First time this has ever happened to me....

[Kirtley Howe]

Had about an hour to fish yesterday, so I hit the river (Susquehanna River near Owego NY). Tied on an Ozark Trail (Walmart Brand) medium depth crankbait in an orange/bluegill pattern. 7" medium heavy fast rod, Johnny Morris reel with 14lb. Excell mono. First cast got a 1 1/2 lb smallie. About 10 casts later, I got a nice 3 1/2 lb smallie. Then things just stopped. Nothing else until just before I was getting ready to leave, when I hooked into something BIG. Played the fish for a couple of minutes, and finally got it up where I could see it. It was a musky, about 40" long, hooked with both treble hooks,, one it its' upper lip, and one in the corner of the mouth. Of course, just when I thought the fight was over, the fish took off again. I tightened down the drag some to turn the fish....dumb move on my part....all of a sudden, the line went slack. I was sure that the fish had cut the line or thrown the lure. Reeled in the line, and the lure was still there......but it no longer had any hooks attached. Both the front and rear split rings had straightened out and pulled off the lure. The anchor points for the rings and hooks were still fine, but the split rings and hooks were gone. 

Lesson learned....the Ozark trail lures definitely work and would most likely be fine if I only caught bass, but the hardware just isn't up to the task when trying to turn a 40" musky with a tight drag and 14 lb test line. I will be upgrading the hardware on the Ozark Trail lures I have. I am glad I only have a few.

[Swamp Girl]

7 hours ago, Kirtley Howe said:

Then things just stopped.

 

[TnRiver46]

My takeaway: mono is strong 

[Tennessee Boy]

So 14# mono is stronger than split rings.  Who knew?

[TnRiver46]

17 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

So 14# mono is stronger than split rings.  Who knew?

It’s stronger than the skin on my fingers, can confirm 

[gulfcaptain]

Some inexpensive baits work great. But they are inexpensive because the components are cheap. And I know it's hard to justify spending $15 on split rings and hooks to put on a $2.99 lure.....until that 40" musky, 10lb bass, or big striper eats your discounted offering and shows you how cheap that split ring was. We all have extra trebles and split rings, we just need not be lazy when it comes to inexpensive baits and change them out. But then we wouldn't have awesome fishing stories about that one that got away.....lol

[Rockhopper]

4 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

It’s stronger than the skin on my fingers, can confirm 

[Bird]

When I'm fishing bargain baits I always target smaller fish 😂.

Sorry just picking.

 

Wish you better a outcome with upgraded components 👍

[Kirtley Howe]

On the plus side, the hooks were obviously sharp, and they didn't bend out.  So,,,,hooks good, split rings not so good.