Received word about 3 weeks ago that I had officially broken the Ontario record for Long Nose Gar. It’s been a long arduous process but in the end it was worth it and interesting to see the whole thing come together. Having Steve Galea from Ontario Out of Doors call the house for an interview was quite the thrill, the “News” piece appears in the April issue of OOD.
May 18th, 2009 was the day. My old reliable fishing buddy Phil Stinson and I headed for the Ottawa River in search of these more than toothy critters. The day started off poorly for us with the wind being more than the forecast and it made for tough going early. We nearly packed it it twice! But decided to give it to the end of the day to see if the wind would lay down to make it easier for sightfishing for the cruising gar.
With the two of us perched on the bow of the Princecraft the wind began to die, The sun still beaming it was game on! As I was casting towards what I considered to be a “good” fish in the high 40 inch range, Phil suddenly says “That’s the one yer lookin for bud!” “Nah…it’s a good one, but not that big”. Phil retorts, “Not that one, THAT ONE!” I turned to see a very thick fish slowly swimming away from us at about a 45 degree angle. I tell Phil to take a shot at it. He declines! “That’s the one ya want bud! Get it!” Needless to say he didn’t need to tell me twice!
A perfectly placed cast and my crank was attacked! Upon the hookset the fish went airborne, 4 Times! It was a great battle with 2 good long runs into the reeds. Phil carefully slid the net under the beast. I’ve had a few fish get my knees shaking, this one had them buckling.
I had always said if I ever did hit a 50 plus inch thick fish with great markings I’d keep it to be mounted for the wall at home. Well this was the one. Beautifully marked and flawless! We put it into the livewell of my other buddy Rob’s boat and kept on fishing for the afternoon.
About an hour later, I asked Phil what he thought that fish weighed. His guess was 17 pounds or so. Having known what the Ontario record was for years now (15.10) I was curious to get a weight on it. At the launch we pulled out my digital scale and weighed it in the net. It weighed just under 19 pounds with the net. Then weighed the net at 2 pounds. Wow, great guess Phil! Now the fun begins.
A call was made home to Birdee to confirm everything. We need a verified digital scale, and it’s holiday Monday. Birdee made a call to the fella that butchered her deer last year, he agreed to open up for us! Huge thanks to the Beckwith Butcher!
The butcher did his thing and once the bin was subtracted the fish came out at 15.79 pounds. We were a bit disappointed to see that weight but once we looked in the livewell we saw where the other pound went! Ick! No matter it was enough to submit to the OFAH to be verified.
The rules and requirements were followed by the book and submitted to OFAH within a week. Length and girth measurements were taken and photographed (51.5×16). An MNR official had to sign off on it for species indentification and Scott Smithers at the Kemptville MNR offices helped me out with that. Mark Cousins at OFAH handles the “Record Fish Registry”and was great to deal with. I delivered the fish to him in June as it had to go to the Royal Ontario Museum for Species Identification. From there I understand it was delivered to Advanced Taxidermy. Advanced Taxidermy donates 3 mounts for every record fish. One for the Angler, one for OFAH offices and one for Royal Ontario Musueum. They are one of the highest regarded taxidermists in North America. I surely am pumped to see how they present this fish.
In the end, Mark Cousins notified me that no one had entered any competing fish for the record and as of March 1st the new record was mine. Hence that mount I wanted was in my grasp and to be done by one the best taxidermists known! Double Bonus!
Thanks again Phil, it’s a day I won’t forget for a long time buddy!
