probably loch ness monster. seems like pretty good evidence hahaA day or two ago I was trolling my Bandit 300 crank bait with 180 ft of line out. According to the Precision Trolling Depth Chart I should have been down around 26 ft deep with the crank bait. I attach a small 1/16" lead head jig behind the crank bait with a snap swivel attached to the back hook and then tied to the jig with a palmar knot.
Again I was in 65 ft of water. Something got ahold of my bait and made my 6 ft Ugly Stick bend over double. I was using 10 lb test mono stren line at the time.
I fought this thing for about ten minutes before I finally grabbed the line and pulled it hard enough to break the jig off. The line that I used to attach the jig to the crank bait was only 6lb test stren.
I was marking fish gallor on my Humminbird 898c SI which was setup for split screen of map view and 2D regular sonar view. I was using the higher frequency 2 D sonar and not the 83 KHz frequency so my sonar cone was 20 deg. I had plenty of Orange Fish signals all at about 26 ft and right in the thermocline. I can see the Thermocline easily with the sensitivity set up to 10 on a zero to 20 scale for 2D regular sonar.
I'm wondering If I hooked into a trot line or something. I went near a point of land where a trot line could have been run out into the deeper water. But most trot lines are down near the bottom as the end of the line has a weight on it. So the end out in the water I would think would be down around the bottom.
One of the guys that was fishing nearby suggested I may have hooked a big catfish. I've had bite in this deep water before but they didn't get hooked up like this one did.
One thing I know is that I could not budge this thing with my 10 lb test line and the 6 lb line from the crank bait to the lead head jig broke when I grabbed the line and pulled hard. I was worried that the line might cut my hand as I didn't have anything on to protect my hands from being cut by the line. But the line broke easily.
I did get my crank bait back which was all I really wanted. Those bandits cost over $5.00 now.
I'm pretty sure it was not a fish though. When I gave it slack the line didn't pull back. Unless the fish was suspended and so big I could not move it though the water with my setup. I'm really stumped as to what I was hooked on! It had to stick up 30 ft or more from the bottom. I think that they took the big crane apart and hauled it away. And I didn't see anything on the sonar that could be sticking up from the bottom. I've marked the spot in my memory and know the spot on my Lakemaster Digital Map of Bluegrass pit in Warrick County. It's in one of the deepest parts of this pit.