best fighting fish in NJ fresh water

[Capt. Lou]

Lucky red eyes don't grow to larger sizes !! Those fish taken off nest on UL plenty of sport & eat well too !

[catfishonthelake]

I accidentally ass-hooked a 20+ pound grass carp on musky tackle. Didn't put up much of a fight.

[JDTuna]

Originally Posted by catfishonthelake

I accidentally ass-hooked a 20+ pound grass carp on musky tackle. Didn't put up much of a fight.

Grass carp don't fight much at all. Carp are very good fighters...they fight very much like red drum. Pike and musky are exciting fish with aggressive strikes, but pound for pound they really aren't that strong. My vote would definitely be hybrids. Can't really think of another freshwater fish in NJ that will scream drag for their size like they do. Even carp.

[Chrisper4694]

hybrids will snap your line with an explosive run and probably have the edge on drag pulling power, but they can't match the stamina of a carp, plus the lips on a carp are more delicate and so you have to be careful not to put too much pressure to rip the hook out. carp are also usually more 'line shy'so you might have to go lighter gear... one will snap your line and the other will find another way off. It's a tough call if you take everything into consideration.

[Delawareriver]

Flatheads, snakehead, hybrids, and smallmouth lb for lb I would say fight better but I'll put carp In top 5

[bulletbob]

landlocks are spectacular fighters, very fast and agile, great leapers... tough to find in nj, but there are some. to me they are the overall best fighters.
other than oddballs like bowfin or snakehead, carp rate highly among the best fighters in sweet water,, channel cats too.. smb as well. but they generally don't get as big as most of us would like,,, bob

[tradingfrank27]

nice job, love Carp fishing but still hunting for ones 15lb and over in North Jersey.

[Jigman13]

Originally Posted by tradingfrank27

nice job, love Carp fishing but still hunting for ones 15lb and over in North Jersey.

The raritan and passaic rivers are loaded with Carp over 15 lbs. Biiiiiiiig fish broscious biiiiiiiig fish.

[tradingfrank27]

Originally Posted by Jigman13

The raritan and passaic rivers are loaded with Carp over 15 lbs. Biiiiiiiig fish broscious biiiiiiiig fish.

I agree, hard to narrow down the areas on the river, especially by me where most of the areas are residential.