had to guess. Pound for pound it fought a lot harder than the carp.

 

Caught the carp on copoly line; it was done after that fish, had to completely re-spool. 

[AJMichigan]

There is a fairly lengthy list of sharks that must be released in Florida, your's may gave been one of them.  A 15' fish is going to yield a lot of meat, what were the plans not to waste the remaining fillets and steaks after a meal or 2?

 

No idea, i'm not the one that caught him. It was a public charter.

[Bluebasser86]

Forgot about this one. I was on the phone with my wife for 55 minutes of the fight and she called me a few minutes into the fight, so probably over an hour. I was crappie fishing with a 6' 8" ML Crucial dropshot rod with a 1000 Symetre spooled with 4lb Pline fluoroclear, tossing a 1/32oz jighead tipped with a 2" power minnow under a bobber. I was wondering why the crappie quit biting so suddenly, I should have known. She was a bear to get in the net fishing by myself with such light gear. I was babying it pretty bad since I was using a bobber with the spring and I felt my line rub against some rocks or brush a couple times. Thankfully there was a father and son team that had stopped fishing to watch the fight that were nice enough to take the pictures for me. I think she was 21 or 23 pounds but can't remember for sure.