Talk about one helluva surprise.
A Canadian fisherman who was fishing in Toronto Harbour thought he had reeled in a nice pike when he felt how heavy it was at the end of the line, however, it turned out to be a catch of a lifetime.
Will Sampson told CTV News Toronto that his knees buckled and he nearly collapsed after realizing what he had just caught:
“Once I saw it was a muskie, my knees immediately became like Jello. They just, like, buckled.”
They reeled the fish in and estimated the weight to be just under 20 pounds, with a length of 43 1/2 inches.
Believe it or not, they can be much bigger, as the world record sits at 67 pounds, eight ounces, caught back in 1949 in Wisconsin’s Lake Court Oreilles.
So why is it a big deal?
Because there aren’t any muskies in the Toronto Harbour.. well, at least not very many at all.
Sampson told the outlet:
“We knew it was a unicorn, like obviously there’s muskie in Lake Ontario, (but) in Toronto Harbor it’s super unheard of.”
Sampson is a fishing guide who has fished his whole life, and has caught muskie before, but this was a first for Toronto Harbor, although there are a lot found at the mouth of the Niagra River and at the other end of Lake Ontario near Kingston.
According to CBC, it’s the first one conservation officials seen of in 30 years of monitoring.
Rick Portiss, a senior manager of aquatic monitoring and management at the Toronto Region Conservation Authority, called the catch super uncommon:
“Catching a muskie in Toronto Harbour is super uncommon… we’ve never had one in our catch over 30 years of environmental monitoring on the Toronto waterfront.”
That could be a positive sign for the improvement of the waters:
“Finding a fish like this is one true sign of an improvement of the habitat and the restoration of activities in the Toronto waterfront.”
Needless to say, it was a trip well spent.
