From my experience I would agree with the smallmouth bass

 

Pound for pound I'm putting carp up there.
Truly pound for pound bluegill are pretty impressive actually. A big bluegill on a 3 weight fly rod or UL setup is no joke.

The salmonids can burn drag if that's your measure.

I can confidently say its not walleye.

 

Pound for pound I'm putting carp up there.

Carp are up there with the best. I do not think you can name one particular species, but there are individuals in each species that can put on a show.

Here in PA I'd suggest smallmouth, stripers, and 8 to 12 lb. pike can put on an aerial show. Heavier pike stay down and use their weight.

 

If a smallmouth bass grew to the size of a musky you'd probably never get one into the boat. IMO the smallmouth is the fightingest (is that a word?) of the freshwater fish.

 

Pound for pound, I’m going wiper (striper / white bass hybrid).

I was over a school of them one day catching and then I got this one bite and the fight just felt weak in comparison, it turned out to be a 17” smallie. I was surprised because I love catching smallies. I would even put the wiper over the striper, pound for pound that is as you’ll never get a wiper as big as a striper.

 

Going with wipers also. Sheepheads at Erie can really tug too.

 

X3 on the striper hybrid. I remember night fishing and one taking my friends glow bobber under, by the time he set the hook it was like 50 yds from where it started.

 

Definately the fastest swimmer. They can strip your reel quick.

 

Of the fish I've caught, definitely carp

 

I've only ever caught one, but the Muskie I landed was a handful.

 

I would have to put catfish up there.

 

Dozens of 30-32+” Alaskan Naknek river Rainbows on an 8 wt flyrod for me.
Watching a Brown Bear rummaging around in our outboard Jon boat while we were fishing was truly a humbling experience.
I’ve flown to a lot of places, not sure exactly why, but flying into and out of King Salmon AK is a top 10 flight memory for me.
I know that’s more info than asked, but I’m off tomorrow and I’ve gotten into my supply of Bulleit tonite.

 

Ive caught a 2-3 lb smallie on my 8 wt and thought it was a muskie! was floating downstream and it was going up..

 

A local pound by me used to stock wipers. I don't remember them being particularly challenging. They were all in the 2-3 pound range. Maybe some bigger ones would have given a better show. Suckers aren't bad pulling.

 

That I have caught. 50" Musky was the hardest fight, but that might have been from her size.
Craziest fight was a 3 foot Gar didn't even want to bring that crazy fish in the boat.
Pound for pound the Smallie ranks right up there.

 

That's the thing about the musky, it's size. A 50 inch bluegill would put up a great fight. An 8 inch musky would not win a tug-of-war with an even smaller bluegill. Haven't caught, or even hooked, a musky in decades but catch a ton of pickerel. A 24 inch pickerel puts up a nice fight for a little while, but gets tired pretty quickly. A smallmouth has more endurance.

 

I’d say pound for pound smallmouth or a fresh early fall steelhead

 

Musky for me. I've caught a few in the Allegheny Reservoir. But pound for pound, it's a toss-up between smallmouths and big slab bluegills. Love catching those on light tackle.

 

Pound for pound, bluegill, smallmouth, and trout all outfight musky.

 

Flatheads can play a nice game of tug of war too….

 

Hybrid stripers
I caught a 10lb hybrid while fishing for calico with an ultra light
I got it in but it busted my reel
It stripped every gear in my reel lol

 

I have never caught any wipers and just small stripers, but have caught most of the other fish mentioned, and for heavy weight fish I would have to go with flatheads, for medium weight smallmouths, and light weight bluegills. It's hard for me to judge the pound-for-pound fight. The salmon I have caught were foul-hooked, and that makes the fight tougher

 

A King salmon on a small stream with a 10 weight fly rod. A nasty chum salmon is a pretty good fight but they are ugly.

 

Steelhead on a flyrod for me.

 

Musky on a ultralight fishing for trout!!! WOW 😮 engulfed a 11 in rainbow while retrieving!!!!

 

I had this happen at the Allegheny Reservoir once while fishing for crappies. There was a steep shoreline along the north side of the Kinzua arm of the lake. Waves would erode the shoreline and big patches of trees would slide down the slope and into the water. One very foggy morning my dad and I motored across from the Kiasutha campground to that side of the lake and were fishing a patch of trees that had slid into the lake. It was very still and the water was clear and smooth as glass.

It was a slow morning, and after a couple of hours of fishing small fathead minnows just off the bottom above the tree roots, I finally hooked into a crappie, and I said to Dad "Here we go, I got one." I was savoring the fight, and as it was maybe 6 or 8 feet down, I saw its side flash and could see it was a decent crappie, maybe 10 inches or so. I was pretty happy with that and when it got even closer, I could see this big musky circling and gliding in from behind my fish. He just opened his mouth, flared his gills, and sucked my crappie into his mouth in one gulp. I said something like "Holy crap, a musky just ate my crappie!!!

Here I am, fishing with this little cheap Zebco closed-face fishing reel, a lightweight rod, 10 pound test line, a #6 hook and a small split shot. I fought him for what seemed like a couple of minutes, but I sure it was much shorter than that, and he finally broke me off. Dad and I both sat there and looked at each other in stunned silence trying to process what had just happened. I don't remember our exact next words, but I think it was something like "WOW, wait till we get back and tell Mom about this!!!!" That fateful day was the day my Dad and I caught the musky fishing bug. We spent a lot of time trolling that lake and caught a few muskies. My biggest was 43 3/4" and 20 1/2 pounds. Fun times.

 

I guess what one considers the “ best fight” depends on what kinda fight you’re talking about. Speed at taking out line on a run….wipers and sheepshead . Taking the fight to the air….largemouth bass and steelhead. A hard steady pull….a big old catfish or carp.

Back when salmon snagging was a thing in New York and Michigan, a tail hooked 20 pound king salmon would break a 40 pound line.

 

I think 25inch or so Bowfin on your line puts up a mighty fight, for those of you who have caught one of these prehistoric looking fish, you know what I'm talking about....

 

Never caught a bowfin, but recently caught a couple snakeheads. One was 28 inches and put up a decent fight.

 

salmon and big trout in the NY tribs have the most power I have ever felt. Especially in a big current river like the salmon river. After you catch about 20 it almost gets to be work

 

way back when i was a kid we used to fish for carp in the local pond in the town where i grew up. at least once a year it would get stocked with carp i think came from Pymatuning. well catching a 3 foot carp on an old Zebco 202 was something to behold. pound for pound those carp were the fightingest fish one could ever hook onto. had many a line snapped while fishing for them. never kept any always put them back in to catch them another day. as i got older and was able to afford better reels that took the challenge out of catching them. the old Mitchell 300 handled them fairly well.