Has this ever happened to you??

[MN BassFisher]

[nofishfisherman]

I had a similar experience fishing from shore when I was maybe 12 or 13, although my line wasn't hung up on a snag. I had gotten a big rats nest in my spinning reel when I casted my line out. I was sorting it out and had line unspooled around my feet when I got a bite. My reel was still a mess and now my feet were all tangled up in the line with the fish pulling line out on me.

I ended up setting the hook and hand lining the fish into shore, ended up with a nice 17 inch walleye. Had to have my dad go grab it for me since I was still all tangled up in my line. I probably looked like a monkey trying to solve a math problem as I stood there all tangled up in my line with a fish on the other end.

[20lbSloughShark]

I've had fish bury themselves so deeply in weeds I had to go up to them, but I could usually tell right away. Last winter while pike fishing on pelican I hooked into something big. I pulled as hard as I dared, and figured I snagged a log. That was when it started moving away. I was holding on tight, and the fish still pulled out line. If I let up any more, it would take all my line in no time. A couple big head shakes, and it bit through my 50 pound fluoro carbon. I pulled in about 6" of badly shredded fluorocarbon. Without a doubt the biggest fish I've ever had on the end of my line. I've gone mostly back to steel leaders now, except for the clearest of lakes.

Days before that happened, we did snag a log. Another flag popped up, so we just put the tip up back down and left it. When we came back, the fish had come free, and we pulled in a nice 4 pound pike for the frying pan.