All right, Fishheads. It’s the piscatorial cunnundrom of the week, and we’re going to solve this Big Fish Madness thread now so The Fish Hack isn’t accused of miking this motha well past its pull date.

This is the last installment, the Finals, of the hypothetical battle among fish species to determine which fish, pound-for-pound, offers the best fight. It’s spawned by Versus.com’s similar use of March Madness bracketology to pour lighter fluid on the unsolvable debate on which fish brings the best A game when hooked on rod and reel.

Today, it’s Steelhead v. Shad.
Both anadromous. Both great biters and tough fighters. But some intrinsic differences loyal readers of The Fish Wrap could recite in their sleep.
Steelhead, obviously, are native. Shad were hauled by train from the East Coast and introduced to the Sacramento Delta in the 1880s.
Naturally, native gets precedence, but this is about pull, not pedigree.

And pull they do. Both need light leaders, thin rods and good drags for anglers to get the upper hand.

But for the money, one fish not only brings it on, it’s powers are so impressive that they are intimidating. Hook one and get ready to run downstream, reel screaming and hope you stay on top of him until you can turn him.

And the fight never ends with just one run. It’s two or three runs, easily.

You gotta give major props to Shad. Yet they’re no Steelhead, the pound-for-pound champ that The Fish Hack would lay a benji on in any contest.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 18th, 2007 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Outdoor Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.