What,where and how were your biggest fish caught?

[Fowlpursuit]

Thought it would be interesting to hear how/what you believe are the best big fish tecniques. Just curios if there's a certain method to the madness. Please try to include as much of the following;

Fish size-

What port-

Time of year-

Lure-

Presentation(diver,rigger,core,copper, ect..)

Depth-

Any other conditions as best as u can remember.

Thanks guys this should be fun and interesting

[1mainiac]

Most of my big fish were in the early 70's Biggest kings were snagging at Croton several 40lb fish up there over the years it was legal. Biggest king trolling was Muskegon in 73 36lb on a flat fish behind a pink lady diver. Biggest fish ever was a 6ft Sturgeon caught in Canada in 71 it was land locked and only had about a 1/4 mile of creek deep enough for it to swim in took 2 of us close to 4 hours to land it and drag it across the sand bar to deeper water. Best part was Nick caught it on a 404 Zebco with 20 lb test we took turns running up and down the creek bank to fight it sometimes in the water with it.

[SeaCatMich]

Biggest salmon for me was a 38 lb 7 oz King on Sunday, September 13, 1981. Fishing the channel in Ludington going upstream across from the Coast Guard. Fish hit a big green Lucky Louie plug off a downrigger down 18'. Had myself and 4 college friends onboard -- 3 of which had never caught a salmon and 2 of which had never caught a fish. To orient them on how to fight the fish I landed the first fish of the day and then we started a rotation. The first 5 fish were all Kings in the 18 to 25# range with a few getting off. Fortunately it was my turn again when this one hit. Due to boat traffic never let it get more than about 150' off the back of the boat -- had to slow the boat down to neutral since the line was 17# stren. Took about 20 minutes to land it. Fish had a big kyped jaw and a brilliant red down the side. Looked like it belomged in Alaska, not Michigan -- would have loved to had it mounted but was not in the cards for a poor college kid at the time.

The worst thing though was that it would have placed first in the American Salmon Derby by 3 pounds, but it closed the previous Monday. Could really have used that $10,000

[Fowlpursuit]

Wow! U guys put my 18.9lb -2008 and 19.4lb 2011 to shame. Guess it doesn't help my salmon fishing started in 2006 and ended in 2012. Didn't make it out last year but probably could have set a personal best..maybe this year will give me a 20+ pounder... Great stories though. Keep em' comin

[jeffsisson]

Best salmon was 42#'s in the PM river back in I think 84ish it was the yr the paper mill dam blew out on the rouge river. it had the red down the side as well and I thought the same thing as Ryan "looks" like it belongs in Alaska! caught a couple 30+ out of the Muskeon river over he years, Biggest on the lake was last yr out of Muskegon caught 2 just over 30# well my second oldest son caught one of them, my other two sons both caught personal best oldest boy got one 28# and my youngest son caught one 26.5 my daughter got one 24#'s so all kids got their personal best in one trip! On that trip we landed 28 fish and if I remember correctly 18 weighed 20#'s or better it was bad @$$ to say the least. Truely last yr was " the year of the big kings"! Most all those fish came on flies with either spin doctors or fish catcher paddles white glow/chartrues / green and plaid. Biggest steelhead 19#'s in the muskegon river and out of lake michigan 15# biggest brown was 16#'s out of the grand at 6th dam Nov 14th went out the morning before leaving for deer hunting Lake mich Brown 12#'s Laker 23# out of lake mich My biggest fish came from ocean caught a 102 # sail fish off key west when I was 13 like in 78-79 and caught a 246# Bull shark from shore in pensicola beach Fl in 2006. That was fun you kayak your bait 1/4 mile out over the sand bar in the dark then sit back on the beach all night sipping cocktails waiting for something to happen. We caught several bulls and 3 hammer heads that trip the guys down the beach from us pulled a hammer head that was 14 ft it was amazing! I go there every other yr just about great place great fishing! Most of the weights listed are either from a digi scale or official cert weights. Good luck to ya this yr there are still some 20 plusers out there!

Cheers

[Play Dough]

Largest king (32#) that I recall was early 2000's off Pt. Sable along the drop off on a spoon. I remember some large fish from Lk. Huron back in the 70's but don't remember weights. There was a year in the mid 2000's that the coho were large. Capt. Chucks had to suspend their master angler lure give away because many coho were master angler weight. 15 to 20 lbs was common. I caught three lakers between 20 - 25 lbs. in the early 2000's at a location 13 miles due west of Pt. Sable that I used to go to mid morning on calm days when the bite crapped out onshore. It was over about 400' of water and I always pulled chrome spoons in the top 50'. A screwball Silver Streak was one of the productive lures I remember. Largest brown was 16# off Pt. Austin in the early 1990s.

[SUPERTRAMP]

August 1984, off Gurnee Creek, We landed 25 Kings in 4 hours, Largest 31#5oz. certified scale, smallest 24# 2 oz same scale. Best single day of fishing in my nearly 40 years on the lake. All of the fish came on Loco spoons trolled in the top 20'. We spotted the fish schooled on top fins out of the water and put the baits out long and off of the outriggers and it was on.

[tgafish]

26 lb

Grand Haven

July 2003

Downrigger

copper monkey puke spoon

It was dead calm in the middle of the day. I had just started fishing in 2001. actually stopped the boat and pulled lines(only 3 at the time) so my brother could land the fish. Remember seeing it 30 feet straight down in the water doing circles like wicked Tuna LOL. Tickled 26 a couple times since then but never beat it. I usually don't fish the pierheads or river fish so I don't target the bigger fish in the fall

[jimcr]

This was a few years ago , at the time it was the biggest fish I have caught, I am still working on my tyee but it was close last year.

08/20/11

With all the warm water here in Milwaukee getting out deep to find the fish can be a little tricky , My son nick and I went out tonight and were bumped around for the first 2 hours, We were out on Wednesday and the water was very warm top to bottom. Still managed to pick up one king that night just a shosh under 20#. Back to today the waters have changed again this time being colder than Wednesday. Found 48 degree water down 60 ft out in 140. On our way out to the deeper water we had a rip that took out 200 ft of line then ran full speed at the boat til it came off. Reset the rigger and 15 minutes later Nicks got a nice 10lb king. Then it was quite for a while until the same rod goes off again ripping just like the first one but this time its not running at the boat its running for the bottom. 35 minutes later and lots of grunting Nick nets the biggest fish this year. 22# king. ( the last 2 fish I brought in took over an hour together to bring in ) .

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