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Off De Hook, 2737 New York Avenue, Dallas, TX (2026)

05/10/2026

His name is Bill Saunders. He is a waterfowl call maker from Kennewick, Washington. His true passion these days is chasing trophy walleyes on the Columbia and Snake Rivers. On April 16, he and his fishing partner were casting swimbaits near the confluence of the two rivers. A fish hit like a walleye. He did not think it was all that big. Maybe eight or nine pounds.

His partner got the fish in the net. They gave it a closer look. The fish had the same gold coloration as a walleye but did not have sharp teeth. They realized it was a pikeminnow. The largest they had ever seen. Possibly one of the biggest ever caught by an angler. At first he was a little embarrassed. He really did not care about having a record verified. His wife and his partner convinced him otherwise. You might never have an opportunity like this again, they said.

He gave in. After getting off the water, they found two certified scales. No one wanted to put it on their scale at first. Cross contamination concerns. They got an official weight. Eight point six pounds. Twenty five point two five inches long. Estimated to be around nineteen years old. He donated the fish to the state so they could mount it for educational purposes.

05/10/2026

His name is Matt Born. He is forty nine years old. From Reedsville, West Virginia. He was fishing from his kayak on a small private pond. It was late afternoon. Close to dinnertime. He made a long cast with an ultralight outfit. He was hoping to catch a bluegill. He had been working on a new small spinning lure design. He made it the previous night. He was just testing how it wiggled in the water.

He made a couple casts. Liked how it worked. Made a long cast to some lily pads. Using ultralight tackle. Four pound test monofilament. His new lure attracted something much bigger than a bluegill. A pickerel hit hard. He had all kinds of trouble with that fish. The fish towed him around the pond. He had to quickly back off on his reel drag.

He thought it was just a nice sized pickerel until he got it close to his kayak. He saw it was like a huge torpedo. The fish had sharp teeth. But his lure had a long wire body and was attached with a snap swivel. That kept the monofilament outside the fish's teeth as it chomped down on the metal. Every time he got the fish close and touched its gill plate, it dashed away. The fish did that about five times before he could finally lift it aboard.

05/10/2026

The second largest fish ever caught and certified by the organization is a tiger shark. One thousand seven hundred eighty five pounds eleven ounces. Caught in Australian waters in 2004 by Kevin James Clapson. Tiger sharks are part of what some call the Big Three. The three shark species most likely to attack a human. Great whites. Bull sharks. And tiger sharks. All of them are apex predators. All of them command respect.

Tiger sharks are known for eating almost anything. They have been found with license plates. Tires. Clothing. Even a suit of armor once. Their jaws are powerful enough to crush sea turtle shells. They grow large. They grow fast. And they are not afraid of shallow water. Swimmers in tropical oceans share the waves with them more often than they realize.

This record tiger shark was caught on rod and reel. It took skill. Strength. And a lot of luck. The angler battled the fish. Landed it. And submitted it to the organization for certification. The record has stood for over two decades. Will it ever be broken? Possibly. But tiger sharks are not as heavily targeted as some other species. They are also protected in some waters. Catching a fish this size is a once in a lifetime event.

05/10/2026

The largest freshwater catfish ever caught on rod and reel was a Wels catfish. Two hundred ninety seven pounds nine ounces. European angler Attila Zsedely caught the all tackle world record from Italy's River Po in 2010. Wels catfish are native to Europe and Asia. They are called the king of catfish for a reason. They grow massive. They fight hard. And they are not easy to land.

In 2023, another Italian angler named Alessandro Biancardi caught and released a massive Wels from the same river. His fish measured two hundred eighty five centimeters. Zsedely's fish measured two hundred forty five centimeters. Biancardi's fish was longer. Much longer. Some speculate his catfish could have weighed upward of three hundred pounds. That would have easily replaced the standing record. But Biancardi released the fish alive instead of bringing it to a certified scale. So the record stands. We will never know for sure.

A Mekong giant catfish caught in Thailand in 2010 weighed two hundred sixty pounds. It was certified by the same organization. That fish ranks high on the list of giant freshwater catches. But it is still not the biggest. The Wels holds that title.

05/10/2026

The world record largemouth bass is one of the most coveted records in angling. Two anglers share the top spot. Both fish weighed exactly twenty two pounds four ounces. The first was caught by George Perry in Georgia's Montgomery Lake back in 1932. That is almost all we know about it. Very few details exist. No known photos of the fish. The catch has become legend mostly because of what is missing.

The second world record was caught from a lake in Japan in 2009 by Manabu Kurita. That fish was photographed. Certified. Documented. Kurita's catch proved that giant bass are not just an American phenomenon. They swim in Japanese lakes too. The organization now lists both anglers as tied for the number one spot. Two men. Two fish. Same weight. Eighty seven years apart.

Largemouth bass are North America's favorite game fish. They have been stocked across the country. They can be caught in almost every state outside of Alaska. But the biggest one ever caught on rod and reel came from Georgia. And then from Japan. A bucketmouth weighing twenty two pounds four ounces is a once in a lifetime fish. Most anglers will never see one that big. Most will never catch one half that size.

05/09/2026

Her name is Hillary Rodham. Summer 1974. Washington D.C. She was twenty six years old. She had been selected for the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment inquiry staff. One of approximately forty four lawyers assembled to build the constitutional case against President Richard Nixon. She spent months researching impeachment standards. Preparing procedures. Advising the committee. When Nixon resigned in August 1974, the staff disbanded. Her career was pointing somewhere significant. She went to Arkansas instead.

She had met a man at Yale Law School. His name was Bill Clinton. A passionate, rumpled, saxophone playing law professor. He kept asking her to marry him. She kept saying no. She failed the Washington D.C. bar exam. She passed the Arkansas bar. She accepted a teaching position at the University of Arkansas School of Law. One of only two women on the law faculty. Her salary was sixteen thousand four hundred fifty dollars for the year.

She taught criminal law, criminal procedure, and trial advocacy. Exacting. No patience for imprecision. When a student said he was just from Arkansas, she turned to him. "Don't tell me that. You're as smart as anybody. You just have to believe in yourself and work for it and set high goals." She meant it. Within her first year, she convinced twenty five Arkansas lawyers and judges to fund the state's first legal aid clinic. Ten thousand dollars. She became its first director. She also co founded Fayetteville's first r**e crisis center.

05/09/2026

Big brown trout are nocturnal. They did not get big by being stupid. That cliche is true. But most anglers fish for them during the day. That is the mistake. In southern tailrace fisheries, winter nights are the absolute best time to target giant browns. Water levels drop. Current slows. Huge fish move into shallow water. Two feet deep. Easily approached. Easily fished.

Matt Wilder caught a twenty eight pound brown on a fly rod at night. He uses eight or nine weight rods. Big flies. Two to five inches long. Weighted up to one eighth ounce. Flashabou. Bunny strips. Action discs that make flies wobble like crankbaits. He strips the fly in. No dead drifting. Staying in touch at all times. Making it look alive. The biggest browns are looking up, silhouetting flies against the surface.

In northern streams, winter browns behave differently. They winter over in dish shaped pools where the river widens and current slows. Not very deep. Browns prefer sun on their backs. Highest activity levels happen late afternoon. But solitude? You cannot beat fishing at night when the air is under thirty degrees and you have to break through ice to wade. Massive. Eternal. Loneliness. Worth it.

05/09/2026

Manitoba late ice is one of the best kept secrets in North America. Over fifty inches of ice by late season. Pack an auger extension or you will not get through. The farther north you go, the deeper the ice fishing culture runs. And the bigger the fish.

Bruin Outfitting on Lake Winnipeg offers guided and DIY options. Big walleyes in the thirty inch range are caught regularly. Countless numbers in the mid twenties. Northern pike into the mid forty inch range are not uncommon. Lake trout pushing the low forty inch mark. These are not rare catches. They are the standard.

Wekusko Falls Lodge provides access to trophy lake trout up to forty two inches. Pike over forty eight inches. Even fifty. Walleyes well into the thirty inch range. The average size changes daily. Some days the average walleye is nineteen inches. The next day it is twenty six inches. Those are the days when trophies show up.

Caribou Lodge Outfitters reports guests catching over twenty lake trout in a single day. Fish up to forty two inches. Master Angler walleyes at twenty eight inches and above are numerous. Late ice pike bite is tremendous. Thirty nine to forty inch fish are common. That is a fun fish to pull through the ice. Manitoba is not for beginners. But if you want giants, you go where the giants live. Bring warm boots. Bring electronics. Bring a sense of adventure. Leave your small fish expectations at home. You will not need them.

05/09/2026

Want to catch giant northern pike through the ice? Forget jigging. You will not catch the true giants that way. Aaron Wiebe from Manitoba said he would not sacrifice a single line to jigging when chasing pike. Tip ups with dead bait. That is the program. Cisco or sucker minnow. Oversized. And a quick strike rig.

Late ice is prime time. Pike spawn right after ice out in shallow w**d filled bays. Before the ice departs, they stage in front of those spawning areas. Feeding and waiting. Flats between eight and twelve feet of water. Just out from that first drop off. Earlier in winter, pike start showing up on those same flats but farther out toward the main basin. March is the best month.

Use disc shaped tip ups that cover the hole. They slow the freezing process and keep blowing snow out. Eighty pound braid works. But be careful. Braid can cut your fingers if it wraps around them while fighting a big fish. The Northland Predator Rig is a hanging style quick strike rig. One treble hook in the head of the bait. One around the dorsal fin. The bait hangs naturally. Horizontally.

05/09/2026

River backwaters are the most overlooked panfish bonanza in the country. Crappies and bluegills live there. Big ones. Unpressured ones. Most anglers drive past backwaters on their way to main river spots or nearby lakes. That is a mistake. The fish are not in the current. They are tucked behind it. In the quiet water. In the wood. In the w**ds.

In May, panfish behavior depends on latitude. Down south, they may be done spawning. Up north, they are staging or feeding. Spawning panfish want to be completely out of the current. They retreat deep into backwater areas. After spawning, some move closer to current. But the big ones stay near cover. Wood. Wing dams. Fallen trees. Brush piles.

When mayflies hatch in summer, bluegills go on fire. They sit on wing dams right on the edge of current seams. They wait for the river to deliver food to them. Bottom oriented. Slowed current. Easy meals. Use one sixty fourth ounce jigs. Tip with a third of a small redworm. No plastic. Keep it simple.

Backwater panfish are challenging to find. But they are worth the effort. Unpressured. Wild. Huge. Fish a slow retrieve. Keep the bait moving horizontally. If they won't bite, switch to a float rig. Suspend a jig under a slipfloat. Crappie minnow. Leech. Angleworm. The backwaters hold giants. Most anglers never wet a line there. That is why the giants are still there. Go find them. Be quiet. Fish slow. And hold on. A nine inch bluegill on ultralight gear feels like a two pounder. That is not an exaggeration. That is a promise.

05/09/2026

Meet Fred. A forty five pound flathead catfish living in a river somewhere in the United States. Does not matter which river. Fred behaves the same no matter where he lives. Researchers have tracked flatheads for years using radio telemetry. They found that while no two flatheads act exactly alike, all of them follow the same basic rules. Winter. Spring. Summer. Fall. From the day they hatch until the day they die.

In winter, flatheads hole up in deep areas with mild current. Submerged trees. Large rock. They barely move. Researchers sat over tagged fish so long without signs of movement they wondered if the fish had d*ed. As water warms above fifty degrees, flatheads move toward spawning areas. Cavity spawners. They lay eggs in holes that fit their body size. Logjams. Beaver dens. Large riprap.

Summer is different. Flatheads become homebodies. One study tracked fish for twenty four hour periods and found they were stationary for an average of twenty three point one hours per day. They made brief feeding moves at dusk and dawn. Straight lines to shallow flats. Then straight back. Anglers who sit and wait for flatheads to come to them are playing a low percentage game. You need to put the bait where they live.

Fall brings movement. Cooling water pushes flatheads toward winter holes. The transition times between seasons are often the best times to catch them. Once temperatures drop below forty degrees, they go torpid. Barely breathing. Uninterested in food. Then the cycle resets. Flatheads live twenty years or more. A fifty pound fish is old. It has seen thousands of baits. To catch Fred, you need to think like Fred. Know his seasons. Respect his habits. And fish where he lives, not where you wish he was. That is the secret. No magic. Just science. And patience. lots of patience.

Off De Hook

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