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The biggest hit I've ever gotten...it's a mystery!


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#1 Brown_recluse

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Posted 22 April 2016 - 09:04 AM

Hey all, 

 

I wanted some opinions on what the biggest hit I've ever gotten was.  It was such a weird situation to me that I'm still not sure it was a fish.  I'll do my best to describe the conditions and what happened. 

 

I was on a large lake off of GB.  I had a Rapala X-Rap Walk tied onto 20lb test braid on a 9" heavy action rod.  It was a cloudy morning, I actually had to get off the water at around 8AM and I got back on at about 9AM.  There were clouds that had past in the far distance but were throwing lighting bolts so, better safe than sorry.  I got a little drizzle but no major rain. 

 

As I worked my way into a nifty little bay I know,. the clouds parted and the sun came out - it was getting hot.  Imagine a big circle, O.  At one o'clock you have a narrow waterway that's funneling water from a higher lake.  There's a good current to it, but it's not a river.  At Three or Four O'clock there is a fairly rocky bank, but no huge boulders, just Canadian Shield/forest and immediately pebbles on the shore.  At 6 O'clock there is a great weeded area that backs into somewhat of a mini-marsh (gets shallow and weedy really quickly).  And lastly at 10/11 O'clock there is another waterway leading out back into a larger lake.  In the middle there is a nice deep area - the weeds drop off incredibly quickly, the shore kind of slowly tapers off and then just falls quickly, and the two currents from the waterway meet in the middle.  Some lucky bugger has a cottage here... I'm jealous.

 

This particular body of water is known for it's trophy warm-blooded predators, but from experience, it's a tough lake to fish ... hours, days, months... but the payoff can be glorious (if this is too much of a give away I'll edit it out.. let me know).  The reason I bring that up is I've still convinced myself this wasn't a fish, but Pike and Muskie are definitely top contenders on this one. 

 

By the time I got back onto the water and to the spot, it was just getting to midday, and it was getting hot.  The clouds parted, the sun was shining and I noted the temperature at about 17-18 degrees, but about 25 maybe more with the sun.  I usually use a texas rig on a fat senko worm worked slow as hell and it produces nice bass hits, so using the X-Rap was a little of an experiment.  

 

I was casting just onto the shore and 'walking the dog', working fast, from the shore to the boat (about 30-40ft).  This is a surface lure, and about 2ft. from the shore I got an enormous hit.  I know it's lore that fishermen's stories are always inflated, but the way this thing took did not remind me of anything I've ever encountered.  The was this enormous splash of water (and the water was calm), didn't see fins or anything, just  a wall of white probably about 2-3ft high.   Imagine throwing a boulder about the size of a basketball into the water from a 20ft cliff.. that's the best I can describe it.  I felt this massive tug, and then nothing.  Of course I tried to set the hook and it felt like I had snagged on something, but the line was actually moving into the deeper water, fairly slowly, so I reeled up a bit to tighten the line and then it moved back into the shallows, and all of a sudden it was off...  no fight at all.  It's like nothing happened either, the bait just popped back up to the surface and that was it... 

 

A few notes on why I don't think this was a pike or a Muskie.  I know Pike tend to sit in the shallows and 'warm up' on sunny days, but this was shady and under a brush.  I've never caught a Muskie before, but I was under the impression they very rarely hit baits on the move and tend to grab them last minute after stalking them a bit (hence the figure 8 ) I've also heard they can be quite aggressive when hooked - this was like a pothead.  Whatever it was may not have even been hooked or realized it had eaten something artificial.  Lastly, there was no fight at all, but I still couldn't reel it in.  It was like a moving snag, but the animal was in control, not me.  The whole ordeal lasted about 20 seconds, maybe less. 

 

Any ideas?  


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#2 tombo

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Posted 22 April 2016 - 09:20 AM

Ive had musky hit on the first crank numerous times.
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#3 DILLIGAF?!

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Posted 22 April 2016 - 03:35 PM

could be anything. Bass, pike, brown trout, or muskie or catfish. I got a hit that I thought was a catfish only to find out it was a pike. it didn't start fighting until it was 5 ft from me.


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#4 Knuguy

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Posted 22 April 2016 - 03:49 PM

a big snapping turtle


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#5 Berg

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Posted 22 April 2016 - 04:06 PM

Could it have been a large turtle? I accidentally caught a turtle once by still fishing a minnow. I couldn't figure out what it was at first or why I couldn't bring it into shallower water - it was because it planted its feet into the sand and wouldn't budge. Not the same as the description of your fight, but could explain why it barely fought, maybe you dragged it up off the bottom for a second.
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#6 lucario

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Posted 22 April 2016 - 05:37 PM

trust me musky and pike are very sneaky and they don't play by the rules but ill say its a snapping turtle lucky it  didn't cut you off, once i was trowing some cut up bluegill over night and in the morning i went to bring it in and i felt something fighting me so i finally brought it up and it was a big snapper as soon as he saw me he snapped my i could never figure out how big it was but it did snap 40lb braid    


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#7 Kleiner

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Posted 22 April 2016 - 06:07 PM

Beaver maybe, those things are strong and scary and when they slap their tail on the water in sounds like a boulder the size of a basketball. When he made the splash he may have accidentally hooked himself for 20 seconds and it wouldn't fight like a fish either, would probably just swim away pulling drag.
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#8 Bowie

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Posted 23 April 2016 - 07:36 PM

I think there would be marks on the bait if it was a large snapper ... interesting.


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#9 getin

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Posted 23 April 2016 - 08:36 PM

Beaver and snapping turtules are possibility but I'd go with pike or muskie. Your story reminds me of a kind of similar in incident. I was fishing with my mom and dad from shore we had a couple of pike landed already. My mom cast this large rapala and all I saw from 10 ft was that the heavy action rod doubled and the reel screamed for a couple of seconds and line broke. The wavy twists at the end of the line were telling me the thing swallowed the rapala and the line got caught betwee the hundreds teeth. My mom always talks about that and I have never myself seen a rod bend like that, even with my 30+ lb Barracuda.

Good storytelling by the way
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#10 getin

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Posted 23 April 2016 - 08:39 PM

Only if there was a human injury had occured it would have made Jegermy Wade to come up here and ID it for you ;)
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#11 fishfreek

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Posted 23 April 2016 - 08:44 PM

Sounds to me like maybe it could have been....the loch ness monster


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#12 Brown_recluse

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Posted 23 April 2016 - 09:25 PM

a big snapping turtle

I've definitely thought about that, but I can't explain the splash.  

 

 

Beaver maybe, those things are strong and scary and when they slap their tail on the water in sounds like a boulder the size of a basketball. When he made the splash he may have accidentally hooked himself for 20 seconds and it wouldn't fight like a fish either, would probably just swim away pulling drag.

Interesting, and quite possible, but I figure I would have seen the tail flip or even the beaver swimming around in that depth of water  - this is about 2ft from the shore and not very deep!

 

 

I think there would be marks on the bait if it was a large snapper ... interesting.

I'm sure I inspected the bait after, but I don't remember anything out of place.  I wish I remembered, and unfortunately lost that thing last summer. 

 

 

Beaver and snapping turtules are possibility but I'd go with pike or muskie. Your story reminds me of a kind of similar in incident. I was fishing with my mom and dad from shore we had a couple of pike landed already. My mom cast this large rapala and all I saw from 10 ft was that the heavy action rod doubled and the reel screamed for a couple of seconds and line broke. The wavy twists at the end of the line were telling me the thing swallowed the rapala and the line got caught betwee the hundreds teeth. My mom always talks about that and I have never myself seen a rod bend like that, even with my 30+ lb Barracuda.

Good storytelling by the way

 

As far as the fish that could have done this in that ecosystem, it's most probable, I know.  I've seen giant topwater hits from smaller largemouth bass that would be dwarfed by a larger pike.  There was just something about this that was mysterious to me - Maybe I want there to be mystery because it got away, but my friend was with me and he looked at me when the bait came back up and calmly said: "What the love was that?".  He didn't feel the line and he thought it was something else too.. 

 

 

Only if there was a human injury had occured it would have made Jegermy Wade to come up here and ID it for you ;)

I can see the episode now: "The Georgian Bay Gut Buster".  

 

 

Sounds to me like maybe it could have been....the loch ness monster

I honestly was really realllllly hoping that somebody here would pipe in with something like: " Oh yeah, that's Ol' Mackenzie.  Nobody knows what Ol' Mackenzie is, or where he came from, but he's there.."

 

02-20.png


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#13 Sensfan

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Posted 23 April 2016 - 10:15 PM

Sound like a beaver to me. 


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#14 prime89

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Posted 24 April 2016 - 02:59 PM

Had somethng similar happen to me at Tommy Thompson, was casting a Rapala off shore, ended up snagging a MASSIVE carp, I thought I had a big pike or something, until I managed to reel it close to the shore and saw the monster. It freed it self.
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#15 Brown_recluse

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Posted 24 April 2016 - 10:19 PM

Had somethng similar happen to me at Tommy Thompson, was casting a Rapala off shore, ended up snagging a MASSIVE carp, I thought I had a big pike or something, until I managed to reel it close to the shore and saw the monster. It freed it self.

Wow.. Carp never even crossed my mind because they are not known to be in this area.  A few summers ago I was using this exact same lure shore Fishing in August just by a harbor in the GTA and I was astounded to see about 3-4 carp come from about 30-40 feet out to the shore, just following the bait.  None of them hit it, but one of those that came in was the biggest carp I had ever seen (I would guess 30 lbs + but I have no idea because he was in the water..HUGE none the less).  I don't generally carp fish but I saw a guy a few hundred feet down and gave him the spot to try!

 

I wonder if a carp made it into this body of water through connected waterways... 


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#16 Alfiegee

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Posted 25 April 2016 - 01:09 AM

You said a large lake off GB. Of course there could be Carp.
I would rule out Turtles, I have hooked and landed at least 9 Snapping Turtles over the years and not once has there been any sort of splash or anyway they could have made one.
No mystery, many fish will swim with a bait before taking it.
Your choice Musky, Pike, Bass, Bowfin, Cat or Gar.
I also doubt a Beaver if you didnt see it before the hit, but I suppose possible at very, very long odds.

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#17 gbrowan

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Posted 27 April 2016 - 07:55 PM

Hey nice story have not fished small lakes in a while I'm mainly on lake Ontario fishing for salmon

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