Well it's one of those we'll never know stories. Went trolling last night with a buddy. We were out on one of the finger lakes here in NY. Trolling along and BAM one of the rods released. This thing hit it so dang hard you could here the whiplash of the pole straightening when it came unbent.
My buddy grabs the rod and the thing is already screaming drag. I get the other rods up and in the boat. The time it took me to get the other 3 in the boat, this fish hasn't let up a bit. I throw the boat in nuetral. My buddy is over halfway spooled by now. He's just holding the rod straight up letting this thing run. He tightened the drag just a touch to slow down how much was going out. We figured he'd spool him in no time if he didn't. A little worried about snapping it, but not many options at that point that I could think of. (maybe put it in reverse and chase it?) Oh well didn't think of that at the time. Anyway that kinda worked. The fish was still taking drag, but not near as fast as before.
Here's the freaky part and this is no lie. With more tension on the line now, this thing actually started moving the boat while taking drag!!! We figured we only had about 100 feet left on the reel. Just about the time i headed for the wheel to put it in reverse, everything went quiet. No more tension, no more drag, and no more fish.
Talk about a dejected moment!! We just sat back and bobbed around aimlessly having a beer. After the sting wore off a little he reeled in the line and the lure was still there. Slightly modified but still there. No line snap, but the 3 trebble hooks were ripped out of it and the thing was mangled. One of the more remarkable things I've witnessed trolling. My only thoughts are it could have been a gigantic Laker. About the only thing in this lake that could get that big. The lake consists of Lakers, Rainbows, Browns (get really big here for browns), Northerns, Walleye, Bass, and panfish. Or maybe something that shouldn't be down there? I don't know and we'll never know, but it was wild!! Bummer but it was cool.