Wayne Knight wrote:
.... I think sal****er fish are the
better fighters pound for pound but I just don't enjoy that kind of
fishing anymore. Same with the Bass and Bream, I fish for them at least
twice a week in the ponds and creeks near here, nothing wrong with them
per se but I look forward to each outing for my troutlets. The wild
ones are so much more attractive.

Very true. I don't think there are any freshwater fish that can match
*pound-for-pound* any sal****er fish.... even the ugliest little grunting,
shovel-faced, spiny-fan-finned, puke-and-mud-colored bottom-dweller.....

I'd much rather catch a 9" trout than a 9" bluegill, for the reasons you
state (beauty of the fish *and* their surroundings), although
ounce-for-ounce the bluegill will almost always fight better.

Among salmonids I've caught, I think it's steelhead rainbows brookies
cutthroat browns bulls.

But then, that's based on the specimens I've happened to run across. As
you say, things vary a lot from place to place. The browns in OR, even
the stream-bred ones, are pound-for-pound mere shadows of their cousins in
the Madison. Bull trout in the Metolius are infamous for being poor
fighters; folks on the Westfly board call them boots. In the reservoir
the Metolius drains into, though, they're reputed to fight like tigers....

JR