Holy Grail in fishing

[MuskieBait]

Since I chat about this a little in the other thread...

What are your Holy Grail in fishing?

I'm not talking about catching a 60lb muskie or a 40lb salmon...those, as much as they are uncommon, are really quite reasonably reachable. I'm talking about the truly far fetch catches that would send such humongous shockwaves in the angling world that giant tsunami would flood the angling news worldwide and the catch will forever put your in ANY fishing hall of fames.

As much as there are some highly respected targets on my bucket list...like Inconnu ( Eli), Arctic Char, Alligator Gar, Taimen, Giant Tigerfish, wild Arapaima...etc, there are a few truly Holy Grails on my list.

1) The Coelacanth - this would probably entail a year long expedition fishing the the deep dark depths of the Indian Ocean for a rare encounter of this very old yet extremely cool species. The only thing I am leery about this chase is the fact that the coelacanth will like not survive the capture and there is no way to release such a record catch. It really is a shame.

2) The Antarctic Toothfish - a related species to the Patagonian Toothfish (aka Chilean Seabass), this species live in the Antarctic continental shelf. An expedition to capture one would likely not be as impossible as catching a coelacanth, yet nonetheless impressive due to the challenges of reaching and fishing in the Southern Ocean in the Ross Sea. There is actually a fishery for these fish currently. This would also allow me to check off Antarctic as one of the 7 continents where I have fished in before I die (it is my goal to achieve this before I reach 50 years old. So far I've already fished in North America, Asia, Europe and Australia. South American and Africa is fairly obtainable...Antarctica is truly difficult...but not unreachable).

3) The King of Herring (or Oarfish) - this would be a very damn cool catch. Very little is know about them, but the are one of the longest fish on record and they are really only ever seen when one washes up onto shore.

The caveat in targeting all three of these fish species is that electric reels can be used to drop baits and check baits quickly, but once there is a fish on the line, the angler MUST MANUALLY reel the fish in. In some cases, we're talking about reeling the fish up from 1000m+ of water. There should not be any assisted mechanism for bringing the fish on board.

You would absolutely have to be a pioneer in the quest for these fish, since none of it has been accomplished so far for recreational anglers.

Along the way, I'm sure targeting these deepwater fish will give you all kinds of ridiculously amazing deep sea catches that people can drool over.