overseas A few interesting catches

[Bob9863]

A, few interesting catches from my last trip away. 

The 1st is a pacu, what's, truly interesting about it is its a vegetarian, and this one was caught on a soft plastic which is next to unheard of. 

The middle is a Mekong catfish that is also a vegetarian and just as if not more unheard of to catch on a lure. 

The last one is a, definite carnivorous beast, an alligator gar. 

What's unusual about this is its notorious for being very hard to catch on a lure, or even in the mouth. 

They have incredibly hard mouths and despite being top predators they are dainty about eating. 

They usually like to grab, swim and then think about swallowing whole so hooking one on a plastic is a real achievement. 

And I caught two that day. 

All 3 are fish we will never see here unfortunately, but it would be nice to have a, local lake that was allowed to stock them. 

The 1st two are really hard fighters although strangely not the gar, they are pretty quick fights. 

I've caught them on bait before but never on a lure, this particular park is lure only which did make me wonder why they were even stocked at all. The best I can figure is that by slow finesse fishing the plastic I must have got it right in their face and they bit out of annoyance. 

[ellicat]

That's great. You must have been stoked to get all on lures.

[Bob9863]

I definitely wasn't expecting them, I hoped for a Gar as I hadn't caught one yet and got it early in morning and another around lunch time. 

I've caught hundreds of Mekong catfish but definitely didn't expect one on a lure and the pacu was an even bigger surprise and it's, the biggest I have caught to date. 

 

I'm looking forward to going back there and another park to catch a big tiger fish. 

There's, still a, few, others I want to tick off the bucket list like 150kg + or better yet a 200kg + arapima and a few rare catfish. 

I'd love a 250kg or bigger stingray too. 

[ellicat]

Catching yellowbelly must feel so lame. haha

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Nice work Bob, those are some cool catches. What do you think the closest Australian fish is to them? 

Cheers Hamish

[Bob9863]

The pacu would be a GT, the alligator gar probably about a cod and the catfish, hard to say they fight out of proportion to their body size. Maybe a larger sized Spanish mackerel then the catfish. 

Even the small ones fight like a big barramundi, but they don't tire out very easily.