Canadian Woman Reels in 57-Pound Trout After Nearly Hour-Long Fight

A Canadian woman wrestled a colossal lake trout for almost an hour during an ice fishing trip this month.

Outdoor Life reported Sam Boucha decided to spend her day off going ice fishing with her boyfriend, Brad Molloy, near Red Lake, Ontario, on March 3. 

After some initial success catching fish, Boucha saw the line of one of the rods had bent and felt heavy resistance coming from the end of the line when she went to check it, per Outdoor Life.

“I’ve caught a 35 lb trout before and this was something similar, so we’re pretty excited,” she told the CBC.

Outdoor life recounted the long fight to reel in the fish, which Boucha said lasted nearly an hour and ended with Boucha latching onto her catch with her bare hands while Molloy drilled a hole large enough for the massive fish to fit through:

The fight lasted nearly an hour, with the stubborn lake trout staying deep and making it tough for Boucha to reel the fish toward the ice. When she finally muscled the fish close enough to see it, the anglers realized the massive laker wouldn’t fit through the hole.

Boucha fought the fish, spit the hook. Boucha grabbed the laker with her bare hands in the lake’s frigid water until Molloy could drill a second hole

“it was bare-handed, arm down the hole to my shoulder, holding on to that fish until the second hole was drilled.” Boucha recalled, per the CBC. 

In the end, the struggle was worth it, as this fish was even larger than the 35-pound catch she remembered when she first felt the tug on her rod. 

“[We] ended up reeling in a 57 and three-quarter inch, 31-inch girth, 57 plus pound trout – like it was unreal,” she told the CBC.

USA Today reported that Boucha hopes to mount the fish. The outlet also noted she had donated parts of the fish to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.