# Mentor lagoons report/ mystery fish hook up



## Tio (Sep 22, 2017)

My friend and I had a good time fishing the lagoons by boat today. Couple shore anglers reported catching some steelhead at the boat ramp area. We both landed a handful of solid bass, including a new PB for myself (I was running a bass assassin shad drop shot all day on a 7ft medium power rod with 10lb braid main line to an 8lb mono leader). Steelhead were jumping all over, baitfish were popping. Saw some big swirls at the surface. Anyway, at the end of the day as we were wrapping up, I dropped my bait down and suddenly got a BIG pull. we were in around 7ft of water. This thing towed the boat around. I felt a couple head pumps and then it was like an unstoppable submarine. Some will say it was a big catfish (I've had big flatheads on the line before) and I know flatheads have been showing up in the Hoga and other places in recent times but to me it didn't feel like a catfish. I tried as hard as possible to get this things head up to gain something on it but it would just pump hard and keep taking drag slowly, eventually breaking off. Some guy said probably a big walleye LOL. for real though, could it have been a sturgeon? I know they are rare but stranger things have happened no? I will say again, it's fighting characteristics didn't really seem catfish like IMHO. It was like a submarine was attached to my hook, it just kept going until it took me into some junk that broke me off. I've been wracking my brains for the last few hours. Giant flathead? Sturgeon? I've landed plenty of fish around here from 25lb-40lb class, so I know what decently big northeast ohio fish feel like. This would have to be some sort of monstrosity.


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## allwayzfishin (Apr 30, 2008)

Maybe a big bowfin, northern pike, muskie, carp, sheephead? Or maybe a sturgeon...idk, but it sounds like you had a great day nonetheless. We Went out in the crap rain tonight, fished fairport and only had two pull backs on bay rats in 23ft just outside of coast guard beach. Battled that nasty east wind and rain till about 11 and called it. Might try Lagoons now after reading your report...I live like 10 mins away. Be nice to stay sheltered from that wind and hook some Crome and Largies!


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## bountyhunter (Apr 28, 2004)

I,ve had a huge carp act like this, pulled my 18ft boat around like a toy, BUT , I won, got the fish to the side of the boat ,after alot of tugging back and forth. fish had my [email protected] in its mouth. guessing in the twenty # range, finally after snipping the hooks , it swam away. milton lake .


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

White Snapper!


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## Tio (Sep 22, 2017)

allwayzfishin said:


> Maybe a big bowfin, northern pike, muskie, carp, sheephead? Or maybe a sturgeon...idk, but it sounds like you had a great day nonetheless. We Went out in the crap rain tonight, fished fairport and only had two pull backs on bay rats in 23ft just outside of coast guard beach. Battled that nasty east wind and rain till about 11 and called it. Might try Lagoons now after reading your report...I live like 10 mins away. Be nice to stay sheltered from that wind and hook some Crome and Largies!





Snakecharmer said:


> White Snapper!


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## matticito (Jul 17, 2012)

Sheepshead? I'd say big cat, like or muskie. Crazy you couldn't get him up at all in 7ft.


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## Raider16 (Oct 19, 2016)

Black crappie


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## SemperFi (Mar 10, 2014)

Turtle!!!!!


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## snag (Dec 27, 2005)

Underwater log. They fight good.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Tio (Sep 22, 2017)

I'm not pushing the issue to make into a sturgeon(somewhat fantasizing) but I've caught massive carp on light action rods out of the river, big drum, big turtles etc. It was just a massive slow moving weight that I couldn't do anything with. Very odd to me.


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

Tio said:


> I'm not pushing the issue to make into a sturgeon(somewhat fantasizing) but I've caught massive carp on light action rods out of the river, big drum, big turtles etc. It was just a massive slow moving weight that I couldn't do anything with. Very odd to me.


Could have been a sturgeon or if a big fish was foul hooked they can be hard to control.


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## twistedcatfish1971 (Jul 21, 2013)

...not sure it was a sturgeon...shoot anything is possible as my buddy a few years ago caught a 17 pound muskie off beef liver fishing the dam @ the branch lol.

My guess...is a stud catfish!

Love a good fish tale mystery!

Tight...er lines brother!

Don.


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

Big cat. We used to fish the cooling water oulet at Eastlake Power plt(not that far from you!)We caught a lot of cats there, had many Giant ones on that we could not turn even w/ 40# line on light surf rods. They would go up into the outflow, wrap us around a concrete breaker, then snap the line! Had exactly the same thing happen "many" times below the Bluestone Dam/New River, Hinton WVa many years ago!


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## just perchy (Jan 16, 2005)

Tio said:


> I'm not pushing the issue to make into a sturgeon(somewhat fantasizing) but I've caught massive carp on light action rods out of the river, big drum, big turtles etc. It was just a massive slow moving weight that I couldn't do anything with. Very odd to me.


I used to fish the cuyahoga in independence pretty often a few years back for smallies and channels. Caught some real big channels out of a couple holes. In that time I had a couple occasions that I hooked into something I just couldn’t turn. Caught plenty of snappers and soft shells that I fought until I got their head up, and knew what they were. I used pretty heavy tackle for the cats. Around that time a story ran in the paper of a guy catching a 60 lb. sturgeon in that area. Never will know because you didn’t see it, but they are making a comeback.


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## baitguy (Dec 17, 2013)

had that happen to me many many moons ago at the end of the Huron Pier ... was just perching and get a hit, I set the hook and it just started swimming out ... I tried everything but couldn't even slow it down ... nothing spectacular, just strong, steady swimming away like the hook was a only a minor inconvenience ... which evidently it was, he it got to the end of the spool, fought for a couple seconds, then no more tight line  I've certainly had my share of break-offs over the years, but never anything remotely like this ... had probly 10-12# line on at least on a medium action rod ... I was thinking giant cat or carp but I guess it could have been a Sturgeon ...


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## Masterbaiter66 (Sep 3, 2016)

Mr. Limpit?


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## berkshirepresident (Jul 24, 2013)

I sense a.....Karashian girl.


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## 1basshunter (Mar 27, 2011)

Whatever it was it most definitely was a big And probably at least a state record may be even a world record


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## flyphisherman (Jul 7, 2009)

Now you know where it lives. Go And Get It!!!!


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## All Eyes (Jul 28, 2004)

A friend of mine hooked into something heavy in Erie out of Cleveland once. It wasn't fighting, just peeling drag in spurts and heading towards bottom. After maybe 5 minutes or so, he handed me his rod to get my opinion. I originally thought giant turtle, but knew it wasn't a fish. 
What it turned out to be was a snagged broken off anchor line. The waves and drift made it seem alive as it's hard to tell you are moving at times on the water. Every time you would lift the anchor off the bottom it would peel drag and seem to be making a run. Not saying that yours was anything like this, but sometimes it can be misleading when a snag like an anchor rope is moving around.


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## Masterbaiter66 (Sep 3, 2016)

Masterbaiter66 said:


> Now you know where it lives. Go And Get It!!!!


you're going to need a bigger boat


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## twistedcatfish1971 (Jul 21, 2013)

...about 15 years ago on fathers day me dad and my brothers were out on mosquito...north side just shy of the bouy line when one of my brother's hooked into something stupid big! I was looking at his rod tip and the line going into the water and it was kinda doing figure 8's...FLATHEAD is my guess...as after a few short minutes and the boat almost pulled into illegal territory the line snapped!

Good times right people. 

Don.


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## Tio (Sep 22, 2017)

twistedcatfish1971 said:


> ...about 15 years ago on fathers day me dad and my brothers were out on mosquito...north side just shy of the bouy line when one of my brother's hooked into something stupid big! I was looking at his rod tip and the line going into the water and it was kinda doing figure 8's...FLATHEAD is my guess...as after a few short minutes and the boat almost pulled into illegal territory the line snapped!
> 
> Good times right people.
> 
> Don.


Years ago on mosquito I hooked up several giant flatheads. Never was able to land them. I was ill prepared equipment wise. Pretty sure I saw that a little girl had landed a giant on a some sort of barbie rod SMH. Fishing truly is an amazing hobby. It's the curiosity of whats going to happen next, that keeps me coming back for more.


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## ezbite (May 25, 2006)

I hooked a pallet structure at mosquito last year by the dam that was taking drag and had people slowing down to watch that were driving over the dam, fought that damn thing for about 20 minutes until I got it high enough to see all the other snagged lines and I cut my vibe out. I was really disappointed because I knew it was a 60# flathead..


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## Masterbaiter66 (Sep 3, 2016)

Tio said:


> Years ago on mosquito I hooked up several giant flatheads. Never was able to land them. I was ill prepared equipment wise. Pretty sure I saw that a little girl had landed a giant on a some sort of barbie rod SMH. Fishing truly is an amazing hobby. It's the curiosity of whats going to happen next, that keeps me coming back for more.


That is the reason i love Erie , because you never know what you might hook into


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