You just never know when you're going to hit jackpot

Big fish, the real once-in-a-lifetime monsters, often bite when least expected.
It's typical to hear tales about youngsters catching giant muskies or pike while crappie fishing. Imagine the surprise when a 6-year-old angler's bobber dunks and the fish on the tiny hook is a 40-inch torpedo of muscle and not a puny 8-inch panfish.
Those are the experiences that are etched forever in an angler's dreams. They also make for state records.
The latest dream turned state record was announced this week by the Ohio Division of Wildlife. The Outdoor Writers of Ohio's State Record Fish Committee certified a new best-ever tiger muskie caught by Matt Amedeo of Akron.
A veteran bass tournament angler, Amedeo was fishing for largemouths in Turkeyfoot Lake, one of the weedy Portage Lakes in Akron, when he hooked and landed the 31.64-pound, 47-inch tiger muskie. A tiger is a cross between a pure strain muskie and northern pike.
Interestingly, Amedeo took the record away from another bass tournament angler, Ron Kotch. The previous record tiger, 31.5 pounds, also was caught in Turkeyfoot.
Amedeo was pitching a Berkley Power Craw for bass April 28 when the record muskie bit. Kotch set the previous record in April 1999.
Identified
The new record fish was identified by Phil Hillman, the wildlife division's District Three fisheries supervisor. He said Turkeyfoot has not been stocked with tiger muskies since 1985, which means Amedeo's fish was at least 21 years old.
Well known in northeast Ohio tournament circles, Amedeo has been busy this spring competing in Bassmaster Southern Tour tournaments. He earned an eighth-place finish in the Southern Tour stop at Santee-Cooper, S.C., and 17th in the event at Lake Rayburn, Texas. Both events were in March, a few weeks before he landed the largest tiger muskie ever caught in Ohio.
Record-book encounters are not limited to accomplished anglers like Amedeo and Kotch, though expertise in lure presentation often is required to trick big fish.
As anglers often note, a fish doesn't get big by living recklessly. They are by nature extremely cunning predators who have somehow managed to avoid being caught by someone inclined to take them home to the frying pan.
For a fish to survive 21 years in a heavily fished lake like Turkeyfoot is another testimony to nature's way of saving a few fish to live to old age. On most every weekend from ice-out to freeze-up, Turkeyfoot and the other Portage Lakes are packed with anglers pursuing everything from muskies to largemouth bass to crappies, bluegills and perch.
Other high-pressure lakes in our corner of Ohio also produce huge specimens.
Lake Milton was the home of the Ohio state record pure-strain muskie. The lake also holds huge white bass and, thanks to a 15-inch size limit, a good number of lunker-class largemouth and smallmouth bass.
Acknowledged lake
Mosquito Creek Reservoir is an acknowledged catfish lake capable of producing 30-pound shovelheads for those who are knowledgeable about how to hook them.
Big pike also cruise the weed beds at Mosquito. Ten- to 15-pounders are caught with regularity. And despite enormous walleye fishing pressure, Mosquito has enough hideouts for a number of 'eyes to survive to the 5-pound class.
Lunker walleyes also live in Berlin and West Branch. The latter also is a well-known producer of 40-inch-class tiger muskies.
So beware, anglers, the next time you visit one of our nearby lakes. It's possible you may tangle with more than you intended when you lob out that crappie rig or nightcrawler-tipped jig.
Should you be fortunate enough to catch a fish you suspect is of record caliber, keep this contact information handy: Tom Cross, chairman of OWO State Record Fish Committee, (937) 386-2752.
jwwollitz@aol.com