180 Pike in 3 Days

Scandinavian pike fishing at its finest!

via MuskiesNB.ca

MONSTER MARMORATTA!

Cyril from LeMouching.com wrote to us to tell us about this monstrous Marmoratta Trout caught on a fly in Slovenia (Soca River). Clearly he wasn’t kidding when he said it was huge, but he also says it’s the largest Marmoratta Trout ever caught on a fly!

I’m not sure what the current record is, but these photos clearly speak for themselves! The fish weighted in at 22.5Kg, that’s almost 50 pounds (!!), and was 120cm, almost 4 feet long!

Cyril also mentioned that the reel is a Vivarelli, which apparently some people criticize as only being good for catching small fish. We’ll it looks like that myth just got shattered in to a million pieces.

All photos were taken by Maurizio Maule, and there are many more after the break!

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Earthquake Brings Squid to California

A recent earthquake in California has shaken up a large group of Humboldt squid and sent them straight in to the beaches of La Jolla. Local residents were shocked and say they’ve never seen anything like this before. Check out the video!

This isn’t the first time we’ve covered the Humboldt squid, and when not confused by whatever occurred underwater during the quake they can even be quite aggressive and dangerous. In Mexico they refer to them as diablo rojo.

via NBC San Diego

Raw video from the beach can be found after the break.

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When Zanders Attack!

A Zander is a European variant of our Walleye, and apparently some can be extremely territorial, to the point of attacking swimmers. With six attacks in a single weekend, two of the swimmers were sent to the hospital with gashes over four inches long, the local Swiss police department was forced to take action. The police first tried to catch the fish with a net, which failed, so a hitman scuba diver was sent in to ice pick harpoon the fish. I’m not sure how he know which fish was the attacker, but while under he harpooned a 27″ Zander weighing over 17 pounds! What a whopper! The police cooked the fish and served it to local tourists for their troubles.

“It is quite unusual for zanders to bite humans”, Croci said, adding he suspected the fish was suffering from a hormonal imbalance which could be responsible for its aggression.

via Yahoo Canada and Telegraph UK

Giant Pike Illustration

I’ve read legendary tales of giant pike swimming European waters hundreds of years ago. I love the idea of there being humongous versions of the fish we catch today, but until I see some real evidence I can only assume that sea monsters like this simply don’t exist, and probably never have. I stumbled across the art work of John Sibbick the other day while doing some pike research and this illustration jumped right out at me. A giant pike from a Finnish folk tale.

It’s a great image, but if you want to be technical, its actually a muskie (judging from the pointed fins).

via John Sibbick