Northern Pike-Intelligent,tough as nails,graceful tail-walkers who will come after YOU! Otherwise I,d vote for saltwater Kings.

Tuna.

If you want mind boggling runs from 15lb fish, try albicore fishing this next fall. They average about 10-15, but my biggest was 30. They just fly.

its gotta be smallmouth bass, nothing even comes close

pound for pound of course

so imagine 30 lbs of native steelhead vs. 30 lbs of smallmouth, of course smallies dont get that big in reality, but pound for pound there is no equal

lb for lb humpies. even on tuna rods they burn line like hell! My first choice would have to be yellowtail in southern cali. next is smallies, then catfish you hook up with a big one and look out !
Tyler

Man,

You guys keep talking all this bass.......well, never mind.

Never saw a 6 lb. bass put a blister the size of a dime on anyone's thumb. I had a Hoh river summer-run do it to me.......

Barracuda or tarpon. nuff said.

then we'll talk. Man I miss Florida.

Well DanS, in defense of bass, how many of them have you ever had...... nevermind

So far, chrome summer chum in shallow waters put up a killer fight. Then again, chrome chum in general. I'd like to tie one on with an oversize woman....errr...sturgeon to see what all the fuss is about.

OK......that's it Redneck. I'm going to get you b1tch-slapped by a hot steelie soon enough, then you can tell me all about your bass conquests .

Do I need to remind you what "Mr. Big", the SRC, did to you last summer?

You're naming tarpon in a pound/pound matchup? I don't know.........a 120 lb. SRC might break you off, and then coming looking for you to kick your a$$ for bothering him!

I'll say this, I love catching any fish. Rating fish is like rating fishing methods........who cares as long as you're having fun?

I have to comment on Tyler's catfish mention. You are cracking me up. I spent a few years in the houston area, and caught plenty of catfish. Not once did one jump and while the big ones can pull out some line - they are really not a lb for lb coparison. I'd rate a carp above a catfish.

Now an alligator gar - that is a mean fish...

Redfish and speckled trout are more fun than any ole catfish or bass. But putting the word 'trout' on anything you find in texas is just down right insulting!! LOL

I agree with Dan. Where ever I go, you can bet I'll be trying to figure out where to go fishing and I'll probably have a good time. But I do thank God I live in a state that understands what 'chrome' is all about...

I've caught chum that I thought were pretty good, but it's mostly their size that makes them a hand full. I can't think of anything better fightin' than a nice chrome winter steelie from 15#s and up.

I do agree with Lip-Ripper though, those Vedder whites are absolute kick your butt fish! Last one I had on my fly rod, with 25# leader, fast sink 9wt line, took all of about 15 seconds to clean all the line and 150yds of backing off my reel, I never had a chance, nearly busted my thumb trying to slow the departure even with the drag all the way down.
Never had any other fish do that before or since!

Hell with bass, if we're talkin' ugly warmwater stuff available in WA go for tailing carp!!

One of the reason steelhead fight so hard is because of the current. I talked to a biologist one time that connected a 4 lb smallmouth bass and a 10 lb steelhead tail to tail and put them in a pool of still water and he said the bass drug the steelhead whereever it wanted to go.

You asked "lbs per lbs" and my vote is AK sockeyes.

I don't have much experience with WA sockeyes. As I said in one of my previous posts, steelhead fight IMHO is overrated.

JacobF...are you sure that wasnt a 2 lb smallmouth??

oops, you better not tell on that one, let them enjoy their trout... :p

If sockeye got as big as kings you couldn't land one. They are not agressive biters which gets old soon enough. Hot fish though and they get my respect.

King salmon are awsome fish and somtimes SIZE DOES COUNT. Sometimes hooking a king reminds me of tying my line to the bumper of a car and trying to bring it in. The power and the glory. Just the same, you can get one to lay on its side after a prolonged battle. If you find a place to fish them near tide water where they have to hole up at low tide, they can be as fierce, acrobatic, and fun as any fish that swims. Guys who fish the "ditch"(WA,not AK) know exactly what I'm talking about.

My favorite of the salmon is the chum. swinging flies at chromers on the tide is THE COOLEST method I have encountered so far. I have hoooked 40+ on one tide on the Alagnak and am sure this has biased me in some way I don't recall any of them laying on their side and concedeing defeat. Tough fish, agressive biters, what more could you ask for.

The fish that kicked my arse the hardest however, was a 30+lb Quinault river steelhead. I was fishing with Robbin Rhoades when I hooked this wet dream. A good hookset, and the fish was instantly under the boat, faster than you can snap your fingers. A credible job of speed reeling caught up with the fish. Four feet of air just behind the outboard revealed what I would be seeing in dreams for the rest of my life. The biggest steelhead either of us had ever seen(Poetic licence). An obsceneley powerful 100yard run taxed my 10lb ultra green to the limit. Another magnificent jump into some brush overhanging the bank and we were all to soon parted. Kinda funny how "the one that got away" sticks in your memory more than those brought to hand and keeps you coming back.

I don't know nuthin' about pound for pound, but I'll take steelhead.
Anyday. Allday.

peace
Rich

For a pure size factor, the hardest fight I've ever gotten was from a 10 foot Columbia River sturgeon.

Jacob, the only reason the smaller bass towed the steelhead around in a pool is because the steelies are smarter, and enjoy a nice ride. Actually, if that is a true story, I'd bet a big box of Krispy Kremes that it was a hatchery steelhead after it had swam a few hundred miles in from the ocean and then tens of miles up strong currents into a hatchery pond for the 'contest'. Besides, HBP asked for a comparo of fish that commonly reach 15 pounds. A 5 lb. smallie might be pretty tough, but I bet a 5 lb. pirana, heck - even a 5 lb. goldfish, might outfight a smallie. They just wiggle fast and pull a little bit of 4 lb. test line out. Then it's time to giggle over it. Geez. I also bet a 5 lb. mint bright fresh northern sock or 5 lb. true native skamania summer steelhead, fresh into the lower river, would kick a fresh 5 lb. smallies ass all over the place. Grrrr.

As for those S*** R. 'Critters' Dan, I'm going to be trying some of those big nates up there next month. I wonder if an overweight bass could swim up those long rapids?

As for 15 lbs., the 'dogs' are tough but I bet a mint bright steel nate right out of T-Bay salt into a lower river hole will give an all-around fight equal to any fish. But I haven't tried the albacore out there yet, and heard they are a beeyotch!

I would say the Skagit River Humpy on a trout pole, lb. fer lb.

We have a Chinook bubble fishery over here in Bremerton due ta small hatchery run.My way of fishing them is to go out a good hour before daylight and prowl a local drop off with the fish finder.Those kings will herd up the bait at night into the shallows.You can usually hear it,a mad house of feeding before the glory run up the creek, before the electronics tells you any thing.I string my noodle rod with spectra and cast cut plugs with little to no wieght.Ever catch a mature feeding chinook in 15 feet of water!They can't dive and sulk which is what instinct tells them to do!They go absolutely BESERK!They love to get up on top and tail walk!
Chums are a good second but it is getting reel hard to find a place where you can play one with out causing grief with the fellow snaggers around you.
I think this bass sh... is a crock. Watch the pros with a six foot rod 20 lb test and 7 to 1 ratio reel surf there TROPHY bass in and flip them into the boat.And they are out of breath the whole time!

Stealhead natives.

Last years springers seemed to die from heart failure.

Enjoy Life!

A 15lb Native summer run will smoke anything on this earth. Can a smallmouth bass jump 7-8 feet repeatedly when hooked? NOPE! Steelhead have adapted through countless years in some of the most rugged country imaginable. These "other" fish have it easy compared to the might Chrome. As for PNW stocks, the king and humpies mostly pull their weight around and stay low, Chums when bright put up a hell of a fight, and then theres the coho. Fresh run silvers can peel line with the best of them and put on a fine aeriel display.

Bass