Top fly rod fish

CanoeGuy

CanoeGuy

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I had foot surgery on Wednesday (Kidner procedure) and am trying to come up with ways to entertain myself during the long recovery. I am bored already! I am nearing retirement. For Christmas my wife bought me "how to retire and not die" by Gary and Max Sirak. The book (a quick read that is worth a look if you are getting close or are struggling in retirement) has me making lists. Yesterday morning I started my "Top 10 Fishing Trips" list. Pluma Lodge is #1 and is already booked for August 2026! This morning, as input to the trip list, I tried ranking fish I would like to travel to catch. I live in Bend, Oregon and I have been to Alaska twice. Someday I might do another Alaska trip to catch a King and grayling, but it isn't going to make my top 10. So, you won't find any trout or salmon on the list.

I was thinking about doing a March Madness type bracket like Cheeky did back in 2012 using the poll function on this site. To prep a 32 fish bracket, I looked through some lists plus added a few species I have seen in videos. Then I came up with some criteria to rank fish to seed the bracket. The lists:

DimeBrite's list from a couple years ago
Top 50 from Sport Fishing Magazine
List from The Fly Shop

My criteria and weighting:

PointsCriteria
30The eat - sight fishing and/or topwater on one end trolling on the other
25The fight - speed and acrobatics over endurance (not so interested in pulling on a fish for 30+ minutes)
20Cool factor - size, teeth, color, etc.
15Lives in an interesting/pleasant place to visit (sweating is better than freezing)
10Challenge - sometimes easy is good sometimes hard is good

If you are wondering, yes I am an engineer :).

Here is my list in alphabetical order. Based on the above criteria, are there any obvious omissions?


Arapaima
Arctic Char
Arowana
Barramudi
Blackspot Tuskfish
Blue Bastard
Bonefish
Bumphead Parrotfish
Cubera Snapper
Dorado (MahiMahi)
Emporer (any)
Giant Trevally
Golden Dorado
Golden Trevally
Napolean Wrasse
Pacu
Payara
Peacock Bass
Permit (any)
Pike
Queenfish
Roosterfish
Sailfish (Atlantic or Pacific)
Snook (Atlantic or Pacific)
Striped Marlin
Taimen
Tarpon
Tigerfish
Triggerfish (any)
Tuna (Albacore, Yellowfin, Longtail,…)
Wahoo
Wolf Fish

What would be more interesting - a 32 fish bracket or starting with a poll between the bottom 2 fish on my list and taking the winner of that poll to challenge the next fish in the list? If you want we could even make a competition out of the bracket.
 
Cool and fun exercise and great list of gamefish. I hope you have a swift recovery!

If I was to add to your list it could be:

Yellowtail
Black Papuan Snapper
Milkfish
Nile Perch
Cobia
Chinook Salmon
Golden Mahseer
Giant African Threadfin
Atlantic Salmon

... at the expense of:

Arowana
Arctic char
Emperor fish
Pike
Pacu
 
Good list and good luck with your recovery. It’s hard to take away any of those species and maybe it’s just me and my unhealthy obsession with the Great White North or whatever but I find sheefish/ inconnu fascinating and they look fun as hell to catch.
 
FishyJere said:
One piece of advice, you really don't want to catch a 50# Dorado or Rooster fish. You are too close to retirement age...
Click to expand...

At the very least, dont pull up to a spot known for giant roosters with a 10wt in hand. And make sure you're well hydrated first.


As for the top 50...

This is entirely YouTube based, but I'd say any of the "Spanish mackerel" species. While these could be lumped under the Wahoo umbrella, Scomberomorini includes 3 genera and 21 species. With enough variation in world wide distribution to argue listing at least a few key species and venues.

All these Spanish macks can swim at freeway speeds, and put an Olympic pole vaulter, or Triple Jumper to shame with their aerial surface eats. There's also a danger factor. Not really my thing, but cant argue the adrenaline factor since they are know to jump into, or over boats.... with an open mouth full of razor blades.

Also agree Barracuda are under-rated. I mean, they're big, fast, cool looking, and the eats don't get more visual than that. So what if they stink.

Closer to home Im surprised coho salmon didn't make the cut. Hard to think of a freshwater fish that puts on crazier aerial displays.
 
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DimeBrite said:
Cool and fun exercise and great list of gamefish. I hope you have a swift recovery!

If I was to add to your list it could be:

Yellowtail
Black Papuan Snapper
Milkfish
Nile Perch
Cobia
Chinook Salmon
Golden Mahseer
Giant African Threadfin
Atlantic Salmon

... at the expense of:

Arowana
Arctic char
Emperor fish
Pike
Pacu
Click to expand...
I see you are thinking about more Africa trips and with the Mahseer on your list am guessing you are a Jeff Currier follower - the Bhutan trip sounded pretty cool. Sette Carma has been on my radar. Reading Jeff Currier's latest reports from there make me question it a bit tho. Sounds like a brutal trip! We do want to repeat our pre-kids Botswana safari with the kids and I would certainly want to add a tigerfish trip to that. Also, African Water's Nubian Flats trip is my current #3. That one looks pretty amazing.

BTW, Currier is going to be speaking in Redmond again in late April, so I will be running my list by him :).
 
Matt B said:
Good list and good luck with your recovery. It’s hard to take away any of those species and maybe it’s just me and my unhealthy obsession with the Great White North or whatever but I find sheefish/ inconnu fascinating and they look fun as hell to catch.
Click to expand...
Agreed it sounds like a cool fish, but I grew up in Minnesota and am much more fascinated with the Amazon than the great white north! I do have in my head that I would like to take a few weeks in my van trying to DIY at monster pike on topwater in the NW Territories.
 
FishyJere said:
One piece of advice, you really don't want to catch a 50# Dorado or Rooster fish. You are too close to retirement age...
Click to expand...
This is the wrong answer. The line is somewhere above 100 pounds for a tarpon or striped marlin and I am not really sure I want to hook a 6 foot long arapaima. The big rooster I lost a few years ago still haunts me and I need one!
 
CanoeGuy said:
Maybe a puppy version. Started watching this the other day and my wife came in to watch a movie. Guess it is time to watch Matt get wrecked!

Dogs
Click to expand...

Doggies on fly gear - sounds exciting, but more like extreme punishment.

Pelagic Pursuit is one of my favorite YT channels, and the episodes at that location make my 401K nervous. I mean, who really needs to retire anyway? ;)
 
CanoeGuy said:
This is the wrong answer. The line is somewhere above 100 pounds for a tarpon or striped marlin and I am not really sure I want to hook a 6 foot long arapaima. The big rooster I lost a few years ago still haunts me and I need one!
Click to expand...

A 50# plus Rooster is a more exhausting fight than a 100+ lb striped marlin on a fly rod. Based on very limited experience, big Roosters are serious bull dogs. Striped marlin are super fun, but they wear themselves out pretty quickly dragging the fly line all around.

Nubian Flats is very high on my list. I worked in Sudan for about a year in 2005/2006, but never made it to the coast. I also worked a bit in Eritrea, it seemed like there is a lot of flats opportunity there that's had little or no exploration. If I was still young I'd spend some time checking it out.
 
CanoeGuy said:
Agreed it sounds like a cool fish, but I grew up in Minnesota and am much more fascinated with the Amazon than the great white north! I do have in my head that I would like to take a few weeks in my van trying to DIY at monster pike on topwater in the NW Territories.
Click to expand...
Haha, I guess when you grow up in South Cackalackee and Ala-fricken-bama, you develop something of the opposite trajectory. Not that I don’t find all those exotic warm fish attractive, too…
But I have sort of had enough days with sweat dripping down my back, and lower. I can handle a week or three here and there, especially if there’s some fly rodding involved!
 
I've never fished the tropics so my experience is limited. That said, I vote to include a fresh in tidewater spring chinook. Hard to get a grab from and when you do - they absolutely go ape. Some of the old timers I fish with that also fish the tropics claim they are the permit of the salmonids.
 
CanoeGuy said:
I see you are thinking about more Africa trips and with the Mahseer on your list am guessing you are a Jeff Currier follower - the Bhutan trip sounded pretty cool. Sette Carma has been on my radar. Reading Jeff Currier's latest reports from there make me question it a bit tho. Sounds like a brutal trip! We do want to repeat our pre-kids Botswana safari with the kids and I would certainly want to add a tigerfish trip to that. Also, African Water's Nubian Flats trip is my current #3. That one looks pretty amazing.

BTW, Currier is going to be speaking in Redmond again in late April, so I will be running my list by him :).
Click to expand...

I've never met Jeff Currier, but I really respect him as a fly fishing pioneer and advocate. He is incredibly well traveled and his fish list is up to about 480 species. I don't have a caught fish species spread sheet, rather do research like you are doing to help prioritize my fishing plans.

Returning to Africa will always be high on my goals. Gabon has tremendous opportunity and it is super exciting, I will be back for more. The two most physical fisheries I've experienced are Gabon and Providence. The Red Sea would be great for triggerfish and trevally, but Sudan is in a hot civil war and Saudi Arabia is not worth the high cost. Botswana would be fantastic, hope you can do your return trip soon!
 
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