My PB Big Bull BUFF!!

Monday, March 6, 2017
Size: 
Just under 34 Inches

We went out fishing by the river today cuz the ice sucks right now and we had seen some guys catch some buffs yesterday when we were catching silvers.  My dad still wanted to catch his lifer bigmouth so we went back to one of our favorite carping spots.  He got one and a couple minutes later I got my personal best Big Bull Buff!!!  It was not quite 34 inches long and my whole hand fit inside it's mouth, what a monster it really fought hard I was super excited this is the 2nd bigmouth I've caught but it's my second biggest fish too, it was only beaten by my second lake sturg.  It had lots of battle scars on it's side and a wound on it's head that I'm pretty sure was from the arrow of a bowfisher.  We got some pictures and let her go again to battle another day!!

Look at this humungo mouth my hand literally fit inside of its mouth!!! It's funny they eat little stuff when they could eat almost anything!

You can also see all its battle scars down the side, probably from throwing some carp a beatdown!!

 

 

Comments

Graceclaw's picture

Wow, what a buff! And I'm super jealous you found a spot where you can get them to bite. Mind if I ask what you guys were using today?

andy's picture

That's a big old gourdhead right there.  I think you've got some magic Roughfishing potions or something, you've been catching all kinds of cool fish - big congrats on the PB FishingPals4Life!

 

You've earned the Golden Fish Award for this awesome fish.  It will show up on your bio and link to this Notable Catch!

 

FishingPals4Life's picture

Thanks so much it was amazing to catch!!

D.T.'s picture

Noice! You really are a determind young man. So cool catch dude. Congrats!

Divemaster's picture

Very nice Bigmouth, that takes skill! I'm also curious as to what he ate, Bigmouths have been turning down my baits for three years now haha.

Corey's picture

Epic catch, truly - that's a real beast and an extremely tough fish to catch. Huge congrats, FP4L!

FishingPals4Life's picture

It was a really great fighter, it bit on a little white jig with a rubber bug looking thing on it that was orange and yellow with little rubber legs, my dad got his on a small blue and white fuzzy grub jig.  We seen some people yesterday catching them on yellow and white jigs, but we didn't have any and tried last night with our usual redhorse and carp stuff.  They didn't want nightcrawlers or waxworms.  One other thing we figured out was that they didn't like mono line, we caught carp and silver reds on that stuff though with crawlers yesterday, the buffs only bit on super braid tied directly to the jigs, I guess the braid didn't bother them, the people yesterday had super heavy braid on too and they had a couple buffs.

Divemaster's picture

Nice! I've heard about something similar for Quillbacks, with them only hitting something on the end of thin, supple braid. I wonder why though, unless it just looks like a strand of algae to them perhaps? Either way, that's good to know! Wonder is fluoro would work as well as braid due to low visibility.

FP4LifesDad's picture

I really wonder why that is too, it must feel more natural to them or something.  I'd guess with all the broken lines and mono floating around in there they must have figured out that it means bad news for them.  Like you said probably looks more natural and doesn't feel alarming when they brush into it.  Very interesting, walleyes seem to avoid heavier braid like the plague, atleast for me lol.  I do like the instant feedback from braid though you can feel everything going on down there, I've lost fish though because my drag was to tight with it, when you set the hook there is no give.

Hengelaar's picture

That is an awesome catch, man! Congrats!

Lil white jig strikes again for a Bigmouth, huh. They're such weird (and rad) fish.

Fishn sure is neat

Dr Flathead's picture

Nice catch!  I know some people who have caught quillback from that spot on jigs before.  Bet it you kept tossing 1/16 to 1/8 ounce jigs around one might end up on your line too.

FP4LifesDad's picture

I've heard that too along with greater reds, he and I have fished that area alot and we are still waiting to hook into a quill, that would be the bomb of roughfish right there, atleast for us!  We only live about 1/2 hr from that spot so it's our closest area that connects into a larger river system, I know the DNR guys get some there when they test it.  Would love to see one on the end of a line!!

Goldenfishberg's picture

What a stud Buff and truly an amazing catch buddy! You earned that one big time! CONGRATS 

Ya just Can't catch um from the couch.

Congrats as big as that beauty buff! Well earned, and deserved Golden Fish award!! Great fish, and great pic!
FishingPals4Life's picture

Thanks guys it was a super exciting catch!  I've since noodled one, well kind of, somebody must have caught one and dropped it into the water between all the big boulders on shore, I was walking a couple days ago and seen a big tail stuck in a little pool of water between the rocks, so I grabbed it and pulled it out, it was another bigmouth buff, it was more then happy to have me rescue it from a sure death and I let it go to swim back to it's family again. 8)

Congratulations on an outstanding catch!