Zach Reynolds, 28, told St. Louis Today that the bite from the muskie, as he dangled his feet overboard, left his foot bloodied and with a V-shaped row of punctures.
"It was so hot it was burning the tops of my feet, so I had them in the water as I was reeling in that bass," Reynolds explained. "I was still reeling when something hit the top of my left foot. I pulled my foot up and there was blood all over it."
Reynolds, who was prepping for last weekend's Mo-Yak Fishing Series event on Pom de Terre Lake in southwest Missouri, said he saw the muskie dash into the murky depths and estimated the fish to measure perhaps 30 inches.
Zach Armstrong, who was fishing nearby, recalled Reynolds screaming and lifting his bloody foot out of the water.
"People spend hours and hours trying to catch one of these, and here he got bit by one," Armstrong told St. Louis Today.
Muskies, or muskellunge, are predatory ambush specialists whose diet is mostly smaller fish, even smaller muskies. But they've been known to prey on ducks, frogs, and small critters that roam the water's edge.
They're endemic to the northeastern U.S. and throughout the Great Lakes region, and south to Georgia. They've been stocked in Pomme de Terre Lake since 1966.
According to the International Game Fish Assn., the all-tackle world record stands at 67 pounds, 8 ounces. That fish was caught at Wisconsin's Lac Court Oreilles in 1949.
Craig Fuller, a Missouri Department of Conservation biologist, told St. Louis Today, "No records exist of a human being bitten by a muskie in Missouri."
However, a Wikipedia description of the species includes this passage: "Although very rare, muskellunge attacks on humans do occur on occasion."
Comment: Just a month ago the same species was involved in another rare attack, see: Winnipeg woman injured in 'extremely unusual' Ontario fish attack: 'It pulled me under'