I would suspect that what you saw are "horned pout". Used to catch a ton of them and carefully, very carefully, release them. Lots of fun to catch. Most were probably under 10 or 11 inches long. Years later, it was a dozen worms, a case of beer, a big can of beer nuts, and we would catch a ton of them, always at night, and these guys were probably a foot and a half to two feet long!!!!! And you couldn't hardly release them without getting stuck. Things were a lot easier as a kid.
