Camden Jewell of Skowhegan, who turned 17 on Friday, almost lost two rods and his big fish.
Camden was staying at The Little Red Camp with his parents Alysha and Chad Jewell, his brother Kaiden, 14, and his sister Amy, 9, for Easter weekend. It was at the end of his third day of fishing when it happened.
The teen had two lines in the water, with one rod in a holder while he held the other in his hand on the opposite side of the dock. It was cold and windy with an air temperature of about 50 degrees.
Kaiden was in the camp. He heard a noise, looked out toward the dock and saw the fishing rod standing up in the rod holder. No one could have guessed what would happen next.
The fish suddenly yanked the rod into the water, wrapping that line around the one Camden was holding. Camden wasn’t sure what had caused it because often there are logs and other debris floating in the river and he thought the line may have snagged one of those.
But when he was able to grab the line on the rod that went into the water, he realized he had a fish on it, as he hand-pulled it in.
His dad grabbed the rod that had gone into the water and his brother quickly snapped up a net.
“I used a net and took it to the shoreline to make sure it didn’t go back for a swim,” Camden said Friday.
The fish was a 22-inch-long lake trout. It was his biggest open-water fish.
His family and the next-door neighbor cheered when he brought it in.
His parents got him started on fishing. His grandfather, siblings — the whole family — fish and most hunt too, he said. Camden got his first deer last season.
“I think he was losing a little faith before the big fish hit,” his mother said Friday.
Camden was fishing on bottom, using smelt as bait, he said.
The fish didn’t go to waste. Camden wanted to see what it tasted like, so they filleted and barbecued it as part of Easter dinner.
“It doesn’t taste that great compared to fresh brook trout or salmon,” he said.
The Jewell family is heading back to Moosehead for more fishing to celebrate Camden’s birthday.
The Little Red Camp where the Jewells stayed at Easter was purchased a couple of years ago by Cory and Dezirey Brassbridge of the Canaan area. He renovated the camp with friends and family, using the discard bin at Hammond Lumber as a source of materials. That saved him about 10 percent of his renovation costs.
Its odd shape comes from setbacks and other rules about buildings on the water.
The idea is to charge low rent for the camp to make it more affordable for families to come and make memories in the Moosehead area. It has been in operation for about 6 months.
Brassbridge said Wednesday that he and his friends have fished off the same dock and have never caught a lake trout or other fish that big. There was about 4.5 feet of water that extended out into the river about 50 feet on the day Camden was fishing, he said.
“It probably is the biggest one out of the river this year,” he said.
