Old Salt wrote on Nov 14
th, 2019 at 4:58am:
mpeebles wrote on Nov 14
th, 2019 at 1:07am:
I tend to agree with portage dog. I believe it to be a hunting immature great white walleye shark as well.
I know this isn't going to end well but what's a polyhumper?
I’m glad you asked, others may also want to know. They are an invasive alien species that somehow was imported from China and lives in Quetico lakes. They are not commonly seen as they are bottom dwellers. As the name implies, they have multiple humps. They are voracious feeders, eating anything they can get in their huge jaws. If you should accidentally catch one, don’t lip it and do kill it. You will have enough meat to feed an army, so invite others to join you for dinner.
I think Jimbo was the first board member to see one and I believe that he told about it in one of his BWJ articles or perhaps on this site. I’ve only seen one. Hope this helps.
Old Salt is right. I first encountered a pollyhumper - a small one - back in 2007. Never having come across such a fish (?) before, I took a picture and subsequently researched it against facsimiles of some of the more ancient species. Bingo! Turns out this fish/creature dated back to nearly prehistoric times and was a Chinese variant of something known as "Dunkleosteus" (none of the links I've tried to attach seem to work, so just "google it").
Nasty? Heck, in the old days, these bad boys ate sharks! Anyway, I came across the pollyhumper during a fishing contest in Quetico on Thursday, July 5th, 2007. You can find my account of the encounter on Day Eleven of a Trip Report I posted, entitled: "Magic, McKenzie, & Me" (see:
(You need to Login or Register to view media files and links) )... an unforgettable trip in many ways for me.
In short, pollyhumper fishing is decidedly challenging and one of the more dangerous types of sport fishing I know of. NOT for the faint of heart!
Later,
Jimbo