Lost Giant at Alum Creek

I went over to Alum Creek Wednesday to beat the cold frot and storms predicted that evening to try my luck at catching another huskie over there. Water conditions (quality) after two days of howling North wind had gone from bad to worse. Best clarity I could find was about 18-20-inches. I had just talked to Clyde Anderson, that's a hint Clyde, and started to let my lines out in preperation for a typical spring trolling pass in 4-6-feet of water. Well, lightning struck, I was still over the channel in 20-feet of water and was letting my second line out when this beast hit. Turns out she was suspended near the surface in a large school of shad suspended at 5-10-feet just offshore. Well, my first mistake was having my drag to tight. I had snagged wood with this outfit in the last cove and had backed off the drag to assit in the recovery of my lure. I reset the drag to start trolling again but had not did my typical tension check. My first sign of how big this fish was when after she doubled over my rod in the holder she dove down, only had 15-feet of line out, pulled so hard on the rod she was able to spin the rod holder clamp on the rail to where my rod was pointing straigt to the bottom of the channel. While this was going on which was probably only a few seconds, I place the fishing rod I was still holding in my other hand in the other rod holder. Now I was free to grab or the rod with the fish that looked like it was about leave the boat. I think the shear weight of this fish and the total shock at where she hit caused me to hesitate at a bad time. I felt I had hooked into a log and was dragging it under the boat, remember, she was straight down and was now actually starting to pass the boat not towed by the boat's forward motion like most lesser fish. That's when it happened, I was told by a great fisherman once, the late Tony Portincaso, never let a big muskie lead the fight. In this case, I let her stop (all big muskies in Ohio are females) and she started to do the dreaded big muskie head shakes. The light 30-pound test spring leader held, the #2 2X replacement hooks did not bend out, they just did not have her hooked in a soft spot they could bury, I suppose. There is not a worse feeling to a muskie fishermen than the one where you feel the awesome power of a large muskie on the end of your line one second and then the dreaded feeling of your lure free swimming towards you again. Oh yeah, I beat that area up for hours after that and could not make lighting or a muskie strike again.