Brockville's Jason Phillips shows off a monstrous muskie, which he said weighed in at over 70 lbs., caught and released back into the St. Lawrence River early in November, 2011. (Submitted image)BROCKVILLE - - There's a huge fish still swimming around in the St. Lawrence River. Brockville's Jason Phillips and Sandra Ellis caught and released a 70-plus pound muskie after a one-hour battle one week ago. It was the biggest fish – and the first muskie – that Philips had ever caught and the longtime angler released the 54-inch monster back into the depths of the river. Two years ago, a 65-pound muskie was released back into the St. Lawrence by an Ottawa angler and it was recognized then as a world record for catch-and-release. “It was unbelievable,” said Philips of the experience. “I didn't know what to think, but I knew it wasn't a pickerel.”
The 38-year-old Philips and Ellis just decided last Wednesday to head out on the St. Lawrence River for an hour or so to try out a new boat and fish for some pickerel.
At 6 p.m. on a calm night, they were fishing in 220 feet of water in the channel about one mile west of St. Lawrence Park. Philips was using a deep diver pickerel lure on his rod with 600 feet of 100-pound test line.
He was trolling along and had just lost a fish when the big muskie hit just seconds later.
“I thought I had the biggest pickerel known to mankind,” said Philips when the fish took the lure. “It jerked the rod and almost pulled it right out of my hands.”
Ellis was just as excited being a spectator to the battle. She was telling Philips to reel it in.
“I can't. It's pulling the boat,” she recalled him saying.
The fish pulled the boat about a quarter of a mile toward St. Lawrence Park, making several runs where it would pull off 200 feet of line at a time.
“It was making the boat bounce up and down,” said Ellis. “Jason said 'that's not a normal fish'. We thought it was a sturgeon.”
Then, after more than 30 minutes, Philips began making progress at reeling it towards the surface. They were able to shine the spotlight on it. Then, they knew what they were battling.
The next part of the drama was to get the fish in the boat. In their haste to head out fishing, Philips and Ellis hadn't grabbed a net.
With the fish beside the boat, Ellis was sitting on Philips' fishing rod while he leaned over the side to bearhug the fish and lift it into the boat.
Philips was warning Ellis to watch out for the fish's large and sharp teeth but he was in a position to lose a hand to one of Canada's largest freshwater species.
The two had a hand weightscale with their fishing gear and the fish pulled it past the 70-pound mark.
They quickly took a few photos of the fish to record the once-in-a-lifetime moment. Then, they lifted the muskie back over the side of the boat and into the river.
“It swam away for 20 yards, stopped for a minute and then it just bolted to the bottom,” recalled Philips in watching to see if the huge fish was alright after the long fight.
There was never any thought of keeping the trophy fish estimated between 20 and 30 years old. Philips and Ellis figured the fish deserved to live to swim and fight again.
The decision was a good advancement for the species that has been ravaged by a deadly virus over the past several years.
In 2005-06, a study by Queen's University in Kingston determined that a virus had decimated almost 50 per cent of the river's muskie population.
After showing photos of the big fish to friends, they learned that Bass Pro Shops would have paid them $10,000 for the muskie to mount it and use it in as a promotional trophy in their stores.
While the money would have been nice, Philips and Ellis were comfortable with their decision to return the muskie to the river.
Philips, who works for Knapp's Paving, and Ellis, who works for the Resource Centre and at Loaves and Fishes in Brockville, are avid hunters and anglers.
The biggest fish they'd caught before this was a 16-pound pickerel.
“It's pretty exciting for people to see that these kind of fish are out there in the St. Lawrence,” said Philips.
After the deer hunting season ends on Saturday, and if the weather co-operates, Philips and Ellis will go out and try their luck again at landing another trophy fish
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