Quick story. Caught a (spe)lunker

Last Saturday I fished a section of a local river where a long outside bend had been rebuilt due to some EPA remediation. ( Strictly C&R here, no telling what chemicals these fish have ingested over the years :shock: ) Basically there is a large field of shallow rip rap that leads out to the main channel where there is a steep drop off to about 5 to 7 feet. I like to stand back in the 12 inch water and cast to the drop off and nail smallies hanging on the gradient. The outside bend along with the boulders strewn along the drop off makes excellent habitat. I hooked a 15 incher, and was working him in. When I had him with about six feet of fly line out of the tip I could see him clearly head shaking in about 18 inches of water about 10 feet in front of me. Suddenly he just disappeared! The sensation on the line went from active ticked off smallmouth to dead stop snagged in an instant. Standing there for a few perplexed seconds wondering how this fish had managed to throw the hook, and simulataneously snag the fly on a rock, my rod hand felt the slightest suggestion of life on the end of the line, then went dead again, then a tiny wiggle, and dead again. This fish had wedged himself in a crevice between two pieces of rip rap, and was still burrowing! Now what? Adding tension was not helping, in fact, I feared that the tippet would break. I simply let the line go slack for few seconds, and stepped close enough so the rod tip was directly over the fish. When I pulled tight again, he popped right out just like David Copperfield. After releasing this little magician, I examined the tippet and saw where it was pretty well abraided, and a few more seconds of him sawing it on the rough edge of the rip rap would have done the job. I do love these fish!