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

Nice catch Dave.I bet your arms were like jelly after that one.

Robert, You're not kidding. They are still hurting. I think the funniest thing of all was one time when trying to net her, she tried to run & hit the side of the boat. It actually shook the boat.

dave,
when we are playing the fish in austin we often stand out in the water as it makes netting them easyier...the fun thing is alot of times they "charge" you when you are trying to net them...very cool fish that will fight like hell....

Very nice buff! Congrats! 15 minutes isn't a real big surprise. Half the reason I fish for carp and buffs is for the great fight the put up. And Carp fight ALOT harder then buffs!

Bet she'll look great in the BPS tank!

this buffalo on the fly ran me all over the small pool in the creek on Sunday! Good thing I had my 5 weight!

That had to be fun on a fly rod!

Nice!

HLS - Nice fish as well, and especially cool on the fly! You joining up for the TXFishes contest or what?

wow nice buffallo

thats a huge buffalo, great catch! I had something do the same thing to me while bass fishing at hubbard. I was slow rolling a crankbait and something just took off with it, i mean just strippin that drag like crazy. Didnt even get it near the boat to see it, line just snapped. Wish I coulda seen what it was, anyways nice fish..ill be lookin for it at bps in that tank..

Drobb, that sounds more likely to be a striper, or a carp.

ya I was thinkin that too..probaly a big old carp or hybrid, I know i've seen some big carp out there..

Dave

Awesome fish!!!! Congrats

BTW, do you remember who you spoke to at Bass Pro in regards to having the fish weighed on their certified scales?

The general manager of the Garland store is Bill Megelich & he was working yesterday when I brought her in. He had no problem rolling up his sleeves & getting wet while helping.