YOUR Best Fighting Fish

Jeremy has given his so now let's hear about yours. Give us a list, in order of fighting prowess, of the fish that you think fight best.

And tell us why.

I find the opposite with pike - they don't fight when first hooked.

I often hook into a fish and think 'That's a good one' and then the weight disapears as I reel them towards the boat and I start to think 'No its only a jack'. I think they only start to fight when they see the boat, and that can be quite exciting with a heavy fish on the end of about 10 feet of line! In coloured water I recon you can have them netted before they know they're hooked!!

I think our makeral must be one of the hardest fighters weight for weight. I've never really caught them on anything but heavy tackle

This is a hard one,iv`e had carp that fight like bream,and bream that fight like carp,but barbel have got to be no 1 for me, total muscle and attitude,take off like a tank.
No 2 has to be tench,fight all the way.
No 3, Roach, on the right tackle,bloody good scrap.
No 4, carp and pike,for the size and power.

I caught a couple of nice tench earlier this year of about 5 pouunds. I can honestly say they were pound for pound the hardest fighting fish I've caught. They didn't half go. Absolute immense power for a relativley small size.

I have had some good fights out of pike, not just the larger ones either.
You get the odd one that goes on one dogged short run after another.

Cant comment on barbel, never been fortunate enough to hook one.

Chub give a good account of themselves.

Most of the carp i've caught have been in single figures while bream & tenching but i would have to say that the hardest fighting fish i've ever had was a carp.

But pound for pound it would have be a male tench, i think they fight harder than any carp i've caught of the same size.

Last decent pike I had fought like hell. I'd still enjoy catching them if they fought like Julian Clary anyway.

One has to distinguish first of all between saltwater and freshwater fish and in which country they exist.

If we talk Britain and freshwater fish, quite frankly there is nothing to beat an overwintered reservoir rainbow trout in the best of condition. Even sea trout and salmon don't some into the equation size for size.

The next species is the barbel, especially a Trent barbel in autumn or winter. Having caught barbel in 13 different rivers in England, the Trent fish are superior in every way, especially fish of about 7 lbs.

After this I would put the male tench. There is very little that can challenge this hardy battler.

After that , I would group the salmon and the seatrout together. I've caught quite a number of each in my life.

Next comes the grayling, an unusual fighter that gives you lots of pulls from different directions, they are much better than brown trout.

Next comes the brownie. At times a bit of a wet weak. and at others, quite good.

Now we come to the rest. Carp for example.

A fully scaled common on a river can give you a hard fight at times. Most of the time however carp are extremely disappointing and I've caught thousands of them up to over 50 lbs in my life.

Give them some real welly and they soon give up. Most carp anglers I have seen in this country do not seem to know how to give a carp some real welly. They stand there backwinding like blinking morons.

Pike vary tremendously. I have caught them in Ireland that have gone like rainbow trout. Yet I have caught many 20 pound fish in winter in England that have come in like wet sacks.

The rest I will classify together. They are not really fighters but tuggers as Jim Gibbinson says.

Of sea species, the best fighter in British waters in my opinion is the mullet, followed by the bass and the black bream in that order.

The best fighting fish I have ever hooked in my life is the African Springer, an estuarine species, followed by the bonefish.

Weight for weight, gudgeon. I wish they grew big.

I can see this being a great thread (loads of arguments etc).

Love the article Jeremy, I have not got enough time this min to try and give a valid point of view from my own lmited experiances in fish of the world, but having said that `Tarpon' have got to be right up there with the best!! I fished from the 'Windy Day' under the guidance of Captin Jack Kelly out of Key West and a small Tarpon took me 2 1/2 hours to bring to the boat!!!!!!!!!! It was simply awesome.

Will be following the thread with interest and will try to find time for a more interesting reply.

Oh by the way they do Dave. They are called Barbus barbus!

Grayling and chub caught on a nice soft actioned rod using 2.5lb maxima take some beating. Keeping it simple usually ends up with a better stamp of fish being caught, especially from the smaller underestimated rivers.

eels

Ive had plenty of small carp and can say that they do pack a punch, some of the smaller ones under 10lb have gone ballistic, tail walked, chugged up and down hugging the bottom, then hit a million mp in 3 seconds, whilst a few of the bigger specimems have had a short scrap, thrashed around in the margins and well thats about it.

Chub, not had any monsters, but those 3 to 4 pounders, on light gear in a small river have given me some real headaches.

Tench, WOW, the biggest last weekend lasted about 3 mins, others and a lot small have kept on the preasure. they just dont want to stop. Even mistaken the runs and lunges for carp before. to be honest tench beat all others ive caught.

A quality Roach, rudd or Perch will also give a great scrap to the net.

Cruciain carp, are they on steroids, not a long fight but for a few seconds go Ape.

bream, had plenty up and off the bottom and into the landing net within seconds.
then theres those are want to play a different game. again had them break the surface on the strike, get their heads down, turn side ways on and and realy scrap all the way to the net too.

Pike, different reactions, not much of a scrap, whilst some have Torpedoed across a lake and kept on a slow but steady battle.

never had a barble, grayling, Salmon.
Dont often target carp or pike.

So No.1 Tench/Carp
No.2 Chub
No.3 big roach/rudd/Perch
No.4 Bream
No.5 A cold

Id agree with gudgeon but like u say they are just miny barbel.

Big Perch on waggler gear.....had em to over 4lb in Lomond wow now that is a scrap!!!!

Pike ...nah the odd one but mainly just a big tail.

Tench yup with you on that one, but have to be on right gear.

Eels...well yeh I agree and we get to 100lb or so in the river so I think I would just cut the line!!!

Wild koi I think have to be the best scrapping carp (though Im biased)

But the hardest scrap I ever had was in florida...fishing off the back of a submarine,,,,trophy size "Snook"......double steroids and then some but the best tasting fish I have ever caught so worth it!!!!!!

Interesting nobody has mentioned cats????

Hardest-most knackering...common skate jesus its hard enough just winding up 5lb of lead never mind having a 200lb er on the end LOL but more weight than scrap!!!!

I agree with perch. I have caught several that I thought were big chub in the past.

1.my hardest fighting fish has to be the barbel i caught with you Graham, and it wasn't a small one was it 6lb 8oz i couldn't move my arm for days after.

2. Tench i always know when i've got a good tench on they give me the runaround.

3.Chub oh boy the chub in my local lake always head for the reeds.

4. Perch on a match last week i caught a 1lb perch and it really put up a fight, i thought it was a tench at first and when i got his head out of water and noticed it was a perch i was SHOCKED, i've only ever caught tiny perch so it was huge to me.
5. has to be carp i don't find then to put up much of a fight.

Tench ,they go like stink and are still at it when you have them on the unhooking mat, mind you i had a nasty cut off a tin of salmon once, bled like a b*****d.

From the fish ive caught id say
1.Tench/Barbel
2.big perch/roach
3.grass carp (only if they dont cover there heads in weed or they come in like wet sacks)
4. eel`s
5. falkland mullet (not sure what species they were but used to spin for them with a wool/meat combo at the sea inlets of the larger stream``s and at 8lb they were great sport)

only had a few carp in my time and think if they were tench or barbel at the same weight carp wouldnt pull the same,but saying that ive had tench that come in like bream and ive not had a river carp.Also i havnt tried for pike yet so cant comment on them.

Hello everybody
Just thought I might put an extra two-penneth in here.
Your posts just go to show how personal an issue this is, just like I said in the article.
Also the phrase 'on the right tackle' crops up a lot - I'll shy away from that one as it raises a whole raft of other issues.
I will say that a fish can still try to fight although be completely outgunned by the tackle - it shows the right 'attitude'.
My experience leads me to disagree with Ron's remark about having to distinguish between salt and freshwater and environment - I reckon once again it all comes down to 'Attitude'. They either want to fight or they don't.
Hope you all enjoyed my little 'diatribe', although serious it was meant as 'fun'. Kinda like fishing.
regards
Jeremy

What's evident from this thread, and similar earlier discussions, is that ALL fish fight differently, giving us anglers infinite variety of pleasure.
That's what makes fishing a truly marvelous sport, and why we love to do it.
Long may it continue!!