Houston Alligator Gar 2013

[MuskieBait]

No, that would be suicide.

He cut the line, grabbed onto the cut end, traced it to the snag, then used another treble to find the line on the exit side of the snag. Once he had the line from the exit side in his hand, he'll then let go of the cut end, try to pull it through the snag (or if badly snagged just cut it) and retie to the mainline. If he let the line run under the log without finding the line on the exit end first, the line wouldn't not be able to trace and the fish would be lost forever. The water had a visibility of 12" at best.

Of course, to do this properly, we have to let out a good amount of slack line so the fish can still run ahead while we're snagging the line on the exit end. It's quite a crazy method but it worked.

Hence, he knows what he's doing...because most of us would have assumed to do what you proposed and you'll forever lose the fish. Or most of us would try to pull the fish back from the snag...