Wow what a great thread!
I grew up in NE PA and lived less than a mile from the Susquehanna River. We fished it often, wading or fishing out of my dad's jon boat. On nice weekend days we would take two trucks so we could enjoy a nice 5 mile float trip. We caught mostly smallmouth, but also perch, rock bass, walleye and when we felt like it we'd tangle with the huge carp. Then one day while trolling a panther martin spinner minnow my dad hooked a musky. Quite the battle ensued on fairly light tackle. He landed that fish,a 35 incher and his first musky ever, despite growing up in a house on the bank of the river. He just never targeted them before, probably because he grew up quite poor and any legal fish he caught went to the kitchen so he focused on the smaller fish with the better odds...
One night the following summer, August 14, 1979 to be exact, dad asks me if I want to go down to the river for a few casts one evening after baseball practice, so I say sure, and we end up fishing a nice hole with a back eddy that leads into a riffly narrows. The fish weren't biting and the sun was fading fast. I sensed the end of the outing was near and was losing a little interest (as a nine year old will do from time to time). I had on a yellow quarter ounce jig and I was fishing with a telescopic fiberglass rod with a zebco pushbutton special with 10 or 12 lb. test. I had the rod butt on top of my head and was reeling so fast the jig was just skipping across the water. About ten feet from shore in about 10 inches of water all hell breaks loose. All I can manage is "dad, I got one and it feels big." I can still see the look on his face when he saw the shape of my rod. The fish gave me four or five head shakes and then just started peeling line. A tough and anxious battle took place and it got hairy when the fish started going downstream. I had to follow and nurse him down through the riffles to the next eddy where, with much encouragement from dad I finally put the fish on the rocks. We celebrated and then measured the fish at 40.75 inches. It was not a stocked tiger, but a true muskellunge. We drove it over to the local supermarket and walked in and draped it over the produce scale at one of the registers and it came in at 15.5 pounds, my biggest fish before I found saltwater and a great time with dad.