Damn it - it pains me to even write this, as I remember it every single day. Was fishing on my (then) girlfriend's family's dock late one night. It's on a huge lake and there are some monster catfish in there, but so far that night I'd only hooked up on some 2-3 pounders. Fun night, but nothing out of the ordinary. The dock I was on was situated in a cove - facing the lake, the end of the cove is about 100 yds to the left, to the right is wide open lake for miles. I was fishing on the bottom using a worm and was about to wrap it up when something hit. I'm in my 30's and have fished my entire life - I grew up on a river and have probably caught 10k catfish. I now live on the coast and fish primarily saltwater - I've caught everything from bream to bass to catfish, wahoo, mahi, sailfish, sharks - you name it. This wasn't like anything I've ever hooked. It grabbed the worm on the bottom (like a catfish), but had speed almost like a shark or a Marlin or something. Just way faster than any cat I've ever caught.

Anyway, this thing hit my line on the bottom and immediately made the fastest run I've ever seen all the way to the left, up into the shallow end of the cove. I was using one of my smaller saltwater rods spooled with 30 lb braid or so, and luckily I had about 100 yds of line on the reel. It peeled off every bit of it and stayed up in the end of the cove for a few minutes. I tried pulling it back, but it wasn't moving at all. Then, it starts running back toward the dock, faster than I could reel. It passed the dock, going out toward open water and then slowed. Once I was able to reel enough to catch up with him, it came back and hung around the dock down at the bottom (20' or water or so). No amount of pulling would bring it anywhere near the surface. It went back to the left, all the way into the cove again - just straight peeling line off the rod like my drag wasn't set at all. Then immediately came back and went all the way to the right. I was at the end of line with him out in the open water and it made one more run to the left - again, all the way up into the shallow end of the cove. Stayed there for a minute, then made another run for the deep water. This was like the third pass the fish made past the dock and it wasn't tiring at all. I got nervous and afraid that he'd snap the line if he got all the way to the end of my spool again, so this time I reeled as fast as I could and when it got near-ish the dock, I tried to keep him around there. He stopped for a second and tried to take off and I got antsy, and kept trying to reel, to keep him close by and bam! - snapped my braid like it was nothing.

To this day, that damn fish keeps me up at night. I have no idea what it was - that's the main thing. What the hell was that fish?!? It moved way faster than any cat I've ever caught, it was way too big to be a bass... There aren't really any stripers on that lake. Years later and I'm still just confused. I've resigned myself that it had to be some kind of steroided up catfish, I guess... But damn - damn, I just wanted to see him.

I've had 3-4 other instances that have stood out (a couple of huge bull redfish that I couldn't get in the boat and then a few that I never saw to identify), but above all - I replay that night on that dock over and over. It's been years now. Am I crazy??