I lost the fish of a lifetime!

[fishin_dude]

What a perfect day of fishing I had yesterday - overcast skies, air temp. 85, southern winds 15-25 mph. just perfect. I landed a 2 lber. on the first cast with a brush hog, caught a few more quality bass on a spinnerbait, then my great day turned into a nightmare. The bite slowed to a crawl and I started to rethink my strategy. I got off the main lake and started to hit the back coves with plastic worms and lizards, nothing, and still nothing. So I went deep into the very back of a long cove and saw a perfect point with a big stump right at the tip of the point about 15-20 ft. in front of me, I thought to myself "that looks bassey" so I took out my Zoom Mag II worm in green pumpkin and pitched the most perfect cast right to the left of the stump with no splash, I gave my line a little slack to prevent the worm from drifting toward me. About 4 seconds after I engaged the spool I saw my line twitch ever so slightly but I didn't feel any kind of bite what so ever, my gut instinct told me a fish had my worm, I reeled in the slack and set the hook hard, immediately the battle was on! As soon as I felt the weight of this fish my first thought was OMG I only have 10 pound test tied on, then multiple images of fear, joy, and being the lake big bass record holder all flashed through my mind all at once. The bass immediately headed straight into deeper water so I loosened my drag a hair and let this beast run. I finally managed to bring her up close to the boat to get my first look at her and as soon as I saw this chunk my heart dropped, and as soon as she saw the boat she changed directions and made another run, so after 30 sec. I had to try to land this monster. Once I brought her back up she started going under the boat, I finally worked her to the edge of the boat and I knelled down to lip her, my hand was less than a foot away from her mouth and then SNAP! An on slot of depression hit me as my fishing line blew loosely in the wind, I stood up and gathered myself and said a few bad words that I can't repeat here. I instantly assumed the 10 pound line failed me so I reeled up the loose line and examined it, the end of the line still had my knot. This basses weight was so immense that it managed to slightly bend the eyelet of my 3/0 EWG Gamakatsu hook just enough to let my line/knot slip right through! I strongly feel that this basses weight was close to 14 pounds and I am NOT exaggerating at all, I have never fought a bass with this much strength, and never seen a bass with that much size in person. I am highly stressed and at the same time very happy that I had the chance to do battle with a bass of that stature. It was the best time I have ever had as a bass fisherman, and at the same time the worst.