Field & Stream

Five years. One fish.

When Dylan Aldridge isn't guiding clients for pike and smallmouth bass in New York's Adirondacks, he's chasing muskies. For more than five years, he'd been searching for the kind of fish that keeps you coming back. On June 17, stripping a 14-inch articulated streamer through a muddy, blown-out tributary, he finally connected.

"I felt a thunk and thought I was snagged on a tree," Aldridge told Field & Stream. "I gave it two more strips and then felt a wide head shake. I could tell he was huge."

His buddy slipped the net under the fish after a minute-and-a-half fight, and they quickly released it after taking a few photos and videos. Aldridge never took an official measurement, but he knows it was the fish of a lifetime.

Story by travishallmedia, photos by dylanaldridge_