Did fish get re-balanced?

[Xeka]

I just spent over an hour real time fighting a fish in Missouri, and could neither catch the fish nor get it to break my equipment. By the time I finally gave up and cut the line it had worn my reel down by about 10% and had gotten as close as 40ft and as far as 200ft multiple times and did not seem to tire.

I saw that there had been an update that increased fish strength back in September, but are things still sort of out of whack? 

Thanks ahead of time!

 

[J.Mitchell WV]

There was, I believe, a 50% increase, and then it was lowered to 25%. If you get in this situation again, and can't land a fish, instead of cutting you line and loosing your tackle, just adjust you reel speed to the "negative" side so it will free wheel, and more times than not, the fish will spit the hook, thus saving your tackle.

[Benji]

I have also found that playing with the reel speed, up and down can help tire the fish more, I was able to land a 45 pound lake trout with a 12 pound set up doing this, it's tricky though