wintertime fish story #3

It was 4 am below a low head on the Great Miami. I'm fishing a lipless crankbait on a medium spinning outfit. When the rod loaded up and bent into the cork. I remember it was pretty much a standoff with the fish taking about as much line as I was gaining for a long time. Long enough that my arm began to hurt. Finally I'm gaining line and the fish is to the point where I've got it up shallow several times before it powers back out to deeper water. A couple more of those and Ill have it. Then at the end of one of these short run the fish just stops. What the?? I just had the thing about landed and it's hung up out there in the dark. Just the week before in this same place I had hooked a giant that had just decided to leave and was well on it's way to spooling me when it pulled off. I wanted this fish badly. Out comes the wallet and the cell phone. I lay the on a rock and begin inching out into the dark. Just a little further... I'm now out in the river at 4 in the morning reaching that depth where certain parts of your anatomy don't wanna get wet. The rods bucks, the fish is still on somehow but still stuck. Just a bit more... Past the point of no return and the waters up to mid chest and the fish finally swims free. A couple minutes more and I had a deathgrip on a big lower jaw and drug my fish to shore with a memory I'll never forget.