RED LAKE, Ontario — A woman and her boyfriend have one great fish tale to tell and it’s all true.
Sam Boucha had a day off from work and her child was in day care so she and her boyfriend, Brad Molloy, hit the ice for a day of ice fishing in Red Lake, Ontario, CBC reported.
The couple decided to hit a different spot than they normally do because their sled wasn’t running well.
They caught a few fish but one pulled a rod she had set up. When she lifted the line, she said it felt like “dead weight,” CBC reported
Knowing how heavy a fish can be, she figured it was similar to a 35-lb trout she had caught before, but she needed to add about 20 lbs to that estimate.
A 57 lb fish was on the hook.
Boucha battled the trout for about an hour. It actually spit out the hook, but instead of just letting the fish swim away, Boucha stuck her arm in the icy water and held on, Outdoor Life reported.
Not only did it spit out the hook, the hole they had initially drilled through the ice wasn’t big enough for the fish, so as Boucha held on, Molloy widened the hole to be able to pull the fish through, Dryden Now reported.
Boucha told CBC, “I was frozen. We had a shack to warm up in afterwards so it was nice, but yeah it was bare-handed, arm down the hole to my shoulder, holding on to that fish until the second hole was filled.”
The fish did not survive the ordeal, and at the time they weren’t sure exactly how heavy the fish was, since their scale maxed out at 50 lbs. It measured 57.75 inches with a 31-inch girth, Outdoor Life reported.
Boucha took home the fish and said she will be getting it mounted to put in either her family cabin or her home. She also gave the fish’s pectoral fin and an ocular bone to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to see if they can find out how old the fish was.
Boucha also posted her catch on various social media platforms with one comment telling her “You’re a fishing goddess,” CBC reported.
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