I was fishing this small pond, it is actually a air shaft for a old coal mine that has filled up with water. It is probably about 200 feet by 150 feet. Depth I dont know, but one time I put on a lot of weight let out at least 100 feet and still didnt hit bottom standing on the shore. It has a creek running into it and the outlet is only 10 feet away. Well back to the story, it is loaded with wild cutthroat trout. I had just hooked a little 8 inch cutt and was reeling him in when all of a sudden splash, Here comes a mink he jumped off the bank and swam directly torwards my fish and grabbed it and then swam back on the bank about 4 feet from me. I decided to get the fish back and was in a tug of war I didnt want him eating my hook and being really stuck on their so I would give a couple of tugs no luck. At this point I decided to poke him with the end of the fishin pole. Well not a good idea either they make one hell of a scary noise when they get pissed thinking I was going to steal his meal. I am lookin at him and he is eating as fast as he can he was about 2 feet long and wasnt going to move until he was done eating. I ended backing up a couple more feet and reeling down on the line and give it one more jerk as hard as I could. Out came the hook I was happy, luckily he hadnt ate the head yet. He still had his fish he was happy, I watched for about 2 minutes until he finished. He jumped back in swam across and then disappeared in the brush on the other side.