4' 11"

Tapeworms. Lots of them. They literally fill the fish so it loses the swim bladder function and starts swimming near the surface, like sharks in Jaws. We used to call them "glistar" (from glist, tapeworm) and catch them with our bare hands when we were kids. They're not dangerous for humans, just super gross and cause big dieoffs sometimes.
Other fishes from the carp family, especially ide and roach, are infested with Opistorchis flukes, endemic in the Ob basin region, which are very dangerous for humans, they live in the liver ducts for up to 25 years and are carcinogenic. Lots of people who eat salted/cured fish are infected and treatment is not very effective and toxic by itself. Predatory fish such as pike, perch and zander are considered safe, but I'd rather go hungry than eat the local river fish

for pike, I preferred Mepps Lusox #2 and Blue fox Vibrax #2 to #5, in silver. Any lure will catch pike when they're hungry.

What sounds better ..8 inches ..or 20 Centimeters.. ??

For clarity, we are speaking about legal size fish right?

Correct Sir

1988 fishing in a 12 foot row boat with oars ( no motor) in a shallow weedy flowage. Using a Mitchell 300 with 8 lbs. test and a small daredevil, fishing the edge of the river channel with my 12 year old son and a bass net.
I hooked a fish and it took a few minutes for me to realize it was a large fish. Finally it came to the surface and I could see the dorsal fin about 3 feet behind the line!. This was late July and the water was warm and dark and stained. I let the fish circle the boat a few times trying to figure out what I could do. Finally I took the small net and got the front half of the fish in and scooped into the boat and I put my feet on the fish and rowed back to our launch area. The fish was on for about 35 to 40 minutes. It turned out to be a 15 year old 50.5 inch 30 lbs. muskey! My uncle who had just recovered from his first bout with cancer mounted the fish for me. The cancer came back and he died the next fall. The fish is on the wall at our north location.

Bryce