The Hardest Fighting Freshwater Fish in North America

Hooking into and fighting a fish is about as close as most of us get to being a physical fight. Just like the real thing, it’s a one-on-one contest where either you or the fish is going to win. Yet, just as there are certain fish that are better-eating or more challenging to catch, there are some fish out there that fight better than others. Whether it’s because of their large size, extreme strength, or just their pure resolve after being hooked, there are some seriously hostile fish out there that will push your tackle and your will to the very limit as they drag you into the fight of your life.

Though not as coveted or famous as their cousin the largemouth, smallmouth are still one of the most popular fish in North America. They hold their lofty position for a lot of reasons as they’re a beautiful and native fish that are absolutely willing to smash a variety of baits and lures. Yet the biggest reason that anglers chase them in the lakes, rivers, and reservoirs they haunt is because smallmouth are tremendously good fighters.

“Smallmouth like to scrap,” avid bass angler Sam Brown said. “They hit topwater lures and flies like a possessed, sentient missile, and once you hook them, you’ve got to earn every inch. They have this tendency to turn sideways in the water and make you pull against them as they power swim with lots of thrusting dives, or they’ll get a bunch of speed and leap completely clear of the water five or six times in a row. They just go berserk.”

Many anglers who go fishing for smallmouth actually beef up their bass fishing equipment in order to have better control over the harder-fighting fish.

“If you tied a three-pound smallmouth and a five-pound largemouth together tail to tail, the smallie would pull the largemouth around like it was on a ski tow,” Brown told MeatEater. “They just have so much power compared to other bass species. I’m comfortable chasing big largemouth with a light-action rod and lighter line. When I’m fishing for smallmouth, though, I try to use heavier gear because I want to keep control of them and get them to the boat quickly and not exhaust them. Because when it comes down to it, a smallmouth will just fight to the death.”

Every trout species has its own characteristics that make it a favorite quarry for different anglers. Brown trout are loved for their aggression and their willingness to chase down and eat big streamers. Brook trout and cutthroat are prized for being beautiful fish that live in beautiful places. However, as the most widely stocked fish in the world, there’s no doubt that rainbow trout are the most popular trout species. While they are as beautiful and as willing to strike as the others, the thing that separates rainbows from other trout species and is no doubt a big part of their popularity is that rainbows really know how to fight.

“Rainbows just fight differently than other trout,” Montana fly fishing guide James Mugele said. “When you hook a big rainbow, you know it without even seeing the fish because your fly rod doubles over and your drag just starts screaming. They just have this amazing ability to use their river current to their advantage and will go flying downstream. Yet, even if you hook one in a lake or pond, they’re still strong enough to break you off in a second, or they’ll jump out of the water and shake your fly loose. There just isn’t another trout species that fights quite like a rainbow.”

While the domestic stream dwelling rainbow puts up a heck of a battle, the fish’s fighting ability is increased ten-fold when they become steelhead. Whether it’s traveling from the Pacific Ocean or the Great Lakes, there’s something about a rainbow becoming migratory that changes it from a decent middleweight boxer to Mike freaking Tyson. It’s almost as if living in a larger body of water injects a rainbow with steroids so that it becomes a leaping, tail-walking, rod-snapping maniac that, if given half a chance, will absolutely beat you down and laugh while doing it.

While striped bass are well-known as a hard-fighting saltwater species and white bass certainly sit at the top of the pugnacious panfish tier, when you combine the two—you get a whole different fighting animal. Hybrid striped bass, or “wipers” as they’re affectionately known, are easily one of the best fighting fish on the planet.

Unlike many other hybrid species that occur naturally, wipers are an entirely manmade creation. Originally bred in the 1970s, wipers were first stocked into Cherokee Lake in Tennessee to help mitigate the lake’s out-of-control baitfish populations. However, the fish quickly became a popular part of the sportfishing culture in the southern US as they turn into absolute beasts when they’re hooked. Soon enough, wipers were being bred in dozens of fish hatcheries, and the fish were being stocked everywhere. They had become a true prize for anglers looking to test their mettle.

Wipers are extremely aggressive and often break the surface of the water as they devour baitfish like savage, tiger-striped piranha. You can get them to strike on nearly anything from live bait and spinners and spoons to soft plastics and topwater lures. No matter what you use, though, once you get a wiper on your line, you’re in for a war.

Wipers are just explosive balls of muscle that surge and run like wolverines on crystal meth when hooked. They dive straight for the bottom one minute and then come surging back to the surface the next, keeping you constantly guessing and working to gain line as the fish rushes through the water. Tangling with a wiper on light tackle is a challenge that will often leave you standing there stunned with a broken line and a broken heart.

There’s no question that oceanic drum species are hard fighters. Red drum, or redfish as they preferred to be called, are one of the most popular saltwater gamefish in the country for that very reason. Thousands of anglers travel to southern coastlines every year in hopes of tangling with a bull red. Yet very few of these aquatic-combat-loving fishermen and women realize that they can find just as good of a fight much closer to home by targeting the freshwater drum.

Freshwater drum, also known as sheepshead, gaspers, and grunters in the angling world, are an incredibly overlooked gamefish that not only make fantastic table fare but also fight every bit as hard as their saltwater cousins. They’re widely distributed in lakes, rivers, and reservoirs all around the country, and while the smaller specimens can be quite spirited, hooking into a large one can be a war.

“When you hook into a big sheephead, you know you’ve got ahold of something,” Minnesota angler and fishing guide Willie Dellwo said. “It’s like lassoing a bull and trying to hang onto it while it goes screaming off to God knows where. Freshwater drum are sounders that just go straight for the bottom like they’re trying to drill for oil. If you’re not ready for a fight when you hook one, you can just get schooled.”

Though they’re considered to be a trash fish by many anglers, the fighting ability of a freshwater drum can and will quickly change the hearts and minds of anyone who feels like they’re not worthy. Once you’ve hooked into a big one, you essentially have to do all you can to hang onto it. Praying that your gear holds up and your rod doesn’t snap as you pull against them, you try to crank the reel and just fight for every inch.

Some fish fight hard because they are strong, and some fish fight hard because they are big, but there’s only one fish that’s the biggest and the strongest, and that’s the white sturgeon. The Ivan Drago of the freshwater world, white sturgeon can grow to more than 10 feet long and weigh over 400 pounds. Considered to be a fish of a lifetime for many anglers, catching a white sturgeon is difficult enough as they can only be found and legally fished for in a few select waterways on the West Coast. But what really makes them a dream fish for many anglers is that they can really fight.

Imagine a 300-pound fish leaping out of the water and splashing down like a breaching whale while you try to reel it in, and you’ll have some semblance of what it’s like to do battle with a sturgeon. These gigantic living dinosaurs are well known for leaping fully out of the water like a bigger, angrier freshwater tarpon when hooked, and their huge size and seemingly inexhaustible endurance mean that you’ve got to tighten both your drag and your resolve if you hope to land one.

Most sturgeon fights last anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, with the angler thrust into a desperate and continuous tug-o-war with a bulldogging and zigzagging monster. It takes a special kind of resolve to win that sort of battle, one that many anglers believe they have—until they’re in the fight itself. For its only when you hook into a white sturgeon and feel their ancient power that you can find out what you’re truly made of.

If you were to combine all the best fighting traits of a fish, from size and strength, to tenacity and ferocity, to the ability to jump and use the current to their advantage—you’d come up with a Chinook salmon. Also known as king salmon, Chinooks are the largest Pacific salmon species and are viewed as a very special and highly valued gamefish. Their status at the upper echelon of the salmon hierarchy is not only for the Chinook’s value as a foodstuff but also because they may very well be the angriest, bare-knuckle-brawling fish in freshwater.

“Chinooks are freight trains,” avid West Coast angler and fishing guide David Force said. “I mean, I’ve hooked a lot of giant steelhead and some big coho that have given me a run for my money but even they don’t compare to the pure strength and power of a king. I’ve seen hooked kings completely shatter 8-weight spey rods and completely burn the drags out of fly reels. It’s like tying your fly to a runaway 18-wheeler, and that’s when the fish is running upstream! If they’ve got the current behind them, all I can say is that you better have your running shoes on because they can spool you out in a couple seconds. Plus, kings jump and thrash and are just stubborn as hell. They won’t give up. Quite frankly, hooking and landing one is exhausting.”

Like steelhead and other salmon species, Chinook salmon are anadromous or potamodromous, meaning that they spend most of their time in the ocean or large lakes and then run up rivers to spawn. These massive bodies of water offer an abundance of food and space, allowing the salmon to grow to enormous sizes and gain the strength of a protein-fueled mountain gorilla. Hooking into a Chinook salmon is an experience that every angler looking for a true challenge should have. For when you’re on the river going toe to toe with a big chinook, you begin to truly understand why they’re called king.

Okay, so maybe catching a big fish isn’t exactly like getting into a physical fight. I mean at the end of the encounter, there aren’t any broken bones or any blood (at least there shouldn’t be), nor are there any awkward explanations to friends and family about why you have a black eye or upcoming court date (again, there really shouldn’t be.) However, the biggest reason that tangling with a big fish isn’t like getting in a fight is the lack of animosity.

When you hook one of these fish, whether you land it or it gets away, you feel happy and fulfilled. It’s almost as if tangling with a big fish fills some sort of gap in your life that you didn’t even know was missing. It’s why going into combat with a fish fascinates us as much as actual fisticuffs. When you get one to the net, you feel victorious and satisfied, and even if it gets away you still feel thrilled. For though you may be battered, beaten, and broken, you know you’ll be coming back for a second round.