They say a bad day out fishing is better than a good day at work and Theodore Muskego agrees.
He made a 16-hour journey from his home on the Onion Lake First Nation on the Saskatchewan-Alberta border to Cross Lake Manitoba to take part in the annual Loretta’s Burger Stand Ice Fishing Derby, where he hauled a 100-centimetre northern pike from his fishing hole to the weigh station with 35 seconds to spare before the derby ended.
The monster catch easily won the $100,000 first prize as a crowd gathered around to cheer the nail-biting finish.
“I was fighting it for like a minute or two, then I was getting more worried when they said two minutes left and I was fighting with my rod, and the reel was just stuck,” Muskego said. “I couldn’t do nothing. So I threw my reel. I just put my hand in the water and got up, started pulling the fish up. Still can’t believe it.”
Exhausted, he still had to get to the weigh station with people yelling ‘run!’ — easier said than done in winter gear while carrying a giant fish.
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“It was nice to see people cheering him and everybody came to that measuring station to look,” said Loretta Ross, derby organizer.
More than 500 people made the trek to Cross Lake last weekend, almost a 12-hour drive north of Winnipeg, paying as much as $500 a hole.
The entry fee was a birthday gift to Muskego from his dad, Glenn, whom he brought along to fish, pulling him in his wheelchair on a sled out to the holes.
Muskego says he’s going to buy a truck, pay off some bills and take his kids on a vacation with the windfall.
His dad finished 22nd for a $200 payday.
The community is hosting another derby later this month with a $25,000 prize.
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