For Chris DePaola, a high degree of difficulty has a direct correlation to his fishing enjoyment.

It’s not that DePaola doesn’t enjoy the times when the fishing is easy and the catching is remarkable. But he is pulled irresistibly to the waters where he can deploy his instincts and talents to generate reactions from creatures at the pinnacle of their food chain.

DePaola was raised as a walleye angler. He gets a kick out of probing Ohio’s Lake Erie tributaries for steelhead and hunting northeast Ohio’s whitetail deer. But he is a muskie man first and foremost.

Why muskie? Why dedicate precious time and money to pursue the “fish of a thousand casts” when easier catches await?

His answers come quickly: They are big, mysterious and are not easy to catch.

“Dad started me fishing local lakes for walleye, which I really enjoyed, and then I gravitated to bass and fishing the Ohio B.A.S.S. Federation,” DePaola recalled. “I drew Ron Yurko (one of the granddaddies of Ohio bass competition) on Berlin. I hooked a muskie on a buzzbait. It wasn’t huge, probably around 35 inches, but it was so strong. My lure looked like it got mangled in a blender … twisted like a pretzel. I couldn’t believe a fish like that swam in our local lakes.

“That’s what got me started, and I’ve been fishing for them for over 40 years.”

Muskies grow to substantial sizes throughout their range from Canada across the Midwest down to below the Mason-Dixon Line. They are the apex predator wherever they live, capable of eating just about anything, destroying most freshwater fishing tackle and scaring the bejeebers out of unsuspecting anglers.

DePaola believes muskies project a mystique that fits his fancy.

“It’s their temperament. Some days you get 10 follows and you ask yourself, ‘What am I doing wrong?’ When I get lots of follows, I don’t catch many,” he said.

But “follows” do sometimes result in the most vicious strikes.

“I love those boatside strikes,” DePaola said. “There’s nothing more exciting than a 30-pound fish with four feet of line out. It’s you against a tiger, hand-to-hand combat. And when you finally get it in the net, it’s like, ‘Man!’

“I’ve been fortunate to get lots of boatside strikes. My biggest was a 55.5-inch that I caught while doing a figure 8 boatside in Canada.”

Closer to his home in Austintown, DePaola says West Branch and Pymatuning are hard to beat. “They are awfully good, the best waters in the state. Pymatuning was really good for me for big fish this year.”

Whether in Canada or Ohio, DePaola prefers casting over trolling.

“Muskies are about the same regardless of the lakes,” he said. “I like points and weedlines and mid-lake humps with weeds. I often throw a lot of topwater lures during the middle of the day. That’s even more visual because they’re hitting sometimes close to the boat on top.”

Tough days come with the territory, but that’s just fine with DePaola.

“I believe that anything worthwhile, you have to work for. You gotta embrace the grind. Stick to it. Plug away. Try different things. Put the puzzle together. I fell in love with that. I like that it’s tough.”

DePaola has the opportunity now to pass his passion for muskie fishing to his 4-year-old grandson.

“I tell my son Chris that I can see his son, Ian, is going to be a fisherman. He already loves catching crappies and perch. He really wants to catch them.

“That fire is lit.”

Jack Wollitz is the author of “The Common Angler,” a book about the “why” that drives anglers. He likes readers’ emails. jackbbaass@gmail.com.