Craziest Night of Fishing Ever

[TeamEighmey]

So the first few days of the Trip have been similar beautiful weather , out on boats ...been finidng the crappies ..averaging 50 or so a day , catchn all sorts of fish even when we dont get into the crappies theres plenty of pike , bass, sunnys exc. to have a fun filled day ...so last night we decided we were goin to find a spot to fish for bullhead since some rain had pushed trhu area....we unexpectadly stopped at a radom spot we had seen in our travels just becasue it was out of the wind a little bit, now we ended up catchin 5 nice walleys ranging from 19 inch - 24 inchs...which was awesome , but the real excitment came when we started hooking into the biggest fish we ve ever felt . Now im 30 yrs old and I been fishing majority of my life and never have I hooked into anythiof this stature, I hooked up 3 times and my cousin hooked up once I dont know what these fish were all I know is it hit hard and was big...the first one I hooked into I fought for about 30 minutes, I had a 6 ft pole with 8lb test line on at first not expecting anything crazy , this fish ran and ran , even times when it stopped and wasnt running it was too heavy for my tackle I physicaly could not budge these fish they would go on runs and run out riduculoous amounts of line then sometimes just stop and at no time could we gain line on them unless they were swimming toward us, the first one ran aroun for a while then went left then spun around headed out right then all the sudden faought like i just hooked into it and broke off I didnt mention that while I was fighting this beat my cousin hooked in to one of his own, his broke off aftr about 10-15min I again hooked up and again it was monsterous...needless to say we didnt land any or even get to get a look aftr hooking up 4 times.....any ideas ? we seen about a 3 ft gar swimming ou there but from what I been told gar dont fight that crazy ...coulda been catfish maybe, or maybe muskie, I dont know but I sure want too, were on a mission now, a mission to identify the beasts that we encountered last night, I will keep u posted , lemme know what you giuys think maybe it could be and hopwfuly evententlywe can land one and see

[Phil]

Catfish, Muskie OR I hope to see - Sturgeon.

[Glenp]

I would guess you hooked into channel cats. Several years ago I caught two in two days, 1 was 32 inches, the other 36 inches. I didn't have a scale along so I can't tell you weight. The largest one took 20 minutes to land.

[dave]

I definitely think you hooked into some sturgeon. Last May my wife & I were fishing on shore at the bridge and I hooked into two fish that I had no control over. The first fish went straight upstream at a steady pace and all I could do was watch my line go out. The second fish stayed hooked for about 45 minutes. My rod kept bending up and down every time its tail moved. Later that night I asked some locals and they told me it was a sturgeon and that I had no chance of landing it unless I was in a boat with very heavy line and tackle. It was a thrill but I never got to see fish either. I would guess that's what you hooked into. Be up in a week to try again. Enjoy the rest of your trip.

[doug1940]

good bit it was a channel cat. Did you have steel leaders? We have caught fish but not alot of quantity. We have found crappies in shallow, nice job on the eyes. were you not fishing at night? TY Doug

[Phil]

I'm betting on sturgeon. Hope you get to see one. I've caught and landed 15Lb. cats on UL gear. A 6 or 7 foot sturgeon that goes 40 to 60 lbs. is a different story.
I think I posted earlier on a study that is being done this summer, by a biologist, on sturgeon in Black Lake. I know of a few that were netted this spring in an initial test.

[racing11111]

My guess would be channel cats i have had several do the same thing.also it could have been bowfin. boy do they pull and fight and cut your line! my brother cought one two years ago that was 29inches and weighed close to 6lbs the fight was on and lasted 45 min and stripped line out several times and was uncontrolable. sturgeon are very rarely caught on bl and mostly unheard of . we have been going to bl for over 15 years now and never caught one in our camps. we did however catch one last year on the st lawrence over 4 feet long and was a heck of a fight also. jmo

[wildchild]

I had something on years ago, on my first trip to the lake actually. Don't know what it was but it ate a soft plastic bait off the bottom, it swam dead away peeling drag till my line ran out and broke. I was using 14 lb test and just had to lower my rod and let it break me off. If I would have had the boat that I have now, I would have tried to follow it with the trolling motor. Good luck and I hope you get another chance at finding out what it was. Or it could be the thing that you hunt for a lifetime, either way all is good!

[hawkeye]

In the thirteen years i've been coming to Black Lake i have seen two sturgeon,both over 50 inches. Nobody said anything about Carp. They are in the lake and can get pretty big. They will take all your line. Just another thought.

[fisherman2582]

Sounds like sturgeon too me. That is the only fish i know that pulls like that. Catfish pull hard but give up after awhile sounds like a lake sturgeon to me. Very well could have been big carp my question to the guys who posted is did it roll around or just straight pull and hug bottom catfish roll as do carp. this is a cool article. Years ago when i graduated high school we took a trip to black lake i night fished and i got spooled twice took all my line and broke me at the knot at the end thought these where sturgeon. If it had that much fight it had to be a huge sturgeon. they are very large and have been growing for awhile now in the lake im sure Dec will tell u there are plenty of these in lake and are very large these days. Good luck too all safe fishing!!

[TeamEighmey]

Ya we've come to the concluson that thier more then likely sturgeon , weve been asking around and thats looking like the best suspect, Ive caught ppretty much every fish mentioned but never sturgeon and these fish were out of our calibur , I gota salmon pole 10 ft with 14lb line and in my opionion still have no shot at landing one, to address how they fought, I too felt the giant pumping of the tail which made me think that thees a good chance I was foul hooked into one, but it seemed that the fish did what they wanted until they decided show over, I in no way even if the fish went belly do I think I could have dragged one in, the locals down there said they have hooked into em a bunch of times , same spot, catfishing said theyv seen em 6-7 foot , I am fortunate to have been able to feel the sheer power of those fish ...3 times at that and it would be amazing to land one , wich is dam near impossible but hey a guy can dream, we did land a 36 inch gar which was a first , the crappie bight slowed down , the bass are hitting like crazy , we tucked in a bay and threw pike rigs caught 6 pike, nothn of any good size. so were going back out see if them crappie will move back up into shallows , since that cold rain pushed em deeper

[fisherman2582]

We have caught them in St Lawrence 40 inch sturgeon which is little took 30 minutes to land and was like hooking an anchor. This fish fought we released it soon after catching it due to regulations. It was landed on 6lb keep in mind it was a baby ate a shiner on a bucktail jig while walleye fishing. Amazingful powerful fish for its size wouldn't wanna try to land a 6 foot one though that would be tough on any line. Just thought i would share this good luck fishing.

[wheresthegame2day]

Just my thought. We landed a sturgeon on 20lb test last Sunday in the Oswegatchie. We had 20lb test from a Ocean fishing experience so figured we would use it on cats. My experience with sturgeon is they are like dead weight to reel in. My experience has beeen they don't fight at all. I'd like to think it's a hell of a Musky.
Just my thought. But it's was exciting at best. Good Luck

[TeamEighmey]

Ya whatever it was it was massive like I stated whatever I hooked into even if completley belly up pfloatin was still waaayyyy to heavy for me to land, the things would not budge not one bit, and Ive never had fish that pulled drag constanly non stop, and the first one I too felt a giant tail pumping and pumping , awwww it was awesome , and good chance we did foul hook, we were jigging purple and black bucktails under the bridge wen we hooked into them, and now that the trips over FYI them walleye were hittin like crazy only on the purple and black bucktails around 1130 or 12 at night. I myself caught 4 a 20nch , 23 1/2, and 2 24inchrs and they were sobs 4-7 pounds a piece easy , not the smaller one though, on the lake were at the beggining of trip we found em in small bays right up on shore , later in the week they pusjed a little deeper but were starting to come back, by last day we were catching them around rockstructure, sholes or bays with large rcks in them or points, all in all a great week, back to reality lol all I cando is sit an dreamabou the one(or 3) that got away

[wildchild]

Thanks for all the great info, sounds like you had a great time. Can't wait for my trip, only a month to go!