What kind of fish was it

[fonz58]

Yesterday I was fishing by the paper mill dam in Sartell (south of the dam).

I tossed a #3 mepps spinner into the shallows in front of the spillway. "huh, feels like a snag, better start the motor! Fired up the motor, when I looked back up, my snag had moved 20ft to the right.

25 minutes later-pop comes my lure up.

Equip. Fenwick 6.6" ML, w/Mitchell reel loaded with 8# trilene.

Fight: took it down to the bottom in about 35ft of water in front of the spillway. I could gain a little line every now and then, but when he wanted to he owned me and would strip line. He was perhaps 12-25ft directly under the boat when the lure popped out. I'll never know if that was a catfish, carp, musky or snapping turtle. He(it) felt like a 30# fish. I've caught several northerns between 18-24lbs on a rig such as this and they'd be in the boat within 10 minutes.

[little buddy]

Well fonz, it sure sounds like a cat, as they, lb for lb , have the most stamina. However, if you snagged a carp with that mepps, she also could go on and on. I'm afraid you may never know. Additionaly, since you said it felt like a snag, i would think a northern or muskie would have made that initial telltale, shake and run. Go back and catch her. lol

[Royce Aardahl]

don't know if I told you but Steve's dad was casting off his dock a couple weeks back and hooked something big. you know it's a muskie lake so he was thinking maybe a big one! 45 minutes later he saw landed the fish. 20 pound carp hooked in the tail. man it would have been nice if you would have got a peek at what was on yours. maybe one of those monster crappies seriously though I know that a catfish will take a mepps so I would guess cat or muskie or snagged a carp.

[This message has been edited by eyeguy54 (edited 07-07-2004).]

[EBass]

I'd think a cat to, but who knows? It's a good story though!

[huskiesplayer15]

Dogfish fight hard too, or buffalo, who knows, maybe jimmy hoffa!
Best Fishes
Chris

[SgtCaesarfishinguy]

Had the same thing happen to me on Koronis about a week after the opener. Fought what initially I thought was a snag until she fought back, and began to strip line as we motored the boat towards it. Long story short the fish took us in a complete circle, and the fight lasted about ten mins on a six foot light action Loomis with six pound line. I got the fish to the surface about twenty feet from the boat when it shook the hook. From where we were it was definately a carp or buffalo in the 20 plus pound range. I got to see her, but much rather would have landed her and got a few pics. Maybe you had something along the lines of one of these two fish, this fish had me alot more than I had it!!!

[marblei]

I had almost identical thing....was tossing a jointed shad...thought Id snagged a rock...then it headed for the deep hole, 20' right next to me.(I had custom med 7 foot, six lb test). I was in no rush, so just held on. After about 20 minutes I actually tired the fish out so it came to the surface. I couldn't reel it in, so I had to motor over to it...20 + lb carp....should have seen/heard the *&^%$ from the hmongs on the bank when I released it....

[fonz58]

Thanks for the Hmong carp story! That's funny. We recently were in the same area and did see a half dozen big carp milling around in that area. I've caught big catfish in there before also, so the mystery will never be solved. I'm heading up there tomorrow PM-perhaps I should bring my muskie rod and see if I can snag (in the mouth of course) one of those pigs!