March 10th 2009 was a banner day for a Rockwood man ice fishing on Moosehead Lake in Greenville, Maine. Bill Maynard Jr. couldn't have expected the fish he had just hooked onto would approach a state record, and even after landing the fish he didn't immediately entertain the thought that it might weigh in over the state record of 31 lbs. 8 oz. set by a man named Hollis Grindle on Beech Hill Pond back in 1958. Matter of fact, he even fished for more than another three hours before heading to shore. Maynard stated to The Bangor Daily News that he figured the fish was about twenty-five pounds, but others who knew big fish said they thought it could go as high as thirty-four.
All in all, Maynard drove to three seperate businesses, including Indian Hill Trading Post, before he found a scale capable of weighing a fish over thirty pounds. The end result was that, more than 5 1/2 hours after landing the fish, and considerable weight lost due to evaporation and bleeding, the official weigh in came in officially at 29.67 lbs. and 41" in length.
In his interview with BDN, Maynard explained that the he has expected that Moosehead holds some very large togue, and it is likely that the only explanation for why more ice fishermen don't land the big fish is that they are not equipped to handle them. He says that most ice fishermen will hook onto a fish this size and suffer a broken line before ever having an idea how large the fish actually is.
This is an interesting story, not only for the monster fish Maynard landed, but also because in recent years state officials have been encouraging ice fisherment to keep all togue landed in an effort to reduce populations and hopefully spur growth in the salmonid population.
In the 1930's and before, Moosehead Lake was known as a place where intrepid fishermen could land thirty to fifty pounds of brook trout in a single day. While those days are gone, it is heartening to see the majestic beauty of Moosehead once again in the headlines with a catch like this.
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