First Cat and something stange

[CarpO0101]

Friends,

Here is my first cat from yesterday - I was fishing for Carp with Dough balls and corn , Got this one by surprise ..never caught a cat before and dont know if its channel or flat ..?

But here is the most stange/scary part -

This fish had swallowed the hook quite deep in its mouth and i figure i could not bring it out - so asked some one fishing near by to see if he wanted it ..but no. so I finally thought i will bring it home i only do c&r but this time since i this be dead with hook in mouth i decided to bring it home .. I had some heavy line so i tied it to the swirl directly and leave the fish in water to keep in alive and tied other end to big rock nearby ..

went little away to fish about 20 feet or so and started fishing .. as this fish was splashing quite a lot ..

while i was fishing a there i see seen some kind of big fish around this fish which was tied .. i thought may be carp or something as i seen some really big ones at this place...

few mins later i came by to check this fish and its gone the line from the hook to swirl broke that was 20 lb ...

so i am thinking can fish of this size break a 20 lb line .. no way rite or was it taken away by another big fish .. as i told i could see a movement in water -?? if this is the case the other fish which took away this fish would been a monster ? i cant image a carp - pike .. so what would have happend here im confused ...

Here is the pic - and i got 4 carps and lost 2....

[CarpO0101]

[TruthWalleyes]

Nice channel.

Rocks can easily fray and degrade line allowing this fish to snap your line.

BTW, the most obvious way to tell the difference between a flathead and a channel cat is to look at their tails. Channel cats have a forked tail and flatheads do not.

[DTro]

Not sure where you were fishing, but if there are Flatheads there, then most likely (if it did get eaten) it was a Flathead.   It’s nothing for a 50-60lb fish to eat another cat up to 10lbs.    I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

 

What you consider “scary”, I would consider exciting!   .

 

Oh and I wouldn’t even use 20lb line that’s too light.  In fact I won’t even use 50lb line.   80lb is the smallest I use.

[aanderud]

^^^ What he said ^^^. I'd also guess that the rocks frayed the line and that fish just took off after it was weakened enough.

Nice channel cat, and welcome to HSO!

[CarpO0101]

thanks for your comments .. scary as i never seen the fish of i got became a bait..never used such big bait lol..

I think the other one may be true the line may got off due to rocks..this was coon rapid dont think got monsters there ..

[RJMOEN]

Btw, next time just cut the line , the hook will work itself out or just and fall apart.....then you don't have to keep something you don't want. Ive caughta few decent walleye that were in the process of [PoorWordUsage] out a jig!

[SteveD]

..this was coon rapid dont think got monsters there ..

There are some BIG cats in that stretch of water. The state record channel catfish weighed 38 lbs and was caught in NE Minneapolis which is just downstream from Coon Rapids.

[The Grebe]

Maybe a big snapper grabbed your fish?