Caleb Merrill of Greenwood put four of his five ice fishing traps in deep water on opening day Wednesday, but kept one close to shore, hoping to interest a brook trout.
What he caught was a big brown trout that required him and his friend Fabian Corriveau Jr. of Bryant Pond to work together to bring it up through the hole.
Neither of the longtime friends could believe their eyes. It was an 8-pound 27-inch brown trout with a 14 ¾ inch girth.
“It was the biggest fish I’ve ever seen come through the ice,” Merrill said on Thursday.
Corriveau’s traps and Merrill’s other four were in water that ranged from 20 to 40 feet deep, but the line that attracted the big fish was in five or six feet of water in a pond in Oxford County. The fishermen expected to catch browns on the deep-water traps if any fish bit, not on the shallow-water line.
Only the leader was in the water, Merrill said. They were using small shiners caught by Corriveau, who sells bait.
Merrill had just told Corriveau, who had been his friend since high school, that he was going to move his shallow trap into the deeper water when the flag went up. He decided to keep it there for a little while longer to see if the nibbling fish would come back.
A couple of Maine wardens with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife who were checking fishermen on the opening day of ice fishing stopped by to chat with the men. They told the fishermen that the pond had some big brown trout in it.
Not 10 minutes after the wardens left, the flag went up again. Merrill set the hook and could feel the big weight of the fish on the line. The brown filled the hole when it went by sideways, giving the fisherman a glimpse at what was to come.
Corriveau was going to video Merrill bringing the fish in, but Merrill said he needed help instead.
The fish ran back down into the water a couple of times before Corriveau could get his fingers in the gill to pull it out of the water, Corriveau said.
Corriveau had to grip the fish with both hands to pull it out of the hole, Merrill said. He couldn’t believe how long it was as he watched the fish being pulled up through the hole.
“We were freaking out,” Corriveau said. The 7-8 inches of ice was clear so you could see through it under your feet, he said. “We were jumping around like little kids.”
Merrill’s success inspired Corriveau to move three of his traps closer to shore. About an hour after Merrill’s fish was pulled in, Corriveau had a flag go up on one of his shoreline traps. The trap was bouncing and shaking, he said.
He pulled about 40 feet of line out of the hole before he got to the fish. It was another good-sized brown trout — 3 pounds and 20 inches long. It landed on the ice just as the swivel, used to attach tackle to the line, snapped.
The men didn’t expect a second big fish, but there it was.
The fishermen started ice fishing for cusk at night while they were in high school. They hang out together nearly every weekend and work during the week. They’ve caught other big fish, but none like that brown.
Usually Merrill practices catch and release, but the big fish was too injured to put back into the water, so he kept it. He didn’t have time to take proper care of the fish for taxidermy so he fileted it and ate the meat.
He plans to have a replica mount of the fish made.
