What the hell was it?

I fished westport yesterday. Hooked something on a meat line that just wouldnt come up and wouldnt stay still. I hooked it in 115ft of water and had 75ft of line out. It hit a hoochie going pretty fast. First it just stayed down, in the wind i thought i had an old crab line or something. Then it went on a big loop staying down the whole time. After about ten minutes of chasing and watching line go out. it started coming up slowly not alot of head shake though. I got to ten feet of wire out and it must haveseen the boat because it took out 85 ft of wire in a couple seconds and then broke the #60 mono below the the weight. Felt far to heavy to be a king, didnt fight like a blue shark maybe a big halibut? If it had spots on its back it was a record book fish.

Any other ideas?

North Korean submarine

I had an experience like this up near Sucia Island a couple years ago. I had about 200 ft of downrigger out with a flasher and hoochie in about 400 ft of water. The take down was so violent I was sure I had hooked something on the bottom. Absolutely spooled everything. I had a pretty good sonar at the time and it showed nothing by the time I could get my wits about me. Went back to take another pass just to see if I missed an underwater obstruction, but none was found. I figured a seal or ????

I had a similar experience once near Lyle Point Anderson Island in the South Sound. I followed what ever it was around the bay for about 40 minutes before some dumb #%*$ in another boat crossed my line and broke me off. I've since guessed that it must have been a six gilled shark. I have no idea what you got.

Giant squid, maybe?

I once saw this salmon fishing show where they had a camera on the downrigger to see how the salmon were attacking the bait/lure and they caught a brief glimpse of a young giant squid taking a swipe. Quite an amazing video.

--Bank Angler

It could have been a giant skate. I had one do about the same thing last year out of Westport. Unlike a halibut, their mouth is on the bottom side of their body so even if you could get them to roll over, it’s still like bringing up a barn door because they come up flat. We estimated the one I had to be well over 80 pounds. They don’t shake their head because they don’t really have one but the surface area of their wings is huge so just a little bit of wing flutter creates a whole lot of power and movement. I thought I had kelp with rocks in it, until it took off then I thought it was a halibut. I didn’t think I would ever get it to turn. I was mooching with a medium action graphite salmon rod with 50# Power Pro and 30# leader; I broke the rod off right above the first guide. I was really pi$$ed when I realized I broke a good pole for a junk fish. We got it up to the boat and looked at it for awhile and took some pictures then I retrieved the other half of my rod and then cut the line and it kind meandered off.

I'm thinking big shark. With all that warm water it could be almost any kind of pelagic shark.

A couple of years ago we were fishing Swiftsure and one of the guys hooks(fishing darts) something small on the bottom and as he was reeling it up he assumed he had lost it because it had gotten lighter on the way up. No bumps or tugs just lighter. When he got it to the surface we were shocked to find the back half of a rat fish still twitching!!! Something bit it in half with teeth sharp enough that he never felt it.

With the warm ocean temperatures, there could be alot of things out there that we don't normally see - King mackeral, wahoo, cobia, numerous species of shark, etc. Could have been almost anything.

Here's what it probably wasn't:

Seals - they breath air so it would have surfaced immediately if stressed.

Tuna - There might be some around but if you hooked even a small bluefin or yellowfin, it would have completely spooled you in about 10 seconds. Or less.

Chinook salmon - Even a huge one would have fought alot like a smaller one. That is, a series of headshakes, several long panicked runs, and the usual rolling and twisting. Your description doesn't seem to fit.

My guess - Shark.

Giant Squid would be my guess as well.
I think a shark would have given you some head shakes.
Neal

I once caught a Coddle Fish trolling off of Sekiu. It fought in a very similiar manner. We didn't have any idea what it was. Very strange creature. It hardly fought at all. When we fist saw it, we thought Halibut! but no. We got it up to the boat and it started to climb out of the water up the line with those weird tentacle like things. It then freaked out and screamed off about 40 yards of line and just sat there. We motored up to it and cut the leader to get the flasher back.

That was weird.

Here is a picture of one ... cuttle fish

Had the same thing happen off PA a few years ago. We where headed in and so was whatever was on the line. So we just motored and followed it for almost and hour. When we finally pressured it it turn and headed out to see and snapped the line. Skate or 6 gill even the possiblitiy of basking shark being snagged I suppose.

A similar situation happened to me about 20 years ago at Westport while out on a charter boat for salmon around this same time of year. We weren’t having much luck for salmon so the skipper took us further out and put us over a small reef for some bottomfish. That’s where the “beast” hit. After working the fish for a bit, it just stopped and held it's ground at mid depth. No screaming runs, head shakes, twists or twirls; just a steady throbbing pull as it took us further and further off shore with the tide. As it became clear it would be a long protracted battle, the skipper proclaimed it to be a large "skate", suggested I break it off immediately and headed back to the bridge. I was in shock and in utter disbelief as he fired up the engines and headed back for the reef with me still attached to the leviathan that would not break off. With the line just peeling off the reel all I could do was hold on with all I had. For a moment I thought for sure I was going to lose my rod right along with the fish, but fortunately I did break off at the leader before I was spooled. At the time I was pretty torqued at the skipper. I later got over that, but today I still wonder what the heck I had on down there that day. I guess there are some things we’ll never know.

Sun fish the size of a volkswagon bug?????. :p
Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

It had to be Nessie. I heard a few weeks back she jumped out of the lake, over the mountains, and into the salt. Kind of Free Willy style. That's my guess.
Seriously, my brother told me the same story about 10 years ago fishing off Possession. He said he fought this thing for about 1.5 hours before deciding just to break it off.

Salmon Shark?

I was out with Lupo when he was still sane a couple of years ago. Ok, last year at the E Bubble. I got a nice take down and the thing spooled 300 yards of line without looking back. It took me down to where I had about 10 yards of line left and I thumbed it because I had no other option....snap and that was it.

Sorry of the hijack.

My guess would be soupfin shark. We had two boatside on friday. Look kinda like a stouter blue, but with a tan or golden brown back. Guessing a 6ft soupfin weighs about 70-80 where a blue go's about 50. They have more staying power than the blues.
When you say no headshakes, that's exactly how they were. And made slow long runs on the salmon gear.
Were we were fishing the last few days was relatively normal as far as temps, 55-57 degrees. As opposed to the 60+ degree water from last week.
That would be my guess.

We had the same thing happen when fishing Swiftsure bank in Canada in about 350' of water. I hooked into something really big and it was like pulling a barndoor off of the bottom. I would reel and reel and gain a little bit. I was really working up a sweat. We had to fire up the motor a couple of times as it headed for deeper water and was trying to spool me. There was absolutely no head shaking but there were some really good runs. I got it up almost close enough to see a half dozen times and it would head back down. I was almost ready to hand the rod off as my back was killing me. I finally got it up and it went under the boat. It finally came out and exploded out of the water. It looked like a funny colored marlin and impaled its nose into the back of the boat. I had to go out on the swimstep and work it out and try not to get knocked in. I bonked it so it didn't hurt me. Here it is. And to think you are allowed 200 of these a day in BC.

I doubt it if it applies in this case, but I talked to a someone who claimed to have hooked into an oversize sturgeon by Point Defiance. I know they are out there somewhere at times. Any body know how they fight in open water?

My real guess is a big octopus. We got one several years ago that was probably 60 pounds in 350' of water. It really kicked my buddies butt. A skate would do the same or some of the larger sharks.

I think Strike Zone hit it on the head, a big Mola Mola, the water temp and brought them up and I've seen some 6' across in the past at Neah Bay, guess they get a lot bigger than that.

Looking back, the Sunfish (Mola Mola) may very well have been what I hooked at the time. I remember now that we saw at least 2 huge ones that day just floating in the surface like they were dead. At the time nobody knew much about them but the skipper mentioned that they weren't dead but they "just floated around like that". He said he'd seen a fair number of them that year. The ones I saw were easily over 100+ lbs. At the time I never considered them to be a possibility because I was under the false impression that they did not swim at greater depths. I found a neat website with more info and some video on them. Although they seem to feed on jellyfish, I can see how when they are swimming upright it would be easy to accidentally snag one on their elongated dorsal.

Here is the website:

http://www.oceanlight.com/html/mola_mola.html

I guess these guys can get up to 3000lbs. No wonder the skipper wasn't waiting around.

Salmon Shark. I hooked one at Langara Island. They are faster than Blues and will hit a herring. CJeck out this site for more info.

http://www.conservationinstitute.org/salmonsharks.htm