Greenville native and ardent angler Eric Ward is accustomed to hog-wrestling impressive brook trout out of his ice hole and on to the frozen surface of Moosehead Lake.
In fact, according to Greenville state fisheries biologist Tim Obrey, who keeps an eagle eye on angling successes on the big lake, Ward has caught eight or nine brook trout weighing more than 3.5 pounds this winter. Those included one at 4 pounds and four or five fish between 5 and 6 pounds.
Still, Ward could scarcely believe his eyes when he recently iced a whopper of a Moosehead Lake brook trout that would turn out to break a 66-year lake record.
The big brookie was 25 1/16 inches long and tipped the scales at 7 pounds, 10 ounces.
Obrey says that the previous lake record was a 7-pound 8-ounce brook trout that was caught in 1959. The all-time state record brook trout was a 9-pound brute caught by Patrick Coan at Mousam Lake in Shapleigh a number of years ago.
Born and raised in Greenville, Ward is about as devoted to his hunting and fishing avocation as a man can be. A merchant mariner for 30 years and a married man with daughters, the outdoors has been in his blood since childhood.
Where did he catch the special fish? What was he using for bait?
“Well, sir, I am quite traditional when it comes to questions like that,” he said.
Translation: He’ll never tell.
Although much of his retirement time is tied up by his outdoor pursuits, Ward, a registered Maine guide, still has found time to serve as a county commissioner and on the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Advisory Council.
With the help of a state legislator, he has also gotten behind legislation this winter that will increase the penalties for illegal bucket stocking of invasive fish into Maine’s sport fishery waters.
“This illegal stocking of non-native fish that get into our wild brook trout waters is a big worry, I think,” Ward said. He is convinced that if we don’t find a way to stop the bucket stocking practice, we will deeply regret the negative impact that it will have on Maine’s fabled wild trout fishery.
An adventurer by nature, Ward will soon be on his way to the Arctic Circle to get in one last ice fishing trip before the spring melt way up North.
Oh, and by the way, Ward’s record brookie will be mounted and hung in his home for all to see.
And he has already given his perfect piscatorial prize a name: Neo.
Tight lines, Eric.
V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal. He is also a Maine Guide and host of a weekly radio program “Maine Outdoors” heard Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. He has written three books.Online purchase information is available at sportingjournal.com, Outdoor Books.
