??? Cable on bottom of lake ????

[dieguy]

I was out fishing last night on a north Metro lake. I had my six year old along and was just fisshing for crappies or sunnies. The wind was blowing very hard so I put out the anchor. The wind was blowing so hard that I was dragging the anchor for a while then it finally stuck and we fished for an hour or so. When it was time to leave i tried to pull up the anchor and it came off the bottom a few feet and pulled back down. I kept pulling and it felt like I was pulling against a rubber band the harder I pulled the harder it pulled back. I was only in 12 feet of water so I pulled and tied it off, then pulled harder and tied it off again. I kept doing this until I could pull no more and I saw a large (approx 3/8" diameter) shiny metal cable hooked in the rope attached to the anchor. I did everything I could think of short of jumping overboard to get the anchor free until it started getting too dark so I cut the rope and lost my anchor. What the heck would a brand new, obviously attached to something large, metal cable be doing running across the middle of a metro lake? Has anybody else ever experienced anything like this?

[Spork]

Power cable maybe? I honestly have no idea... but it is quite interesting.

[Duffman]

Last winter on the cabin lake they were laying cable thru the ice, not sure if it was power cable or telecomunication lines. They had a machine that cut a 6" wide channel thru two feet of ice for a good quarter mile or so. So there is probably a lot of cable running on the bottom of lakes in MN and elsewhere. If I hadn't seen them doing it and came accross the trench later that day, I would sure have been wondering what the heck is this?????

[crabapplecrappie]

what lake? bald eagle has cables out to the island, I'm sure other lakes with islands have these also.

[dieguy]

This was on Lake Jane, No islands or anything there. This is such a small lake I can't believe they would need to run any kind of power or communication lines across this lake they could just go around it. Plus this was like a tension cable of some sort.

[Powerstroke]

report it. If anything maybe there is something not kosher going on there. Either that or the DNR can tell you why its there.

[SFBOY]

Aereation pipe? We have tons of sunken cable/pipe in Sturgeon Bay connecting the east and west side of town. Probably worth losing the anchor than yanking on something that you dont know what it is. There is usally some kind of marker on shore warning of sunken or burried cable. Interesting mystery, please post if you ever find out what the heck it is. Maybe they could tell you if this stuff can be found on other lakes in the area.

[hovermn]

You know, There are signs on the Mississippi River in spots that warn about anchering because of sunken cable and gas lines. You'd think they'd do something like that on lakes. At the very least, have a map of the lake at the access showing where the cables/pipes are so that you can avoid anchering in those areas.

Just a thought.

[ConnorMN]

Perhaps someone has an Aqua-Vu to locate that thing and follow it in both directions... just a thought

[nofishfisherman]

Reminds me of an episode of the show "Lost".

My theory is that it is a power cable that leads to an under water hatch where 2 people are sitting typing in a code every 90 minutes that keeps the whole world from blowing up. But thats just one thought.

It could also have been a docking cable for alien space craft. They might use it to dock there ships underwater so that we can't see them. That would explain why it was so hard to pull up, you were pulling on an alien space craft. ooooo creppy.

Or one other thought is that maybe it was an ambilical cord for a giant robot baby that is being raised at the bottom of the lake.

Any one of these ideas is as good as any other.

Or it could just be a phone line, or telecommunication line of some sort. But thats not nearly as exciting.

[lars0926]

I'm so sorry about that. I lost that leader in the lake last year. My friend keeps telling me I use too heavy a leader, but you should see some of the fish I catch.

[dieguy]

**(LMAO)** Lars and nofish you guys should be writers or something with creative minds like yours. I have a Marcum camera and the water here is pretty clear, next time i am out there I will see if I can find it again. Hopefully I wont get the camera hooked on it like the anchor, If I do I am goin in after it. Thanks for all the responses not many answers but plenty of laughs....

[Fishin4Life]

Quote:

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Perhaps someone has an Aqua-Vu to locate that thing and follow it in both directions... just a thought

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I can just picture a guy staring into his camera following this "unknown alien cable" with his foot guided trolling motor and then SMACK hits a guys dock. LOL (actually i can see myself doing this, thats what makes me laugh so much)

[Volare]

Sounds like a job for one of those new cordless Saws-All that you see at the home improvement stores...

Kidding!!!

[somedays]

maybe it is aluminum. thats going for 70 cents a pound now. noone can own what is under the water. bring the saw i'll bring the beer. that stuff got to way alot

[reelguy]

Hey Fishin4Life, that isn't so unrealistic... I didn't run into a dock, but when i was in Canada a couple weeks ago I dropped my vexilar in 7fow and used my camera to locate it. I'm sure we looked like a bunch of morons with me and my face in the camera and telling my buddy "that way, no that way, whoa stop, left, etc!" But I got the vex back!! After about 30 minutes and two of us taking a dip of course. I WAS too cheep to buy a mount for the boat and just used my winter set up. Needless to say a mount is top of my shopping list

[jjohnson5150]

It could be that this is one of those fancy ski courses that inflates from shore. They exist on the SW side of Lotus & W side of Bryant around my neck of the woods. I've always wondered if they are legal. I'd make sure the DNR knows about it.

[united jigsticker]

Seen it on White Bear too....Not sure what it is or why.

[Fishin4Life]

Reelguy, at least you got it back! I would have done the same thing. Those vex's aren't cheap!!!!!

[ConnorMN]

Quote:

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maybe it is aluminum. thats going for 70 cents a pound now. noone can own what is under the water. bring the saw i'll bring the beer. that stuff got to way alot

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I'd might even pay to see that!

[dieguy]

Well I sent my story off to the DNR via e-mail. I will keep you informed if I get a response.

[dieguy]

Here is my first response from the DNR:

Bill,

I have forwarded your question to Travis Germundson of this office. He's my counterpart in the Washington Co. area and may have an answer, or at least know who to ask.

Now I'm curious about the cable though.

Tom Hovey

Area Hydrologist

MN DNR Waters

[cesmith]

So did anybody figure out what the cable is for and why it is there?

[iced over]

I pulled a cable up with the anchor on Spring Lake earlier this summer. It looked like the cable they use for guard rails on the road. It was tight so I got it off as quick as possible hoping that it wasn't a power cable?!

[mtreno]

was that from the ski jump on spring?

[dieguy]

Well I again asked the DNR and this is the response I recieved:

Sorry. No discoveries found. I checked with the City, Xcel Energy, DNR

Waters and DNR Fisheries and nobody has any idea of what you may have

experienced.

Sincerely,

Kathy Smith

MN DNR, Division of Lands and Minerals

1200 Warner Road

St. Paul, MN 55106

(651) 772-7591

It looks like we may never know. Just a warning, Watch your anchors on this lake. I have already lost one and I would hate to see anybody else lose theres,

Dieguy

[nofishfisherman]

Quote:

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Reminds me of an episode of the show "Lost".

My theory is that it is a power cable that leads to an under water hatch where 2 people are sitting typing in a code every 90 minutes that keeps the whole world from blowing up.

But thats just one thought.

It could also have been a docking cable for alien space craft. They might use it to dock there ships underwater so that we can't see them. That would explain why it was so hard to pull up, you were pulling on an alien space craft. ooooo creppy.

Or one other thought is that maybe it was an ambilical cord for a giant robot baby that is being raised at the bottom of the lake.

Any one of these ideas is as good as any other.

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So any of my 3 previous ideas are looking more and more likely then. The plot thickens...

[cesmith]

I hate to admit it on the fishing forum but I have done my share of water ski jumping and skiing the ski course. We never used that thick of cable to anchor our courses or jump. Actually the course is all held together with a web of light weight nylon line so that it breaks apart when hit by a boat.

I am now older and wiser and traded the ski boat in for a fishing boat. Still spend the same amount of time on the water just in a different way.

The mystery continues, seems odd that city, state, etc has no clue.

[Ray Esboldt]

dieguy,

I found a white jug sunk about 6 feet under the water in about, I want to say, 18 feet of water on Jane a few years ago. And, I found it again about two years later. It wasn't straight out from the access, but darn near if I remember right. You might have had to work to the west of the access a bit. I wonder if we have observed something that is part of the same structure.

I find it a bit disturbing that our DNR doesn't know about this underwater item. Any scuba divers amongst our ranks?

[DEADhead]

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I find it a bit disturbing that our DNR doesn't know about this underwater item

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I don't. There is so much stuff that people dump into lakes, including trees for "structure", there is no possible way that they DNR could know every little thing that is put in a lake, especially when done illegally. You would be amazed at some of the stuff people try to get away with on lakes. The DNR Division of Waters have some amazing stories on some of the waters violations that they have encountered. Some of the incidents are disturbing because the offenders were so brazen in committing the offense, while knowing that they were violating laws.