Snagged a small mouth or big mouth buffalo fish 30+lb in the belly. Thought I snagged a tree then it budged felt like I was pulling a tire underwater then it started to move a little ... thought I hooked a large turtle, just curious loseened the drag and kept pulling it in slowly... after about 2 min later it seems like it woke up, it just start to swim off peeling my drag that's when I realized that I had a big fish on the line and I know it wasn't a catfish... it bent my mh 9' surf rod almost to the handle while at the same time peeling my drag loudly... it kept going going...then finally I got it close enough to see its tail, I didn't have a net tried to beach it, every time it felt the bottom it took off again,... on the fourth run it took off parallel to bank.

Now I'm waist deep playing this along the bank,... five minutes, seemed longer, finally I landed it. To my surprise it snagged just above the anal fin on a tiny bit of skin and a scale. That was some fight.

Not really...more like rest. Sleep is really a function of higher level animals.

Buffalo are notorious for doing that. I don't really know what causes it but even when they eat a bait and have a hook in their mouth, they very rarely fight from the beginning. They'll wake up when they realize something is wrong or once they get to the surface. In the rare occasion that they get hooked in the right place they go crazy from the get go. They are odd fish and have some weird habits like that

I have seen the semi sleep thing. I also notice that a lot of times if you spook them they will dart about 10 or so yards real fast make a wake and then just stop dead in their tracks.