Had similar situation, but mine I had NO choice but to snap the line. Was fishing Riffe back in it's glory days (pre mayfield dam and back before the TPU campgrounds were put in). This was just after the St Helens eruption and there was alot of debris up near headwaters of the cowlitz on Riffe. We were fishing the bridge (pre fishing bridge installment). Had just enough room to toss out in front of me but logs everywhere else. Well, hooked into a doozey. Was probably well over 8#'s from what I could see of the fish. One problem, fish was too big to hoist on the line I had straight up, and there were too many logs on the shore to pull up over them (without beating this big fish to a pulp and snapping line in process). My rod couldn't handle the bend I had on it, so tried to hand hoist the line up. Didn't even get the fish out of the water and "snip" went the line. Cried all the way home. Biggest "non steelhead" I'd had on the line.