ok this has been eating me away for 2 years. 2 summers ago about august i went up to Minnesota (waseca area Southern part) to go fishing and hang out with my mom. i went to a lake i cant remember what it was called ill find out cuz i know that will help.
but we were fishing with slip bobbers and worms getting ready to leave the lake and all of sudden i had a fish i reeled him in and got him all the way to the boat and my moms husband grabbed him wrogn and he broke the line.
no one in the boat knew what kind of fish it was and they all are pretty avid fisherman. 2 this day it eats me alive wondering what the hell it was.
this is what i could tell you. it was around 4-7 pounds had the colors of a northern but didnt have teeth it was sorta long like a northern but the fins looked different. i went to cabelas that day to look at all the fish and to ask the workers there. none of them knew what it was.
ive looked up soooo many fish and i think it may have been a lake trout . BUT in southern minn? it was prolly only in 6 week of water too in the middle of august. also it sorta resembles a dog fish.
please please any input would help. you as a fisherman have to know my pain. ill get the name of the lake as soon as i can.
ya i actaully posted a link to that picture and one to a lake trout thats kinda funny haha.
but it did look like that a little. the face did. but it was a while ago. i remember the color looking some what like a walleye which that dog fish has the same color and the face is the same as the dogfish and the lake trout. i wish i could remember its fins but i dont.
are dogfish common in southern minnesota. i was looking at stocking reports and didnt read anything about any stocking or anything in southern minnn.
I'm fairly certain it was not a lake trout. Lake Trout are mainly found in the deep cold lakes of northern MN.
Dog Fish are pretty common in most of the state and are usually found in shallow weedy areas. I'd say you likely caught a dog fish. If it wasn't a dog fish I'm not sure what else it could have been.
The other option I can think of might be a shortnose gar. They are fairly common and I have seen them in lots of lakes as well as the rivers in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The coloration might be a bit closer to what you described. See what you think.
nah. ive caught my share of gars in my life lol. i actaully got a 30 pound long nose gar. which would of been the state record here in nebraska if im not mistaken but i threw him back i didn't want to mess with a stupid gar.
the mouth was similar to the dogfish and a lake trout. and gar have teeth lol.
but i appreciate the help. i guess it may have been a dogfish? are they common there? im texting my mom right now for the name of the lake.
There will be days when the fishing is better than one's most optimistic forecast, others when it is far worse. Either is a gain over just staying home. ~ Roderick Haig-Brown, Fisherman's Spring, 1951
