Leslie Slater was kayak fishing with her family in Connecticut when she landed a Northern pike that tied a 40-year-old state record.
Leslie Slater was kayak fishing with her husband and kids in Colebrook, Conn., recently when she landed a Northern pike that tied a 40-year-old state record.
The sharp-toothed pike, caught in West Branch Reservoir, the family’s favorite fishing spot, weighed 29 pounds and measured 46 inches, and Slater somehow managed to pull it into her kayak, as reported by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
“I was jigging a Rooster Tail for trout when all of a sudden I had a huge hit,” recalled Slater of Barkhamsted. “It pulled hard right to the bottom. It almost broke my pole in half. Then with all of the dead weight, I thought that I had lost the fish and snagged the bottom.
“Never in my life did I expect to see a freshwater fish of that size come out of Connecticut. The adrenaline rush pulling in a fish that size was awesome. I still can’t believe I pulled it into my kayak without flipping over or having my toes bitten off.”
Efforts to revive and release the fish failed, so Slater and the family began looking to weigh it on a certified scale.
“We had many staring at us as we carried in a fish of that size,” Slater said. “One deli was willing to weigh the fish, but it was too big for the scale, the head and tail hit the counter. The reaction we received from the deli customers was priceless.”
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DEEP Fisheries Division biologist Edward Machowsky, who has managed Northern pike in Connecticut for 20 years, caught wind of the catch and phoned Slater.
“Leslie’s excitement and enthusiasm over catching this monster pike was infectious and I knew we had to help her,” Machowsky said. “Thankfully, Ryan Craig, the owner of the Berkshire Country Store in Norfolk had equal enthusiasm in helping out and agreed to weigh the pike using his certified scale in the deli. In the end it tied the state record, and was a very fitting end to such a memorable catch.”
It was not clear how much time passed before the Northern pike was weighed or how much weight it might have lost during that time. It’s possible she could have broken the record. Nevertheless, Slater will cherish the catch of a lifetime.
“My favorite part of that fishing adventure, besides catching, was that my husband and kids were there to share the experience,” Slater said. “That catch will forever be a positive memory of 2020 for me and my family.”
Photos courtesy of Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
