This Wisconsin ice fisherman is either really lucky or really good.

One heck of big northern pike was just landed by a Wisconsin ice fisherman. However, once Jeff Wold of Eau Claire set hooks into the big fish, he thought he was snagged. As all big fish stories go, especially through the ice, you may have just had to have there to believe it. Luckily, Wold has pictures to prove it.

“When I saw my spring bobber go down, he bit light, like a panfish,” Wold said in a interview. “Then I thought I might have gotten snagged on something right away.”

As the story goes, six times the big fish nearly pulled all the line off Wold’s small spinning reel. Six times he was able to keep the fish on and get his line back. Once at the hole, and several attempts to land the fish by reaching down in to grab it, it was on the ice.

19 pounds is the current line class record for a northern pike on 2 pound line. Wold’s northern weighed in a 18.5 pounds. Unfortunately, there is no line-class record for ice fishing but that doesn’t change the fact that no single fisherman can say this wasn’t an impressive fish.

Record or not, Wold says he is still getting this fish mounted.

Author: Brad Smith, Wide Open Spaces