Catch of a Lifetime

On Saturday, January 25, 2020 Mitchell Cole and his father Tom decided to go ice fishing at their friend Herb’s camp on the Davis Road located on Cold Stream Pond in Enfield . The story goes that Peter, who is one of Herb’s neighbors, had been ice fishing on Friday and one of his holes had good luck. As Mitchell and his Dad were setting up their traps, they couldn’t resist using Peter’s hot hole from yesterday.

Once Mitchell and Tom’s traps were set, the father and son team settled in for a day of fishing. Tom had fallen asleep and not long after Tom snoozed off up went a flag and guess what hole that trap was in. Yes, neighbor Peter’s hot hole. Since Tom was asleep Mitchell tended to the ice fishing trap. As Mitchell pulled up the trap, he found an empty spool all the line was out. For about twenty minutes Mitchell struggled trying to pull the line back in. Realizing he must be stuck on something he thought his only option would be to cut the line. As Mitchell was getting ready to cut the line a snowmobiler drove up to him and suggested a different option. Unfortunately, Mitchell never got the name of the man on the snowmobiler. But his suggestion was to drill another hole in the ice in the direction of which the line was going to. In the meantime, the gentleman went to shore to get a ten-foot stick. Once back to the new drilled hole, the gentleman inserted the stick into the hole and began to twist the stick trying to wrap the stuck fishing line around it . This was a technique Mitchell had never heard of. They were unable to get the line to release from whatever was holding it down from below. The gentleman said we need to drill more holes using the same technique after a total of six extra holes and twenty-five minutes later, success! Mitchell pulled out a 39 ½ inch togue weighing in at 19 ¼ pounds. The biologist told Mitchell the fish was between 30 and 40 years old which is much older than Mitchell. Mitchell then went inside woke up his father told him to come outside to see his catch of a lifetime.