Buffalo from Ray Hubbard

I was bass fishing today & caught this on a spinnerbait. It took about 15minutes to get to the boat. Every time I tried to net her she would take off & start peeling line. At 1st I thought it was a drum. As I took the time to look at her I realized that she was a buffalo. I know it's a buffalo but is it a Smallmouth, Black, or Bigmouth? I'm guessing Smallmouth Buffalo. I brought her to Bass Pro Shops for an official weight. Their certified scales are out until next week. We spent a few hours nursing her & trying to slowly adjust the water temp before we put her in the holding tank. She will be quarantined for 30 days before she goes in the big display tank. I tried to get a photo of me holding her before I placed her in the holding tank but she wanted no part of it & jumped into the tank. Here are some pics & my daughters feeding her before we left.

Took up all of my livewell.

Lifting her up to be weighed

Hanging from the scale

Scale reading. My scale read a little higher.

Much time under a portable aerator in a 100 gallon cooler.

In the holding tank


Feeding time!
Danielle

Brittani



Hopefully when the certified scales arrive, I'll have a record.

Congrats on the catch. Thats a small mouth. Awesome pictures.

Thanks Tracy. I'm glad I finally caught something today. The day started off bad with me in the water. I was getting into the boat & it moved on me. I was lucky enough it was only knee deep.

Your welcome. That does suck when that happens. At least it was only knee deep.

Nice buff! Hubbard has some nice buff fishin'

thats awesome! very nice fish! now that you have hooked one and felt the power, I bet it won't be long before we meet you on the bank to try can catch another one...on purpose this time! also way to go on landing it...I bet most people would have tried to haul it right in in stead of playing it up to the boat:)

Nice Fish!

Thanks for the report!

Chad

Like I said up in the other thread, Great Buff! Congrats!

Definitely a Smallmouth Buffalo.

Zack's right, now that you've spent 15+ minutes fighting one fish, I think you'll be joining us on the bank fishing for them in no time.

Did I mention Smallmouth Buffalo grow to approximately 4 TIMES that size?

And did I mention that CARP FIGHT ALOT HARDER?

Hehe. Hope to see you on the bank soon.

Bet that fish will look great in the BPS tanks!

Nice fish! Way to go! That was some excitement.

Just curious but what is/was the Ray Hubbard record? I was just thinking (not knowing much about carp / buffalo fishing) that I would have been amazed at that fish and then thrown it back without thinking to have it checked. I'm glad you knew better.

-Wm

The "official" rod and reel record at Ray Hubbard is 27lbs or so. But we know of much larger fish caught out of there.

Thanks to all for the kind words. As far as the record I'm about 1.5lbs low on a handheld scale. The certified scale will tell the truth. It could even go lower. As far as the BPS tank she will be the 2nd largest fish in there. The largest is a 64lb caatfish.

I did forget to thank everyone at Bass Pro Shops. They were helpful & offered many congradulations. The general manager Bill Megelich was personally involved & got wet helping. He also said I could call anytime to check on her.

Oh, Dave, forgot to ask. Did you snag the buff by accident, or did she actually take the spinner bait? Doesn't surprise me if she gulped it down! I've seen plenty of buffs taken on artificials before, just like carp, they are omnivorous and so will eat whatever they can catch.

And no surprise to hear how she was peeling off line every time you got her to the net. Buffs tend to do that hehe. Carp will often just RUN immediately, and repeatedly, strip tons of lines...Buffs tend to make more shorter, fast runs, especially when you try and net them.

I was slow rolling almost at a crawl the spinnerbait. I had sprayed it with some attractant & I guess that's why she took it. At 1st I thought I was snagged because when I set the hook she didn't budge. about the time I relaxed the line tension it started moving sideways. I've caught many catfish this way but this was my 1st Buffalo. The fight was awesome.

I can't wait to see her again in the big tank at BPS. She really is a pretty fish. I'll be by there Thursday & I'm thinking about stopping by to see if I can go back & see her again.

Nah, she took it cause you were slow rolling it! Lol.

Buffalo love minnows and shad. I have caught buffalo fishing live minnows on the bottom before, and caught carp the exact same way. If you slow roll a spinner bait right in front of a hungry buffalo, you better believe she's gonna grab it!

Yeah, that sounds very typical for buffalo! I can usually tell the difference between a carp and buffalo on the hookset. A buffalo will just sit there at first, and then start cruising around, but a carp will often take off like a rocket as soon as you set the hook.

Dave,
it's starting to sound like your warming up to the darkside
just so you know....your friends are gonna laugh at first...you will be teased..."your gonna go meet some guys to fish for what!!" The way you look at fish will become very scewed...10lbs is smallish and when you tell someone you caught a 25 you have to clear it up...were talkig lb's not inchs ......

all kidding aside...buffalo are very cool fish...in the spring at grapevine its not to strange to catch 3 or 4 in the 18-25lb range fishing a saturday...

Yeah, we measure things in pounds, not inches...a 10lb buff is a pretty small fish!

I think you'll be sharing the bank with us real soon...We'll get you into plenty of those 20+ fish!

There is no dark side. To me fishin is fishin! It was a fun catch & someday I'll try to catch more. The pics & sizes of some catches I've seen amaze me.

I just got an e-mail from Bill at BPS & unfortunately the fish died.

Well that is unfortunate but you made an honest effort, and the experience will be with you forever...

Sorry to hear it Dave. But I'm not surprised. Its unfortunate but to certify a record you have to kill the fish. Thats why I have not certified any of the lake records I have caught. Its enough for me and my friends to know we broke it. Still, it would have been fun to see a new record. Don't let it phase you. There are plenty bigger than that, you'll get it next time.

If you fish Hubbard enough for Buff, you'll break your record...no doubt about it...some great fishin' there.

They never got a chance to certify it. It was probably due to stress is what they told me. They wanted to keep it for their aquarium.

Why would a fish have to be killed to certify? I know that the Lake Ray Hubbard record LMB lives in the aquarium at the Garland Bass Pro Shops. It was at the Grapevine store & they moved it to Garland when the new store opened.

It definately was fun fighting the fish. I'll probably try to fish for them somtime.

well not exactly, I carried cert scales in my trunk forever...all we would have to do is weigh it and you subbmit it and then you have someone vouch for you that it was a ligit catch...in fact they just changed it that you can send you scales off after the fact and get them certified...there was something for of the TPWD about it...

I believe the point that Mark was trying make is that most people do not carry certified scales with them when they are fishing. Thus, they have to transport the fish some where to have it weighed on certified scales and then another trip back to the water which normally results in the death of the fish due to the stress of transport.
I need to check into getting my Ruben Heaton certified.

I used to fish RH for buffs alot, my personal best was 40 lbs. I have seen my buddies come up with 50 lb's now and then. Most caught in the winter run 15-20 lbs. Its easy to break the record but everyone is too lazy to weigh them in at a cert. station

hey buffchaser, I grew up near elmo and used to fish the power plant lake (elmo lake) quite a bit...I was a bass guy back then but I heard storys of some massive buffalo coming out of there...you know anything about that? to bad no one can get out there and fish anymore..

Ray Hubbard has a lot of big (Buffs) and I like to pull them in,its like being hooked on a big log.
On A good day I can haul in about 300 lbs in 3 hrs.but no matter what kind of day I always will bring one two in.
And no telling how many times I have broking the record for Ray Hubbard. good fishing to all

Yo Lonestar carper, I never fished Elmo but used to live in Terrell and fished Tawakoni Spillway. Caught some small buffs (8 lb) and they were alot of fun in the fast water back then.

Welcome to Buffalo Man, he was the one that taught me how to catch buffs!