The five-hour drive from Lisbon to Eagle Lake in Aroostook County was worth it for Nick Starbird on Saturday.
The lake was new to Starbird so once he unloaded his gear and snowmobile, he made his way to one of the ice shacks that had its lights on. He asked the local man who came outside what the ice conditions were and where would be a good place to fish.
The man, whose name Starbird could not remember, pointed to an area where a group of fishermen had had action the weekend before, he said.
He set up his pop-up ice shack, drilled holes in the ice and set up his fishing traps with bait. As he finished baiting his last trap, a flag sprang up on one of the others he had set. It was a 21-inch salmon. He later pulled up a 10-inch salmon, then his traps went still. There was no activity for hours.
The person who gave him the fishing spot information came over to check on Starbird around 2:30 p.m. As Starbird was telling him about his day, a flag went up and the reel was screaming, he said.
“I grabbed the line and gave it a tug. Fish on!” he said. “And I could tell it was a good one.”
The fish kept pulling the line down into the depths, like togue do, then swam straight toward him. This process took about five minutes and finally Starbird could see it. His biggest fear at that point was the fish would spit the hook before Starbird could get the fish’s head through the hole in the ice.
After a few seconds, the fish popped up and Starbird was able to grab its gill and pull it onto the ice.
“I instantly knew this was the biggest freshwater fish I’ve ever caught,” Starbird said. “I started hooting and hollering in excitement.”
The fish weighed 10.51 pounds and was 32 inches long. Starbird said he was fishing in deep water but his line was only about 15 feet deep.
Starbird’s only regret is that he didn’t catch the big fish on tournament weekend, which will be Jan. 25-26.
