I was thinking about great-fighting fish this weekend after catching a really hot steelead on the coast. I think the best fighting fish I ever landed was a 32 inch wild Deschutes River summer steelhead I hooked in July 2000. The fish hit a #4 spinner I was swinging through a deep current seam around 3 in the afternoon on a sunny day. The fish jumped well clear of the water several times, then screamed downriver for what seemed like a full minute. My Shimano Stradic made a high pitched whine I'd not heard before, nor have I since. I remember looking at my reel during that first run and wondering if it would lock up... it didn't. The fish made a total of 7 water-clearing, sparkling jumps and made 3 of those 100 yard freight train-like runs where I didn't have a prayer of stopping it. I was very relieved and excited when I finally landed the silvery buck, since all during the fight, I expected to lose it. After photographing and releasing it, I remember shaking and giggling like a schoolgirl, I was so stunned and exhilerated by the power and wreckless abandon of that fish!

I'm curious to hear other member's stories about really hot fish!

I caught a 9 foot sturgeon several years ago that would be my best fight. Most impressive fishing moments I've ever had were with that fish. It jumped numerous times including a jump and tail walk about 30 feet from the boat. Amazing stuff.

A buddy and I were fishing out of Ketchikan back in 1990 targeting silvers, there were still a few kings around but we didn't really expect to find any so we decided to use our steelhead gear for the silvers.
He was using a G-Loomis 1025 with an Ambassador that was spooled with 155 yards of 8 lbs. Maxima Ultragreen (which had not been changed after the previous winter steely season). In the first hour, we each hooked a few silvers and a king which went 33 lbs, this would end up being the warmup for the big one.
At 2:15 while he was on the head with his pants around his ankles and his rod sitting in the rod holder (we had been mooching) his rod gets hammered. I grab the rod and holler at him that I think he's got a big halibut on and to come take care of it, I wanted to get back to fishing. He comes stumbling out and proceeds to fight this fish that I was sure was a butt, after 20-30 minutes of this stalemate, I almost had him convinced to cut the line, that's when the fish came off the bottom and jumped about 20 feet from the boat, all 57 lbs of chrome chinook.
We chased that fish for almost 4 miles and 6 hours before finally netting it at 8:00 p.m., when we arrived back at the resort there was about 200 people on the dock that had been listening to my radio transmissions with the resort on our progress with the fish, among those people was a reporter from the Ketchikan news, our picture made the front page the next day.
At the time that fish was 4 lbs. shy of the line class world record.

a 30lb king off of edmonds pier with a medium spinning rod and 10lb test. took 45 mins to get her in.
Tyler

With the first fall rain storms of the season comes a mixture of late summers, Coho, and Fall Chinook to the oregon coast rivers. I grabbed my steelhead rod and headed to the Wilson river. I was using my Curado with 8# maxima matched with my 1024 Loomis (8-12#). I had caught and released a couple jacks and was about to head up river when a Chinook rolled in the middle of the drift. I then tied on 10# leader with a pink pom pom and shrimp tail. I was using a 2/0 barbless hook. Three casts later I felt the familiar bump. I set the hook and saw a huge Chinook roll and take off. After about 15 minutes I finally saw the fish again. It took another 20 minutes and six attempts to land the huge fish by myself. I carried the fish to my truck with its tail dragging on the ground. It topped the scales at 42 pounds. Lots of fun.

Mark

Best fighting fish I ever caught was a 30 lb albicore tuna. I was fishing my medium light Kunan rod, old Ambassadeur bass reel with 12 lb on it and a live anchovie. I saw the black part of the spool three times during the battle. Finally got it in after 20 minutes.

I landed a #19 hen on the Sol Duc last March that was HOT. I was drifting a pink worm, she nearly ripped the rod out of my hand and headed for the ocean. 20 minutes ater I released her gently back into the river. That was a good fight and my biggest steelie to date.

Best fight...probably a 9# Summer Run out of the Hood River--took me 100 yards through a shin breaking mine field and probably cleared the water a total of 10 or 11 times! Absolutely the best aerial display I have ever seen on a steelhead!

Bets fighting fish would be a 20#+ native i caught this year, what a beutifull fish. That thing fought like a mother. And then the Srongest fish ever fought, A buddy and I was fishin Bradford island at bonniville and landed a sturgeon between 14-16 foot. this is no joke. off the bank as well. 2 1/2 hours to bring that hog in. and then about a week of soar backs for both my buddy and I. What makes this fish even better is my buddy has never fished for sturgeon in his life. when we got it to the bank i told him to grab the sturgeons lip, he reaplied with a F*** you, just the look on his face was hillariouos enough. tight lines MIke

a fifty-two pound bluegill. :p

I never saw the best fighting fish I ever hooked, but I assume it was a springer. I was fishing for steelhead above Waterloo falls on the South Santiam in June three years ago. I had waded out on a rock as close to the falls as I could get drifting pink yarn when I hooked up a big fish. It ran down toward the falls and wrapped the line around a rock. I could still feel the fish, so I waded out more to try and free the line. The river really trenches out above the falls, and before I knew it, I'm sucked in and my chest waders are starting to fill as I bob toward the falls. As I pass the rock with the line wrapped around it I manage to loop it off, and the fish is still there. Seconds later I get me knees up on a boulder and continue fighting the fish, who's still trying to go downriver. It somehow manages to wrap itself up again, however, and seconds later its gone. I dragged myself up on the bank nearby, completely exhausted, and thanked the fish gods for a memory that won't easily be forgotten, even though the fish won. HT

I've never actually caught a fish. I just take photos I find on the internet and edit them so it appears to be me. Saw someone fight a fish once. Looked like fun.

Team Nabisco

-Ritz

I really don`t recall my best fighting fish but the most memorable one was
a Northern Pike caught off the cat-walks just outside Pick City N.D.
Parker,
Yeah, I remember someone else telling me about you before..

I encountered my best-fighting fish about 20 years ago on the Hoh river. I hooked a 6-7 lb. native summer-run hen on a single Anise-scented Luhr-Jensen rubber egg. When I finally landed her I was a babbling fool with a dime-sized blister on my thumb. That was by far the baddest fish I ever hooked, especially when you consider her lack of size. If you hooked a 20 lb'er with an attitude like that, you wouldn't stand a chance. I still remember that fight like it was yesterday.........and I'm always hoping for another fish with an attitude like that.

Oh yeah, gotta weigh in on this one

About '94 or so in late March I was flyfishing the upper Quinault, in the spot that I referred to as the "toilet bowl hole" - water kept going round and round in a big eddy. I kind of casually threw my fly in there and watched it sink out of sight, then watched first the line and then the fly wash back around near my feet at the edge of this 10 foot deep hole. The water was gin clear, and as I was stripping in line for the next cast I noticed a huge dark boulder detach itself from the bottom, open up a big white mouth, and eat my fly. I set the hook and this monster buck in full spawning regalia flew 5 feet out of the water and looked me in the eye a rod-length away, hit the water running, and proceeded to peel off downstream. I threw all the loops I had in my left hand in the river and hung on - the fish hit the shallows at the tailout and jumped five feet in the air again, and when it came down enough line had washed downstream that it felt tension in that direction - as I had hoped - and bolted upstream, right out of the hole and into a series of 4 foot standing waves out in the mainstem. Once again it hit the end of the line, and then came out of the water in a series of 7 leaps (yes, I counted each one), each time literally bouncing on top of one of those waves and launching itself into the air, with my leader and then my line throwing a half-hitch around it each time. Then it hit the water again at the end of the tailout and lay there stunned - it had gone so berserk for 30 seconds that it had temporarily exhausted itself. Well, by this time my fly line was well wrapped around and attached to it's tail, even though the hook was still in it's mouth. I tried to pull it in backwards against the current and get my hand around it's tail - which turned out to be so large that my hand wouldn't fit around it, and when I touched him he started to come back to life. He wouldn't beach backwards, and once he started to swim away I knew I would be toast if he hit the main current - with my line wrapped around him there was no way I could break him off and would likely lose the whole line. So I ran downstream and worked him into a side channel, jumped in front of him when he tried to run back out of it, and got him to panic and run himself up on a gravel bar trying to get to the mainstem. I was able to pounce on him, get him unwrapped and unhooked, and get him measured - 39 inches long and 21 inches around - a good 22 pounds and shaped like a summer run - long, lean, and mean! I let him go to produce more like him, and then just sat there and breathed hard for the next half hour.

It's hard to single out one fish as I've had different ones over the years blister my thumb.
A couple that stand out:

1) Mid 80's on the south fork toutle in february right after the river re-opened for winter steelhead after the eruption. The secret wasn't out yet and there was phenomenal winter steelhead fishing. Hooked a fish of only 8-9 lbs in a non-descript run that absolutely would not stop running and jumping. Took me 4 corners down the river before I saw the fish; hipboots full of water from the bath I took trying to keep up. Expecting to see a fish near twenty pounds based on the ride it took me on, I was stunned to see it's true size. A wild fish at it's best.

There have been others but I find it interesting that many of my "hottest" fish over the years have rarely exceeded 10 lbs. Bigger ones have given good accounts of themselves too but the suicide fish have mainly been 8-10 lb. winter and summer fish.

P.S. Did have a willapa bay silver slam my herring and jump in the boat 10 seconds later a few years ago...that was interesting!

eric i had the same expierence. i hooked a silver in lake wa not last year but the time before that when it was open. came strait at me jumped on the boat and before i had the chance to pounce on it if flopped off... with the hook detached.

i saw a sailfish with a series of about 10 jumps come strait into the boat on americas funniest home videos....... that could cause some damage if it speared you

Tyler

There have been many good fights but the one that sticks out was a mid-teens wild buck C&R'd on a #2 chartruese Vibrax. A few years ago I was trolling the Duwamish Waterway for silvers when I hooked up. I was using an 1141S with 6lb line. The combination of light tackle with an ocean-fresh fish made for an awesome fight. Like Wild Chrome; my spinning reel spool spun so fast it sounded strange...

Two fish stand out - First one was my first time fly fishing for SR's. Was with Dennis Dickson and we finished the day at the Picnic Hole on the NF Stilly. I was fishing a straight downstream presentation over about 20 holed up fish. I hooked a few and then I hooked one that took one, two, three jumps straight at me!! The third jump I was looking up at the white belly of about a 7lb steelhead. He jumped clear over me, threw the hook, 'bout gave me a heart attack but ended my first day fly fishing with a smile on my face. The second fish was a 40lb king up in the Straits that took a 75 yard run on top of the water with spray coming off his back like he was a torpedo.

Both fish gave me great memories to think about on those days when I wear the skunk.

In my fishing career I have one memory of the hardest fighting fish I have been lucky enough to hook. I was steelhead fishing in August, on the Columbia River about 25 miles north of the Tri-Cities. I had bank fished this area many times before and knew the area pretty well. Early on a Saturday morning, my fishing bud and I decided to let our wives sleep in since they didn't quite have the fishing fever that we had acquired. We left the trailer and made our way down to the preferred hole on that stretch of river. To my surprise no one was there! "This never happens," I thought to myself. We both waded our way out a little ways and began casting. My lure of choice consisted of a green corkie with the added scent of hot pink-dyed shrimp.
I was running 10# test and 8# leader, my norm for most steelhead outings. My friend and I were enjoying routine conversation when on my fifth cast I felt a tap and reared back only to have my rod slam down and line start smoking off my reel. The Salmon (I'm assuming of course) took of like a sub and since the water I hooked him in was fairly shallow, he actually created a wake radiating from his body as he shot out from the bank. The old-familiar story of the having a nik in your line happened upon me that morning for the fish had not gone more than ten feet when SNAP!
I couldn't believe it. I was shaking and my friend's mouth was wide-open in shock. I haden't figured that the salmon might be in already, plus this fish was only twenty-five feet from shore. I'm sure it had moved in toward shore overnight. Anyway, after that I checked my line, knot, leader and drag to make sure that it didn't happen again. I hadn't casted more than five minutes when WHAM! It happend again this time I was a little more prepared. Same thing as before but he happened to make it past the ten foot mark this time. I didn't know what to do. My largest river fish ever was a 16# steelhead caught in the same stretch of river. The fish surfaced about fifty feet out and it was easily in the 40-50# class. I literally started to shake again and figured that my 10# test wouldn't last long. The fish headed downstream in the mighty Columbia and I had no choice but to follow. I was running down the bank with my reel screaming. Half a dozen fishermen were nice enough to pull in their lines to let me by as I fought this monster. The fish never stopped once to let my regain some of the line I had lost. My drag was not set super light. I felt like I was at the breaking point for my drag setting already. I followed the fish about 3/4 of a mile downstream. Hoping and praying that I might land this awesome fish, however, I also know that when a fish gets out that far, your chances are not good. As I passed the last fisherman, he commented on how I better stop the fish before he gets into that swifter water or I will definetely lose him. I won't tell you what I was going to say to that guy in regard to his comment. Something in the essence of "here you take the rod and try stopping him". Anyway, I came to a canal that was too deep to cross so I tightened my drag and hoped for some reason the fish might do a 180 and come right back at me, Of course you all know the rest TWANG, and that was that. I can't complain because I got to fight the fish for twenty-thirty minutes and it was a great fight. Before I got back to the trailer my wife had heard the news and met me at the river but she saw me from a ways off walking slowly with my head down. Oh well, that's fishing and we all love it. Sorry for such a long story. My only question to fellow anglers is this. Is there anything I could have done different to swing the outcome in my favor? Always good to know in case it ever happens again. Thanks for reading, BigDawg