Recently, six-year old Grace Ungewitter of Pittsfield was wrapping up a day of ice fishing with her dad Erick on Pontoosuc Lake. As they were picking up their tip-ups, Erick noticed that one of them had spooled out and was shaking, but the flag had not gone up. He asked Grace to pull it in. When she tried, she noticed something heavy on the line and thought it was tangled up in the weeds. The line was wiggling and Erick knew that there must have been a fish on the other end. After a lengthy battle, Grace brought the fish near the hole where Erick could see that it was a large fish as it passed by.
She pulled the fish up to the hole a second time and this time Erick grabbed the fish through the gill plate and pulled it out of the hole. In doing so, a tooth must have caught him and he got a nasty cut. Young Grace went running around shouting, “I caught an alligator! I caught an alligator!”
The fish measured 34 ½ inches with a 16 inch girth and according to the Crea’s Bait Shop certified scales, it weighed 11 lbs 8 oz. That is large enough to qualify Grace for a State bronze pin in the children’s category
Erick said that, some ice fishermen came rushing over to them to see the big fish while others checked out his cut. Later on that day, he tried to get into the hospital ER but it was full of people with bad colds and symptoms of the flu. He went home and had his mother, who is a nurse, tend to it.
Erick will have the fish mounted by friend Matt Ranzoni, of Lee. It will be attached to a piece of driftwood and when the bronze pin arrives from the State, it also will be attached.
He fishes all the time with his girls. His eight year old daughter, Leena, also has a nice fish to her credit, an 8 lb tiger muskie. *****
In his last report to the Berkshire County League of Sportsmen, DFW Western District Manager Andrew Madden reported that the Division received 350 broodstock salmon ranging in size from 3 to 11 lbs from the Nashua National Fish Hatchery in Nashua, NH. Our district’s allocation of 70 was stocked on January 30 into Windsor Pond and Laurel Lake. *****
Gary Soucie, of Williamstown, internationally renowned flyfishing author and outstanding fly tyer will be the guest speaker at the Taconic Chapter Trout Unlimited monthly meeting at Zucco’s Family Restaurant, 451 Dalton Avenue, Pittsfield, this Thursday evening. His presentation, which will be about emergers, will begin at 6:15pm and be followed by an Italian Buffet dinner around 7pm.
Some books written by Soucie include: Hook, Line, & Sinker: The Complete Angler’s Guide to Terminal Tackle, Soucie’s Field Guide of Fishing Facts, Home Waters: A Fly-Fishing Anthology, Traveling With Fly Rod and Reel, Woolly Wisdom: Tying and Fishing Woolly Worms, Woolly Buggers, and Their Fish-Catching Kin. He was also former editor or Assistant Editor for several fly fishing magazines. *****