| Andover man shatters 62-year-old state record reeling in 39-pound lake trout | |
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When Erik Poland headed to Lower Richardson Lake in Township C on July 2, he didn’t intend to fish for lake trout. In fact, he didn’t really plan to fish for very long.
“I had a couple of hours to kill,” the 34-year-old Andover man said. “I thought I’d fish for salmon for awhile, go for a swim, then head home.”
But after seeing no sign of salmon near the surface on his fish finder, he decided to drop his lead-core line deeper, and try his luck for lake trout, which were showing up near the bottom in 94 feet of water.
Man, did he get lucky. |
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Poland let out 15 colors of lead-core line — each color is 10 yards long, which allows an angler to gauge how deep they’re fishing — so he could target the bottom-dwelling fish. And his only strike of the day resulted in an epic battle that culminated with him landing a state record lake trout, or togue.
The fish was 44 inches long and weighed 39.2 pounds, breaking the 62-year-old previous record by more than seven pounds.
The previous record was set on Aug. 3, 1958, when Hollis Grindle of Ellsworth landed a 31.5-pound togue while trolling Beech Hill Pond in Otis.
Poland said he’s not sure how long he battled the fish, which kept making long runs. |
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