Tall Tails

A lot of the pictures you see of people catching huge fish are of saltwater sporting fish like sailfish, swordfish, or marlins.  However, one of the largest freshwater fish in the world is the taiman.  The world record catch weighed 231 pounds.  Here's a photo of a rod and reel catch at a mere 110 pounds.

Source:  Fishing World Records

Where do you have to go to catch one?  Taimen are found only in the faster moving rivers and streams of Russia and Mongolia.  These fish can be up to 6 feet long and are identified by their red tail, black spots, huge head and mouth and white belly.  They eat smaller fish, small mammals and birds.  There was one story of a huge taimen that had died and washed ashore; it still had a small dog in its stomach.  The biggest threat to smaller taimen?  Bigger taimen!  Yes, they also eat each other.

The taimen belongs to the Salmonidae family which includes both salmon and trout.  The taimen is also known as the Siberian salmon, but I've also seen it referred to as a trout.  It does spawn in the spring, but only migrates short distances to shallower streams and tributaries.

Source:  University of Wisconsin

It takes decades for taimen to reach record size and the larger fish are getting more rare.  They are on both Russian and Mongolian Red Books due to threats that include overfishing, habitat loss and pollution.

If you were lucky enough to catch one of these big guys, you would definitely have one whopper of a fish story.  For a couple of videos, click here and here.