Great Catches 2017!!!

I did a ton of fishing this year. I probably will put some numbers up in about early January like Mike B did after the end of last season, but it's going to be 170 or 180 days this year and I caught some fairly neat stuff. 

My first neat catch this year was a carp. That was cool because, while it was no more than about an eight pound fish, I sight fished it on four pound test and it came from a clear, pretty heavily pressured pond where catching a carp is quite difficult. A little later in the spring, I caught an eleven inch hybrid sunfish from a different pond that occasionally pulls a foot long sunny out of its butt, and I caught two really nice smallies- one eighteen and a half inches and the other an inch longer than that- behind my house over the summer. My best channel catfish for the year was ten pounds. I also caught my personal best brown trout at seventeen inches- and yeah, I know that's not really all that big for a brown- and my PB yellow bullhead in July at fifteen inches. I caught some respectable tautog and hickory shad along with the usual little stripers in OCMD, and a seventeen inch fallfish in late October. I caught white suckers on a fly, too, so shoutout to everyone who gave me advice on that about last March, along with the guys who helped me with micro tactics because I also caught some of those.

So yeah. It was a fun year for me and I caught a lot of fish, but nothing really really extraordinary.

To say it was an interesting year would be an understatement. I was completely new to lifelist angling a year ago and now I want to do nothing but discover new species wherever I go. There's just something amazing to me about fooling a new species of fish into biting my bait. I added 23 new species this year. If you told me I'd be obsessed with carpsuckers two years ago I'd have no clue in the world what you'd be talking about. Same goes for redhorse. Sturgeon. Shiners. Hell, even some sunfish. 

But to pick a few top catches? Let's See.

Let's start here, I guess. This fish was just so monumental to me because 1. It was my personal best carp, and 2. It was my largest fish of any species to date. Even better, it was sightfished.

Next I'd probably have to lean to my highfin:

I loved this fish just because of the mini heart-attack that followed when I beached it. I started whooping and hollering like a madman once I had this beautiful creature in my hands (probably gaining some attention from others fishing). It was even more special of a catch because of how many baby drum bites and hook swallows I had gone through (hence the bloody hands) while trying to catch something different. Funny how one fish can make a whole slow day worth it.

After this one I have another unexpected catch, this time from the Ozarks.

There's just something so neat about watching a big mass of muscle and fat rise out of a deep hole following a streamer in. We were near Van Buren on the Current River in Missouri and I was hucking around a streamer for some pickerel or smallies in a deep, slow, hole. I had made a few dozen casts with only a small shadow bass to show for it and I was starting to get frustated, until I was bringing in a silvery shiner pattern streamer and I watched this catfish come out of nowhere and completely demolish my fly. Long fight from a strong bruiser of a fish.

My most favorite experience fishing this year was with our very own Goldenfishberg.

Goldy and I stood on the bank of the St. Croix for a combined 8ish hours weeding through mudpuppies (and I caught a drum in late October, go figure), until I caught this future monster amidst a lightning storm. We were using the lightning to look at our rodtips to see if we were getting bites while at the same time scouring around for worms on the wet ground. Such a cool experience, dude.

2017 was one hell of a ride, and I hope 2018 is even crazier and fishier.

I had a pretty good season over here. 

Lifer River Redhorse

This guy came as a complete surprise

Got my PB shorthead from the same spot within minutes of the highfin

Not a single sturg over 40" this year, but lots of these cool baby ones. 

Here's a shovelnose with the cool tail filament intact. 

Black Buff

This one was awesome. While relaxing on the bank, I saw what I thought to be a nice smallie absolutely terrorizing a big school of minnows before retreating under a deadfall. Naturally, I drifted a big, whole nightcrawler under the wood  and immediately got into it with him. After some drag ripping and jumping and weaving through downed wood for him, and nervous coaxing and reeling and swearing for me, he showed himself.  This was no smallie. This was my lifer Bowfin. 

Funny thing is, I ended up pulling a PB smallie from under that very same wood later in the summer. 

Some great catches have been posted so far! I would love to tangle with a lot of those species. Lets see more!

Here are a few of mine (click on images to see bigger):

The Longnose sucker run was good to me this year, the few times I got out. I even enticed many of them drifting a weighted nymph through a fast run.

During the contest, I spent more more hours fishing than usual. I also tried some old "new" spots and I am glad I did.

My first Channel Catfish I caught with 8 pound test and a light steelhead rod

I added two species of Redhorse to my lifelist this year, Greater and River, and I must say they are pretty magnificent fishes.

Above is my largest Greater so far, a rather perfet specimen for its size. Below is one of the two River Redhorse I was lucky enough to catch this year.

I also got lucky enough to finally get a koi in a pond/lake I know of to bite.

I almost landed a bowfin this year, but apparently I didn't set the hook hard enough in its bony mouth..  I am, of course, still very happy with what I did catch and I'm sure I will have another chance at bowfin next year.

Heres a few highlights of the year for me.....

First up are two fish Isaac pointed me towards, both rare here in Indiana.

Flier Sunfish

Redspotted Sunfish

Next in my PB channel at 15lbs (Almost didnt post this after seeing UpperMi's post above, WOW)

We catch a lot of bowfin in the creek neareast my house, heres the biggest this year. My longest ever, but very thin.

These were a challenge.

Silver Carp

The last three all came within a months time this october....it was a good fall.

Quillback Carpsucker

Black Redhorse

Gizzard Shad

I've always wanted to catch a snook. I got one in 2017, but of the pacific variety (White Snook) on an October trip to Mazatlan. Not only did it put up a good fight in 60 FOW, it tasted amazing as coconut-breaded snook fingers dipped in mango puree! One of the best tasting fish meals fresh at the restaurant and as lunch the next day back on the boat.

2017 was a pretty fun year, but nothing crazy as far as big catches go. A few though. There were some things(specific species and places) that I wanted to do and never got around to it, but at the same time I was fortunate to fish many new places. Caught fish in 6 different states this year, which is the most I've fished. Was a good year!!

First redear sunfish. I wasn't trying for them, but knew they were present in the watershed. Fun fighters on light fly gear

First spotted gar. Long, hot muggy day on the water.

I've gotten a bunch of these before, but this was my first chain in their native range. Finding places with fish that weren't weed choked was a struggle on this trip, but we got lucky with one little honey hole on our last day. Was sooooo relieved to bring this fish to hand.

Pretty sure this was my first fairly caught gizzard shad. Caught two that day

Caught more bullheads fly fishing this year than I ever have

My brother and I got this fun double.....

Spent a good bit of time trying new locations for bowfin. Had some pretty rough days, but a few good ones too. Wish to explore more in 2018

I know you guys aren't big fans of trout, but figured I'd share this catch. Found myself in Wyoming this June and had the opportunity to spend a couple hours on the North Platte River. Not expecting any time to fish, nor did I have the means to bring my own fishing gear, I ended up buying the cheapest fly rod combo I could find at Walmart. Was a rough setup to fish with(a short broomstick, pretty much) especially on this river.....probably should've just picked up a spinning setup. Anyways, just as I was about to walk back to the vehicle I hooked up. Put up a fantastic fight and really put the reel's plastic drag to the test, but I was able to land this wild rainbow.

Howdy Cowpokes,

Here are some memorable encounters with Mother Nature's dampest from 2017. Click to embiggen the photos.

Yellow Jack (Carangoides bartholomaei)
When looking up the Latin name for these critters I got a chuckle out of their description as "finicky eaters". Not a damned thing finicky about the ones I caught, they all crushed a yellow jighead and white 5" soft plastic minnow without a seconds hesitation. Yellow Jacks are not interested in being landed, the one pictured turned my jighead into a steel pretzel while dragging my kayak around the ocean.

A smaller Yellow Jack, but good scenery in the background.

Tarpon (Megalops atlanticus)
Tarpon are every bit as tough as I've been told. This one hit a mullet a few feet under a float drifted near a bridge piling. I saw a silver flash underwater and then felt like I'd hooked a passing train. This wasn't even a large tarpon, maybe 80 lbs., and it still took a half-hour to bring it boatside. Note - my intrepid guide, Captain Buddy, is not gaffing that fish. He used the gaff to pull the hook and the fish swam off none the worse for wear.

Mangrove Snapper (Lutjanus griseus)
I fished all morning the "correct" way to catch mangrove snapper. Frozen chum block over a deep ledge, and drifted a chunk cut squid, or grunt, out into the chum slick. Know how many I caught? Zero. I was so fed up I switched to a silver topwater plug and threw it over some submerged rocks just off a nearby mangrove island. I figured at least some barracuda would stretch my line and provide some action. All three of these mangroves hit my topwater plug. I'd have told you mangroves won't hit a topwater, which shows what I know. Nice fish too, notice my Swiss Army knife at the bottom for scale.

Largemouth (Largemouthus bassus)
5.7 pounds of largemouth bass. Weightless soft plastic worm fished slowly. Bass are suckers for a soft plastic, as long as you're not in a hurry to retrieve it.

JK

I can attest having two children under five is absolutely not conductive to angling activity but I got a femw licks in this year, and some real beauties to add to my photo collection.

First stop is Florida and the Caribbean, where as usual another boatload of lifelisters were brought to hand. Here are a couple of my favourites:

From Lost Key, Bahamas, a beautiful queen triggerfish. My dad got one and I was super jealous until I finally caught my own.

Coney grouper, same location

Not exactly sure where I was -- south of Key West and heading toward Fort Lauderdale is all I recall. My kids were cranky, my wife was tired -- I had only a few minutes to make magic happen ... and I did, this wonderful gray reef angelfish. I never thought I'd actually catch one. Bonus fish poop.

I didn't have a big pike year like I did in 2016 but I managed a few nice ones. I caught this 43-incher on a gorgeous day running and gunning along a wilderness winter road.

Another awesome day of ice fishing -- this time on Great Slave Lake. I caught two hog lake trout back to back a few feet from my pick-up truck. Fish like these are at the actual top of class in the North. The first one fought to the death after a 15-minute battle on heavy ice fishing gear but the second one I was able to release.

The trout I kept fed a lot of people!

41-inch lake trout caught from shore on Great Slave Lake.

Not my biggest lakers but one of the prettiest, that's for sure. A longfinned morph from one of the most spectacular places on Earth -- Utsingi Point, Great Slave Lake.

Just a dinky little yellow perch. What makes it special for me though was that its capture proved its presence in a lake -- Kam Lake, NWT -- where it had never been officially documented before. It is one of the mostly northerly caught yelllow perch anywhere in North America, and I didn't catch it with a can full of worms either. Yellow perch are tricky to catch in the North. I caught this one drop-shotting a tiny jig 30 feet down.

Again, a fish not special anywhere else but it's probably a PB rainbow trout and my first ever stocked fish caught in the Northwest Territories. It was the only trout caught after 30 hours drowning Power Bait from shore.

Fishing with Roughfish member Eli this summer on a lazy river near Ottawa produced more than a dozen species, including a PB freshwater drum and lifer mooneye. I didn't know mooneye could jump like that!

I ended my 2017 open water season with some gorgeous spawning inconnu on a freezing day in October. I love it when I can say goodbye to the year on a nice fish. Cheers, peace out. 

Kol and I had a blast catching Yellow Bass

I caught Fins with a great sunset over the Big Pond last

My PB Walleye at 24.5 inches at last light

Vermiculated Sailfin Catfish
Nothing like asking a guy riding a bike to stop and take a pic!

Redbreast Sunfish

Black Crappie 14.5 inches

I also really liked this shot of Andy with the hookset on a nice pike. Andy already posted one of my favorites of him with a nice river redhorse.

Man, I look forward to this melange of radness every year!

Awesome stuff, everybody! Keep it coming.

Looking back there was quite a bit of good stuff in 2017. Quite a bit. Exciting lifers, and quality specimens of favorite species. Time spent in wonderful places, with good friends.

The deadbait winter started off with a weird and slightly baffling series of blanks, but we kept at it. I wouldn't call it stubbornness or determination; not going is just not an option. Action picked up, and I was lucky enough to get some beauties, with this Dream Beast as the culmination:

Spring had me out with the float rods, hoping for Tench. I got one that equaled my personal best, but (just like with my other pb), I did not get a nice photo. Better than no photo, though:

My oldest fishn pal Pieter and I had made a reasonably serious pact to make 2017 a year with some good time put in for Barbel. Tied, in both our books, for first place as most awesome, rad and majestic fish in our land. Recent years had been bleak and dismal, Barbel-wise. That had to change. Late spring found us out by the large river, initially with not much hope, but lots of desire. On our first session, I went walkabout, as the now all too familiar biteless hours slid by on a previously reliable spot, and found a current seam that looked so right, I could almost feel it pulling me in. We moved and set up there, and I caught a small Barbel. That gave us some hope. We couldn't wait to get back there. And every session after that, we connected to Barbel again. Such a thrill to be actually catching them again.

Also in the mix was this very large Silver Bream, that has to be a personal best. At this size, you can really appreciate how much radder they are than bream:

Not only did we catch plenty of Barbel at this new spot, some of them were big. This one was the biggest of the year. In my top 5 of all time, and I think I've only had one that fought harder and longer. I actually caught this one twicet! It would have been nice if he'd snaffled Pieter's bait one of those times, cos that would have been a best for him, but ya can't tell the fish that...

Then, it was time to head to the other side of the ocean again, to fish with my fellow deranged men over there. As always, the whole thing was a highlight, with many fish and many miles (Kol!) and many laughs.

Andy and I finally hooked up again, and it was a treat to spend time at a spot that has a special place in his heart. Just the beautiful surroundings were swell enough, but the river also yielded a handful of splendid, dark, River Redhorse (and we saw a huge one jumping!):

Just a few days after that, wonder of wonders, I caught a Black Redhorse! All thanks to Doc, and his magical funky mojo ways, and his van, and his righteous call to give that spot another go. I won't forget it.

The inimitable EricKol and I pointed the Forester south on 35, on a crazed mission to meet up with DavidG (the Monster Mosheen), on the muddy banks of a famed southern river. The Gar we had hoped for were there, but they did not want to play at all. We saw innumerable Longnose, but they weren't interested in anything. We saw a few (too few, David said) Gator Gar, too, but caught none. It would have been awesome to see Eric get one or both of those prehistoric lifers, but alas. Maybe some other time. It was also too damn hot, and, in retrospect, maybe we put in a few too many miles in too short a time to be fishing with our normal zeal, but it was still a great time. And the Buffalo action was solid. Eric got the biggest one of the trip (he better put it up!), and I got the palest:

Back in the netherlames, late summer and early fall meant more Barbel fishing. But we also put in an effort at a certain spot on our nation's biggest river, after some very solid leads that lifers were to be had there. Our very first session was a succes, as Pieter and I both got our first Vimba! A really cool fish, that has been gradually increasing in numbers on the big river. Some years ago, we'd tried for them at another spot where some lucky folks had caught them. No sign of them then, but I did get my biggest ever Barbel. This new spot panned out, though. Big time. We caught great mixes of fish, including the hoped for bluenoses. And I got extra lucky, with a very big one:

Then, more Barbel fishing. And more success! We kept getting them, and there were still bigguns there, too. I also lost one that we never saw, that felt unbelievably heavy and formidable. I hardly ever think about that anymore all the time....

Fall turned into winter, and now we're out with the heavy rods and salty corpses again. Deadbait season started off kinda fuckily (again!), but my luck changed, and some beauties have already graced my net. And there's still half the season left...

Man, I do so love Big Pike. And Barbel. And River Redhorse. And Tench. And Buffs. And, and and....

Itellyawhat, boys, if it wasn't for fishing, what would be the point of anything?

Not a very good year of fishing for me, but a few memories were made along the way.

Started off with with a very decent Lake Whitefish from a lake I'd never fished before. This is also my first Ontario whitefish. My big goal for hardwater 2018 is to figure these guys out as much as possible.

Spring brought some serious flooding to my area and all of my regular haunts were blown out and unfishable throughout April. Rather than sit on my ass, I made the long drive to the north shore of Lake Ontario and watched my friends land nice rainbow after nice rainbow. My float never dropped below the water but with guidance from ma man Ken I did manage a hail mary 'bow on a spoon while wading back to the car. Really like the green colours on this spawning male. I'm told he looks like that due to having over-wintered in the creek.

We spent an awesome week in July hiking and whale watching in Eastern Quebec. This area has some interesting angling opportunities, and I did discover a beautiful river mouth that produced my lifer Striped Bass (followed by many others). I enjoy the idea of catching species from the marginal limits of their range, and this area is definitely fits the bill for stripers. It awesome, too, that when they're fresh from the salt, they fight like fish twice their size.

After a few summers of searching for a productive Bowfin area close to home, I hit paydirt. Landed this beauty and spied many others. Bowfin rule! This spot will definitely recieve a lot more attention in 2018.

A backwater of Lake Erie produced a few Silver Bass including this mahoosive specimen. I always thought of them as an openwater species, so finding them in a swamp at the end of summer was interesting.

While checking out an awesome sturgeon hole with my new friend Brad, I landed and at long last photographed an American Eel. I've caught a few much smaller specimens before, but somehow did not have a photo until now.

Have a fishy 2018 everyone.

2017 was my best year of angling yet, having landed 48 different species plus 4 distinct hybrids, and adding a whopping 12 species to my life list! I put in 126 days on the water and caught some truly awesome specimens. I'd like to make a full expedition report for 2017 with blurbs from each month, but for now, here's some highlights.

Started the year out well, hitting a few days between mid February and early March where Smallmouth Buffalo were readily taking flies on the drift and swing below WWDs on my local river in Pittsburgh.

In addition to Buffalo, occasionally I'd pick up something else while drifting through my favorite run, and this 28" channel cat was eager to crush a stonefly nymph delivered straight to his mouth.

In late June, I made my first fishing-only trip to the great state of Michigan and caught some amazing coldwater specimens in the Upper Peninsula on Lake Superior, its tribs, and the St. Mary's River!

Among those was one Lake Char in particular which greatly resembled the Butterfly strain found in northern Canada, with large pectoral fins for increased mobility and a short, blunt head for feeding on the bottom. This is exactly why I had a burning desire to fish Superior more than any of the other Great Lakes, most of its native Char strains are still intact and have adapted perfectly to the various habitats in the massive, oligotrophic lake!

On the St. Mary's River, I was fortunate enough to score 3 awesome lifers within a few hours, including Cisco, Lake Whitefish, and the fish I'd been chasing for almost a year, the Atlantic Salmon. Everything that day was caught fishing caddis nymphs either on a tight line or under a float.

Back to my western PA homewaters now in July, I had a great month fishing Lake Erie from my boat, from jigging for Drum to trolling up massive Lake Char. One day I even managed to shatter my Char PB twice in a few hours, first with a 37" 23lb and later with a 38" 24lb!

Moving a little more south/inland, the Bowfin bite was on fire in July and August! One day was so productive that I was able to entice one to crush a meaty, articulated streamer! During this time I also scored my lifer Smallmouth Redhorse and my only Pike of 2017, which also happened to be my new PB at 34".

Later in Fall, I brought many nice Salmonids to hand from my new PB 30" 15lb Brown Trout and (also new PB) 30" 11-12lb Steelhead to (once again, new PB) wild Brook Char at 12". I'd go into more depth but unfortunately I have to run for now. Overall, 2017 was a heck of a year that will be tough for me to top!

Got my first quillie at the roundup.  The timing was perfect, as it happened during the derby!

Had a spectacular evening of fall fishing on Lake Traverse, near South Dakota.  In addition to some solid channel cats, hauled in 3 beautiful carp, all about the same size (approaching the 3 ft. mark).  Needless to say, my arm was pretty tired after fighting 2 of these monsters on a pole with just 6 lb. line.

And, of course, as usual, caught some nice rock bass this year, pushing the 11-12 inch mark.

Also learned more about the eelpout patterns on the upper Mississippi.  Was catching these fine specimens well into spring (early June!) and even early fall (September!).  Who knew I could walk a few blocks from my house and pull in some eelpout?  Made for fine eating.

Sorry, I'm a bit late to this thread. 2017 was a pretty good year, 29 new species were caught.

Piabucina elongata was pretty cool, I believe this is one of the only photos of the species from the Andes on the Peru-Amazon border.

Night fishing produced my pb channel, good sized for NJ.

Not a super cool catch, but I've been looking for a white perch for a long time (for some strange reason, they should be common).

Warmouth from I place I never expected to have one.

Blackbanded and Mud sunnies, two very cool critters.

Shorthorn sculpin, caught on bacon. 

Arctic char caught with questionable methods. 

Common bream, just because it was so hard, for some unknown reason, to catch one. I finally got this one on a hot pink freelined gulp maggot. 

2017 was the first year discovered this wonderful hobby and got into life list fishing. I caught 56 species this year. A few of my favorite catches were my first shark (a nurse), my Grey Gurnard from Ireland (Family was awesome enough to let me drop a line), my Gulf Killifish (species #50), my ~ 10-pound black drum that I caught on 10-pound line, and last but certainly not least, my Cobia that I caught from shore with a shrimp!

Yeah, I can't see your photos, either....

Sad.

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I still have red sand in/on both of my backpacks!