Huge Laker Taken In Stride
By: Steve Galea
While most people would get a little excited over an 84-pound lake trout, George Kenny is still wondering what all the fuss is about.
"I've caught bigger lake trout," said the 69-year-old native of Deline, Northwest Territories (NWT). "Usually, I let the big ones go because they aren't very good to eat. But, this one was not going to live, so I took it back to the community. Suddenly, I had a crowd of people with cameras in my yard."
The behemoth laker, which Kenny netted in early July near Broken Plate Creek on Great Bear Lake, made his 13-year-old son, Jordon, a little nervous. "I told him it was almost dead and that calmed him down a bit," said Kenny.
The fish, which he gave to the Deline Land Corporation, will be mounted and displayed – a stark reminder giant lake trout still exist in that part of the world.
Kenny says he caught a larger one last year, which he revived and released, and adds his father caught even bigger lake trout on hook and line.
Great Bear Lake is home to lakers of legendary size, but the largest one recorded was gill-netted in Lake Athabaska, NWT, in 1961. It weighed 102 pounds and was 49.5 inches long.
The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters lists our province's angled record laker, caught from Lake Superior by Hubert Hammers on May 25, 1952, as weighing 63.12 pounds and measuring 51.5 inches in length and 32.75 inches in girth.
