what was it?????????????

[Ram Jack Scott]

today i was fishing the bank. i ended up at a fallen tree i fish often. while i was there i noticed something in the water about three ft. off the shore line. it was in about four to five ft. of water. as i watched it it got bigger and bigger as it was floating up. i thought it was a log i snagged a bit. ??????????? anyway, it turned out to be a fish of some sort. two-three ft. long. it came to the surface and started to swim along the shore line a couple of ft. out. this guy was no normal looking fish. it had barnicle looking growths close to one ft. long hanging off it. it swam so slow i was able to walk the shore line beside it. crazy thing is, it was not scared that i was there. needless to say, this big guy excited me as i had no luck all day. i walked the shore for close to three hundred ft. trying to snag him
. one time i hit him with the hook and he just went out a little deeper and kept following the shore line. i ended up loosing interest after i could not snag him. i know i know. picking on the poor fish. i ended up going back to the tree and fished it until dark. just before dark here comes this big guy. he swam right in front of me, i try to snag him one more time with no luck. he must live in the branches of this fallen tree. i'm thinking hes sick or blind. as clear as the water is, you would think he would see me and take off. i was really thrown by the barnicle looking growths hanging from himemoScratch .i grew up on the water and have never encountered anything of the such. any of you guys have any clue what this big guy could have been????? thanks

 

[Liveliner]

and then I woke up and said, "What a nightmare"........... That is a very strange sighting. I could imagine a Drum or Carp of some sort with lamprey eels sucking the life out of it.. But in the cold water and that close to the bank and the way you discribed it I would think that you were getting a rare sighting of a Sturgeon.

Where were you when you saw this creature?

 

[TennesseeTalker]

Boy .. I wish you had a picture. It would make id'ing the fish a bit simplier. It could be anything!

TT

 

[Ram Jack Scott]

i live in hidden harbor so i fish that boat dock pretty much every day and thats where i spotted the big guy. i know for sure it was no drum. as for a carp...... maybe. only thing is i've caught a few carp in my time and this fella looked a bit different.thanks!!!!!!!

 

[TennesseeTalker]

Hey Jack can you do a web search and see if you can find a fish that resembles the looks of the one you saw???

TT

 

[TennesseeTalker]

Here's a Sturgeon ..

Did it look like that?

TT

 

[TennesseeTalker]

This is like having your own "Bigfoot" fish!! I'm very curious as to what it was!

TT

 

[whenwegoin]

I say it was a submarine.

 

[stump jumper]

Do we have our very own "Chick Ness" monster? emoLaugh

 

[flip1up]

emoLaugh

 

[Ram Jack Scott]

that's it tennessee talker. it looked just like the picture of the sturgeon. all except the barnicles. short bill mouth the whole nine. i read that back in the 30's and 40's they were very abundent. they are suppose to be a school fish and when they would swim they would leave a wake like a boat. i read this about the sturgeon on the ohio river. this was before all the dams were put in. the depth was not much and the sturgeon get something like 6ft. long and there you have your wake. sturgeon are very sensitive to pollution and have been gone from the ohio river for some time. i guess chickamauga lake is pretty clean.

 

[Fishin Fool]

Lots of interesting fish in our lakes and rivers. Check out this link for some pics:

http://www.tnfish.org/PhotoGalleryFish_TWRA/FishPhotoGallery_TWRA/TWRAFishPhotoGallery.htm

 

[TennesseeTalker]

I can't take credit for calling that one Jack ... LL suggested it. I just found a picture. I can't believe that you saw one in Chick!!! I read something a long time ago about them .. wish I could remember where I found it. emoScratch I'd love to see one while I'm fishing. I wouldn't try to snag it either .. I'd just watch a rare specimen slide on by. It would be pretty cool.

Hopefully if you see it again .. you'll have a camera handy!!!

TT

 

[TennesseeTalker]

Hey FF .. some of those fish are pretty strange looking indeed ... and some just down right scary. Think I'll start carrying a pocket knife ... I get something on the line that looks gruesome, I'm cutting it!

TT

 

[Ram Jack Scott]

yeh guess i should not have tried to snag it either. emoPoke i just wanted to get a photo of it. i can tell you one thing he was not interested in my ratteling- jig -a -ma -bob. anybody know what they eat???????????? if i get another chance i will get a pic of him and post him. i fish that spot pretty much every night. wish some of you fellers would take me out with you so i can get off the shore.

 

[jason]

I'm pretty sure that sturgeon are bottom feeders. Shiners or chicken livers may get his attention.

 

[Guest]

I watched a program a while back, and they were using half cut suckers for bait. Cut it midway down the body, and use either the head or the tail.

It's really neat to hear that you all could have some in the Chick. Supposedly, there are some in Weiss. They have a posting out at Brushy Branch, saying that if you catch one, it's to be put back immediately. I haven't see any sturgeon in Weiss, but I have seen some HUGE gar.

 

[Liveliner]

I thought that was what you saw by the way you first presented it.

Sturgeons feed off the bottom. Primarily on gravel beds and bars. They have a mouth under their snout that extends down to the lake bottom and suck up particals from the bottom. They can detect food from gravel and consume the food and blow out the debris. Strange but very customized critter.

I hooked one many years ago down around the old Blue bridge in Hale Town, I caught it on a wad of redworms that were lying in the bottom on an underwater point. I got it to the bank one time and had it on it's side whereas I got a great look at it. The fish got a look at me too. I guess I was uglier than him because when he saw me he took off like a rocket. There was no stopping that fish for a second look. He was about 4.5' long. I will never forget that fish.

 

[Louie B]

sounds like something out off of the X-files.......

LB

 

[SNUFFY]

caviar !