Mystery fish…ideas please!

On Friday (6/3) while working a shoreline I hooked into something very large…

…I was swimming a 3″ grub on a 1/8oz jig, felt a little tap, set the hooks and it was like I snagged a log… for the next 7 minutes my drag went “click-click-click…” as this fish moved very slowly along the bottom. It hit in 5 feet of water and then moved away from the shore into the 15′ channel (just above the Stillwater bridge). The fish seemed very content just moving slowly along the bottom under the boat. With 6lb test and a medium spinning rod I could not coax this fish off the bottom or toward shallow water, the fish did what it wanted! In 7 minutes the fish moved at most 300 feet, mostly away from shore and up-stream. The one sided fight ended as quickly as it started with my jig coming loose, no teeth marks, no bent hook. Gotta love the river…any ideas?

Full report for the day (6/3), Afton to Stillwater, my partner and I boated 11 species (all on artificials), best fish boated was a 40″ Musky (w/lamprey), also lost a 10″ sheepie to a very nice muskie at boatside…what a day!

Could have been a large catfish or sturgeon. That’s my best guess.
Sounds like you had a blast out there!

I love it when a fish has it’s way with a person!

Many times you will note slime on your line after you’ve hooked into a cat…although not always.

I’m going to guess it was a large flat or my second guess would be the sturgeon also.

Don’t cha just hate that when you can’t see them!

Back in the 70s I was stationed in California and a guy got a hold of a 498 LB sturgeon, yeah they do run big out there in the Feather and American River, his fish sat on the bottom so he held the line tight and twanged it like a guitar and then the fish would move again. Three miles from where he hooked the fish they got it up to the surface where they got another boat along side and tied a rope around it. They actually had pictures in the paper of them hoisting this fish out of the water with a wrecker. This is no fish story.

I think a sturgeon would have breached. My money is on a fat happy catfish. It probably weighed 10 pounds or more. Those critters are THE STRONGEST fish that swims.

I agree…the few Sturgeon I have hooked up with have all breached like whales out of the water. Sounds like a big cat!

Carp….My dad snagged a huge carp once and it faught for like a half hour…

Oh!! You hooked it to. EyeJacker had it once to. He posted about it back in 12/09/02. Here is what I told him back then:

What you had was an almost, not quite, neutrally bouyant pontoon off an old pontoon boat. It has a couple of old 1/2″ ropes hanging off of it and other assorted snags. It has been drifting along down there with about 25 years worth of fishing hardware tangled all over it. Probably has about $5,000 worth of of Rapalas hanging on it. Whoever is lucky enough to finally catch it will be able to retire and open a mail order Fishing Lure Outlet company. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

The legend continues – It was your turn this year.

The only other fish I can think of, considering it looked like a log and was in shallow water, could be a Gar. I have seem a few of them in shallow water above Stillwater. They like to float in the mucky shallow water in the sun.

Welcome to the board Splashin!

When I have hooked them, sturgeon will run, cats will bulldog and shake their head. Cats make your rod bounce up and down from the head shaking.

Having caught a few gar in the st. croix I would be willing to bet that was what u had. No spectacular fight they just kind of come to the boat like a log. I’ve never caught any huge ones but if u were to hook into one that was realy big I think the fight u described seems consistent with what a gar would do. Also, possibly a paddle fish. I have never caught one so don’t know about how they fight but they are out there and can get very big! My last guess would be possibly a big snapping turtle have wittnessed them being caught before and if they are big enough they are not coming to the surface unless they want to and also move pretty lazy through the water. big Catfish sturgeon musky pike carp all would have been tearing drag off your reel and heading for cover in a hurry.

Lindy
In-Depthangling Field Staff
Lindys St. Croix River Guide Service
http://www.fishthestcroix.com
715-220-2777