Largemouth have a bad reputation because the equipment we use is designed to handle the baits we use, and the places we catch the fish, not the fish themselves.

Pound for pound the weakest freshwater fish that I catch are yellow bullheads,its like reeling in a small log that tugs every once in a while.Pound for pound the strongest native freshwater fish I catch are sunshine bass,they pull drag like small saltwater fish. Most of our exotic freshwater fish are much stronger pound for pound that the native species.

 

It... depends. Water conditions (temp esp), scaled tackle, and individual fish, and how it's hooked. Pickeral, and pike, maligned above can fight if allowed to do what they do best -bolt! But they don't have the body depth to hold position on you. They are mighty fast if allowed to use their fins. Problem is, they are most often caught on heavier tackle often when bass fishing, tackle designed to drive a big hook and pull bass (a deep bodied fish) from cover. Hook a pickeral, or small pike, on UL tackle and Zzzzzzzzziiiiinnnnnnnng! They can be mighty fun.

In my experience, the Walleye takes the crown for weakest. Many times I thought they must have pulled off for some reason, then as my hook nears the boat, the fish is still on there. 

hardest fighting freshwater fish easy for the 1 spot is buffalo, river stripers (then reservoir stripers), and blue/flathead/channel catfish.  pound for pound.  (note, I don't have experience with lake trout or some other salmon species so not sure about those although I hear great things).

Short line a big musky or pike on a figure 8 and they get put near the top as well.

worst fighting fish is also really easy- DRUM.  Set the hook on what should be a 8 pound bass and a drum comes doing summersaults in.  Shame because they are a good looking fish that can be aggressive with decent size.

LMB are pretty high on the list of worst fighting fish but may only break the top 3 or so.  

Catfish for me. They just roll and get slime on your line. That's fine if you're fishing for cats, but I never am. I know there's a lot of interest in trophy size blue cats nowadays. But to me, the bigger the catfish, the bigger nothing you have on your line. I don't mind eating them, but when you clean them they seem to have more blood than a human being inside them.

Hardest fighting fish I've caught is the striper. That's one strong and fast fish. I'd target them if I had the right boat or the $$$ to get it. Maybe one day.

1 hour ago, Nice_Bass said:

I don't have experience with lake trout or some other salmon species so not sure about those although I hear great things.

Let me tell you, Chinook salmon are definitely the hardest fighting fish pound for pound I have ever caught. I was afraid for my rod when I hooked into my first one and it was only 7 pounds lol. They are incredible! 

Im not sure what your water temp is for the pike but here in Eastern Washington, if you hook one in the late spring or fall, hold on! If you get one in the winter they are lazy but still better than LMB for cold water.

LAZIEST FISH AWARD GOES TO..... walleye. you feel like you have a small stick on your line just coming straight to the boat. 

13 hours ago, N Florida Mike said:

In saltwater,a yellow mouth trout.The fight is like reeling in a sock.

 

lol thats awesome 

 

Came here to say trout also. They just ski across the surface. 

It depends on the age of the fish. My 6.1 lb bass in my pic gave my bait a tour of the dammed river. She was very full of energy. My PB of 10lbs felt more like dead weight but it had some fight. She was old.

my best battles are my 6lb to 1 1/2 lb bass and any size pickerel up to 32".

i did land a big salmon. My three hot spots get fed off the same lake during the winter run off. The first spot on the river that's dammed gets fed with trout and salmon when they stock the lake upstream. The third spot is another larger body of water that's dammed too. The fish are mostly healthy and fighters.

snapping turtles are like bricks

Rock Bass, Red-eyes - what ever you want to call them.  They hit like they think they are something, then once they realize they are hooked they just lay on their side and let you reel them in while they glide on the water.

3 hours ago, You_Only_Live_Once_Fishing said:

snapping turtles are like bricks

A very angry brick that will gladly take your hand off and scratch your arms to shreds if you get close enough to them!

17 hours ago, everythingthatswims said:

Largemouth have a bad reputation because the equipment we use is designed to handle the baits we use, and the places we catch the fish, not the fish themselves.

I think this is pretty accurate. Realistically the biggest bass you'll catch on a given day is a couple of pounds, but because they live in heavy cover, we fish for them with 65 pound braid and reels that lockdown with ~15 pounds of drag. On the flip side when you see a lot of saltwater fish make giant runs, they're 20 pound fish with only 5 or 6 pounds of drag on them since they don't have anything to get snagged on, and you don't want to pull the hook.

While I don't think bass are even close to the pound for pound hardest fighting fish, I do think if you were to scale the line and drag down to be equivalent to what is used on open water fish, they'd at least be middle to upper-middle of the pack.

1 hour ago, Bassun said:

Rock Bass, Red-eyes - what ever you want to call them.  They hit like they think they are something, then once they realize they are hooked they just lay on their side and let you reel them in while they glide on the water.

This is EXACTLY what I was going to say! We also call them "goggle-eyes" in this part of the country.

I'm surprised so many of you answered walleye. I catch them out of a river so maybe that makes a difference, but they pull hard with big head shakes and 18"+ will also pull drag for me.

Hardest fighting freshwater fish for me is the sturgeon.

Lake trout.

I usuallt find minnows in tackle shops the easiest to catch. Cheapest too.

On 7/27/2016 at 4:42 PM, nickles said:

  Walleye.  hook one you think you have hooked an old tire when you reel them in.

Agreed. Hooking a walleye during a slow troll is pretty much like reeling in a tree branch. But they make up for it with how good they are to eat lol.

 

Even casting for walleye, they're very lazy fighters. Very little runs or head shakes. I haven't had the opportunity to catch any real monsters, mainly just 15 to 22 inchers up in my neck of the woods, so I may be missing out. Even pickerel fight tougher than they do.

Carp don't really fight with headshakes or running intocover or anything, they just like to swim away and you're fighting against the weight/water thrust of the fish!  They're like the bat rays of freshwater.

Seeing the walleye is well represented here, as it should be, I will only add that nobody fishes walleye for the fight.  If they do, they must like the disappointment involved.

#1 - crappie

#2 - walleye

But both taste great.

7 hours ago, Jeff H said:

Seeing the walleye is well represented here, as it should be, I will only add that nobody fishes walleye for the fight.  If they do, they must like the disappointment involved.

90% of walleye anglers here in MN are "meat hunters."  Remove the potential to keep any and anglers do not target them anymore.

Fish in the river fight harder. Younger bass fight hard.

I've never caught lake walleye, only river, so maybe that's the difference, but all walleye I've caught are decent fighters. Every one has given at least three runs that peel some drag. I find it interesting that a 12" specimen I recently caught was one of the harder fighters.

The more I fish the river, the less impressed I am with lake fish.

Josh

Those that think walleye don't fight have either never caught a good one, or they're catching them all out deeper. If you hook a decent walleye up shallow around here (where they normally live a lot of the year), they'll outfight a LMB no problem. They'll often fight so hard that they end up tearing themselves off the hook. Walleye in deeper water though, like fighting a wet sock.

 

Weakest fight, pound for pound, shovelnose sturgeon. They hit like a freight train, then you just crank them in while they kind of swing back in for in the current. It really shouldn't be any surprise though, they barely have anything to move any water to pull with.