MALETTE LAKE, Ontario _ Jason Laumb knew he had a big fish at the end of his line, but he didn't know quite how big until the form rose up from the depths about a foot below the surface of the water next to the boat.
Picture a log with fins, a massive head and razor-sharp teeth, and you'll get the idea.
This was a northern pike. No, make that a big northern pike _ a real duck eater.
Jigging for walleyes with 8-pound test line and a white-and-yellow plastic paddletail for bait, Laumb, of Grand Forks, N.D., had a battle on his hands as the pike ripped drag from the spinning reel.
There'd be little room for error if he wanted to get the fish in the boat.
"I knew it was a big fish," he said later. "You could see the whole thing, and then it came to the back of the boat and did a dive under the boat."
The back was "that wide," Laumb, 41, said, holding his large hands apart several inches.
"When it did that it dive, I knew it was substantial," he said.
Somehow, his dad, Tom Laumb, 65, of Berthold, N.D., managed to get the behemoth into the landing net and onto the floor of the boat, where it measured 44 inches.
Chalk up a PB _ personal best _ northern pike for the younger Laumb.
"It stretched all the way across the seat," he said.
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