Fishbrain's best catches from the year

Fall is a favorite time of year to fish, but sometimes weather and the elements have different plans. Early season snow storms, hurricanes, torrential downpours and more can turn off a bite and end your entire season. 

Many of the Fishbrain team are already seeing our 2021 fishing seasons end abruptly. Not wanting to dwell on what little (if any) time we have left, we decided to look back at a great fishing year. Check out below for some of the best catches made by the Fishbrain team this year from across the world and their favorite gear for making the catch. Each catch can be seen on the app along with all their other great catches and their favorite gear choices.

The Teammate: Austin Buck

The Fish: Red Grouper 

Weight: 16 lbs

Location: Tampa Bay, Florida

On a fishing trip with Misty Wells, this summer, Buck traveled several miles offshore out of Tampa Bay to kick off the start of ICAST 2021. Wells and buck reeled ins tud grouper after stud grouper until their arms ached, but the cherry on the day was this 16 pound tank. 

The Teammate: Nate Roman

The Fish: Chinook Salmon

The Weight: 20 lbs

The Location: Lake Ontario Tributary, New York

The gear: Pflueger President Spinning Reel

On a recent fishing trip to a small  tributary of Lake Ontario in New York, Roman landed three salmon on the first day, but not the monster he wanted. When the weather turned and the skies opened up, Roman slogged and casted through sheets of rain to finally hook up on this 20 pound dream chinook. The bruiser salmon put the drag on his Pflueger Spinning Reel to the test, before Roman could finally tire the old fish out and land it. 

The Teammate: Edward Holm

The Fish: Eurasian perch

Weight: 2.2 lbs

Location: Stavbofjarden, Sweden

The Gear: Shad Teez Swimbait

Sometimes a great catch is relative to the species you are fishing for. Fishbrain team member Edward Holm caught this beautiful Eurasian perch from the dock of a far away lake in Sweden. As far as fish go, this perch may not turn any heads, but when you consider Holm landed almost 50 of these two pound beauties, anyone would agree it was a great day on the water.

The Teammate: Cavan Williams

The Fish: Lake Trout (mackinaw)

Weight: 12 pounds

Location Flathead Lake, Montana

The gear: Xotic Heavy Weight Gloves

Every spring, lake trout come up from the depths to feed on spawning baitfish. This is one of two times a year, a laker can be caught on the fly. As soon as the water hits forty degrees, Williams hit the water with a heavy sinking lined and a hand tied red and white zonker streamer. It took almost a full day, and a pair of seriously warm gloves to fight back the chill, but by late afternoon a 12 pound monster took the fly. 

The Teammate: Riku Vuorenmaa

The Fish: Northern Pike

Weight: 25 lbs

Location: nunya business lake, Finland

The Gear: St. Croix musky rod

Riku Vuorenmaa is on a constant mission for big pike. Vuorenmaa competes in pike tournaments, and cruises countless lakes looking for big pike. This summer, while fishing on one of the thousands of Finnish lakes, Vuorenmaa was in the middle of a bay, working a deep flat bottom with little to no structure. The truly large pike lay on the barren bottom, waiting to ambush just about anything that swims by. The strike was huge. The fish put up a good fight and was easily the strongest pike he ever caught. Vuorenmaa had to take the massive pike around the boat once and negotiate the line under his trolling engine, as it rushed under the boat before getting it into the net. After 10 hours of fishing, it was his only bite of the day, and what a bite it was.

Make sure to tag Fishbrain on your best catches this year! Fishing seasons may be coming but the memories we made on the water are still fresh and vibrant!