During morning of September 15th
1940, Peter Dubuc cast a 6" long, wooden, flap tail
plug lure with 2 treble hooks on a 12 lb test with a
48” bronze leader into the waters of a quiet bay
in the Great Sacandaga Lake. Not a man to “ just
fish for whatever he could catch” Dubuc’s
focus was pike. But he may not have expected to catch
what hit the line. The battle ensued for an hour and
ended with Dubuc landing a world record Northern Pike.
That world record held for almost 40 years.
Almost 70 years later Gail Dubuc
Freeman was searching the internet for stories about
her fathers famous catch and happened upon the website
visitsacandaga.com which had made mention of her father
and the pike. Upon further communication with Freeman
she related that Outdoor Life magazine reporter Ben East
in 1959 spent a few days with Dubuc. Gail provided a
copy from the original magazine of the story written
by Ben East, as told to him by Peter Dubuc, it reads
as follows:
“I’d worked back and
forth over prime pike ground for over an hour and a half
without a strike, something that rarely happened to me
in those waters. Now, approaching an area I knew was
spiked with stumps , I revved the outboard a bit to bring
my plug up where it wouldn’t snag.
The water was only 9 or 10 feet
deep. The drowned stumps left when the timber was cleared
before the valley was flooded (1930) were a favorite
hang out of big Northerns. If couldn’t raise a
pike here I might as well quit. But I knew I wouldn’t
do that for a while, no matter what happened.
I passed over the first of the submerged
stumps with 75 yards of line out. When I was about that
far beyond the stumps, a fish smashed into my lure like
a starved cat taking a mouse. The speed of the boat and
the savagery of his rush drove the hooks all the way
in, and almost before I knew I had the strike the surface
of the water boiled like someone had tossed a small hand
grenade.
I was using my standard trolling
rig, a 6 foot rod with enough backbone to handle the
big ones and 300 yards of 12 lb. test mounted on the
trolling wheel. For a minute the fish fought like a wild
steer on a rope. Then quieted down and came along the
way I wanted it to.
I brought him in within 25 ft of
the boat before he changed his mind. He didn’t
make much of a fuss about it, just swapped ends and lit
out. I could tell by the feel of him I’d better
let him run. I set the drag on the wheel up to all I
thought it could stand, and he walked of with 115 ft
of it as easy as a breeze carrying thistledown. Then
he came to the top. Breaking water three times coming
far enough out for me to get an eyeful, as near as I
could tell there was no less than 4 ft of him. He took
off in a big circle but I pressured him in close enough
for a good look. He was a whopper sure enough. When he
whipped around once more and headed for the far side
of the reservoir, I gave him all the line he wanted without
any argument. The only way I’d win this fight would
be by outlasting him. With the 48” bronze leader
between the plug and the line there was no chance he
could sever that. If I could keep him away from the stumps
and snags chances were good I’d come out on top.
I set the drag as tight as I dared
to keep him working every minute, and edged the boat
toward deeper water. The pike bucked and thrashed and
took line, and I won it back only to lose it again. It
was 45 minutes before I saw any sign of let up.
He was beginning to play out at
last. Another 10 minutes and I had him close to the boat.
But I knew he wasn’t quite ready for the taking
as he was still belly down in the water. You don’t
make a final pass at a pike of that size until he rolls
over.
This fish moved like forked lightning
flailing end for end and flashing under the boat with
a wallop that knocked a bucket of water in my face. But
I was ready for him. I gave what I had to, turned him
and made him come into the open then punished him with
the rod until I saw his long white belly roll to the
top. He was ready now. I never gaff a pike. If you have
the patience and the know-how to tire your fish there’s
no need for a gaff. I always release everything except
my biggest Northerns, so I like to bring them in unhurt.
I learned a long time ago that when a big pike gives
up, you take him right then. Grant him a minute to get
his second wind and you’ll have half the job to
do all over again, maybe lose him.
So the second this lunker turned
over I moved fast. I reached for his eye sockets with
my thumb and middle fingers holding him as hard as I
could then with all my strength hauled him aboard, then
looked at my watch. It had been an even hour to turn
the trick. He was the biggest pike I ever caught but
right then I didn’t know exactly how big.”
Dubuc went ashore and had the fish
weighed at what his daughter Gail remembers as Pelchers
store in Benedict, northeast of North Broadalbin. The
1959 Outdoor Life Article reads as follows:
“The pike was 52 1/2” long
and 25” girth. His weight was a record smashing
46 lbs.2 oz. We weighted him twice. Once in the town
of Broadalbin, then again in Albany on beam scales both
times. It was soon established I’d taken the biggest
northern pike ever landed on hook and line anywhere on
earth, a world record that still stands 19 years later.
I don’t happen to care much
for mounted fish and at $1 an inch, the rate local taxidermists
quoted me, I couldn’t see a $52.50 investment in
this one. So I gave the fish away. I’d had the
fun of catching him and the satisfaction of setting a
world record that was all I wanted and more.”
Dubuc went ashore and had the fish
weighed at what his daughter Gail remembers as Pelchers
store in Benedict, northeast of North Broadalbin. The
facts as they are stated in the 1959 Outdoor Life Article
reads as follows:
“The pike was 52 1/2” long
and 25” girth. His weight was a record smashing
46 lbs.2 oz. We weighted him twice. Once in the town
of Broadalbin, then again in Albany on beam scales both
times. It was soon established I’d taken the biggest
northern pike ever landed on hook and line anywhere on
earth, a world record that still stands 19 years later.
I don’t happen to care much
for mounted fish and at $1 an inch, the rate local taxidermists
quoted me, I couldn’t see a $52.50 investment in
this one. So I gave the fish away. I’d had the
fun of catching him and the satisfaction of setting a
world record that was all I wanted and more.”
Also in 1940 Peter caught the record
tying New York State Largemouth Bass from the Great Sacandaga,
and as of the year the article was written,1959, still
held that honor.
Catching the bass was no accident.
He was trolling over a cobblestone bottom that morning
to intentionally catch one. The water was about 7 feet
deep, shallow enough to see bottom. The largemouth tapped
his line and made a second pass and latched on hard.
It took ½ hour to subdue the bass.
His rule of baits to catch northern
was simple. Anything that acts and looks like a disabled
smaller fish will do the trick. He had caught them on
bait he made by threading a wire leader through a hotdog,
attaching hooks on each side, and added two yellow thumbtacks
for eyes. And he’d heard of other people fooling
them with a carrot, a piece of flattened beer can, an
empty 30/30 cartridge and even a discarded toothbrush.
Methods of choice he preferred casting
to trolling. But having a plate in his right shoulder,
from a basketball injury, handicapped him severely as
a caster. He did pretty well side winding, but even that
way his arm played out quickly. For casting he used use
a 4 1/2’ rod a good reel and 100 yard. of line
and usually a 10 lb test. For trolling his preference
for the rod was 18 inches longer and the line 3 times
as long . And 48 inch metal leader was a must if you’re
after pike.
The water depth pike frequent depends
on a lot of factors. In NY they spawn in late April when
pike season opens May 1st they’re still up in the
shallow water along the shore. Then in early May he’d
observed where some would even come up to sun themselves
on the surface. He had caught some with surface plugs.
As the summer heats up they are found in deeper water.
But in the cool of the day morning or evening pike will
come in close in water 10’ deep or less.
He also notes that you have to go
to the pike and not expect them to come to you. For mid-day
summer fishing they may be found around 15-20 feet down.
He would use a either a deep running or a surface plug
with a dipsey sinker of the desired weight tied to the
line about 8 ft ahead of the lure. He felt that the daylight
hours during the dark- of -the -moon period produced
peak activity.
The best place is around stumps
or weeds, drowned fallen treetops, submerged brush, and
under clumps of lily pads. He always got as close as
he could to these potential snag areas his philosophy
being “You can lose plugs by sweeping stumps, but
you also take pike“.
His favorite season was September.
Late August also being good. Then early May. July was
at the bottom of the list. His reasoning being that he
believed Northerns shed their smaller teeth and would
go off their feed.
Two things he couldn’t stress
enough were to never hurry a lure. Trying to mimic a
smaller distressed fish takes time. His favorite method
was to “drift troll“. Letting the breeze
or current push the boat along. The other was to know
the area you fish in intimately . It’s bottoms
and depths where sand bars and rocks and weed beds are
located. Study the shoreline stay away from rocky shores
and bottoms or sandy beaches. Pike prefer marshy shore
and weedy floor. The mouths of creeks are often a prime
place to look.
The search for more information
about Peter Dubuc’s world record pike began on
the internet with the finding of discrepancies so to
say. To borrow the phrase: “ In time, history becomes
legend, legend becomes myth.” And if there is no
one to support the facts, liberties are taken to relate
unknown information however accurately or inaccurately
someone chooses.
It has been written that Dubuc didn’t
catch the world record fish at all. That he found it,
either on the shore or in the water, choking to death
while trying to eat another fish. This story may have
gotten started from another catch of Dubucs which was
a 28 lb pike:
“The pike that taught me my
most unforgettable lesson about his kind was a 28 pounder
that wasn’t exactly starving when he took my plug.
He had a 10 inch walleye in his stomach an 8 inch walleye
halfway down and a 6 inch shiner in his gullet. The tail
of the shiner was still sticking out of his mouth. There
wasn’t any room for it to go any farther. Yet he
walloped my lure as if he’d been fasting for a
week.”
Why are there no photos of the world
record pike? No one knows why photos of the pike don’t
exist. But the catch was verified and recorded in Albany.
And a reproduction using length, girth, and weight has
been made.
Why he didn’t have the pike
mounted? It would have cost $52.50 to have it mounted.
That doesn’t sound like a lot today especially
for a world record pike. But in years just previous to
1940, during the depression, average annual salaries
were about $1900.00 to $2,500 a year
(if you were lucky enough to have
a job). To compare costs, the same fish would have been
upwards of $450.00 to $650.00 today. That was almost
the cost of a car back then. He also noted that he didn’t
care much for fish mounts. Pike caught through the years:
1936 he caught 36 pounder best of the year in NY, in
1937 a 32 pound 10 ounce , in 1938 a 35 pound 6 ounces,
set no records in 1939, 1940 he caught the world record
pike and tied the Largemouth Bass record in NY, in 1941
a 33 ¼ pound pike and none of these were mounted.
A 46 pound 52 ½ inch fish
on a 12 pound test line? Dubuc was a sportsman. He enjoyed
the time and technique used to catch a fish. He didn’t
hurry through the process. And a lighter line gave him
the challenge.
Years differ as to when the World
Record Pike was caught in Germany that surpassed the
Dubuc Pike those years are: 1979 and 1986.
To show how easily the facts can
be misinterpreted and continue on in time the first article
of this story noted a 6 foot long lure. It wasn’t
6 foot it was 6 inches.
It’s been noted that this
accounting of Outdoor Life article may vary from other
interviews covered. Peters daughter Gail Freeman is of
the opinion that the Outdoor Life article is the most
accurate account of Dubuc’s pike legacy. Ben East
of Outdoor Life magazine spent at days with her father,
more time than any other interviewer did.
As for her father eating the world
record pike. She states “He didn’t like pike
it was too boney for him. He gave all his pike catches
away to friends”
Female pike are the larger of the
species even though Dubuc refers to the fish in his story
as “he” the world record was most likely
female.
Dubuc studied pike in shallow depths
and related more information about pike behavior: “You
have to put your lure with easy reach. For all their
assassins ways they won’t make long stalks. I’ve
watched pike prowling a shallow bay on windless days
at dusk when the water was like glass. They are merciless
and deadly, but they are also lazy. Anything that came
close enough for a sudden swift pounce they took including
my plug if I dragged it past within a yard of them. But
if I kept it 12-15 feet away they ignored it . Near-sighted?
I don’t think so. Just lazy.” He was also
convinced they didn’t feed at night. And weather
didn’t matter rain or shine.
One late August morning he had exceptional
luck landing five pike ranging from 22 to almost 35 pounds.
The 22 pounder proved to be the toughest. He caught the
pike white casting. The fish struck during a long retrieve
and then swam around a drowned tree stump. He was pretty
sure he was going to lose him. But kept the line tight
and rowed around the stump to pull the pike into the
clear. The pike came to the top like a Tarpon. Waltzing
all over the lake coming out of the water about every
10 feet skipping and tail dancing, rolling on the leader,
trying every trick it knew to throw the hook. The pike
jumped for 30 minutes but then finally lost steam and
the rest was easy.
Peter Dubuc grew up in Winooski
Vermont in 1892 the youngest of 9 children. His twin
brother died at age 16. Taught at a young age to fish
by his father his first fishing foray was with a railroad
spike and hand line in Lake Champlain. His first significant
catch was an 11 pound pike. His sister was an avid angler
too. After leaving school he moved to Schenectady and
as a young man to worked for New York Power and Light
which later became Niagara Mohawk (and now is National
Grid) until he was forced to retire in the 30's due to
a heart attack
In 1935 he bought the house on Benedicts
Bay on what was called then the Sacandaga Reservoir.
The house became a resort where people could stay, a
boat livery, and was a fishing guide. For 10 years he
fished the Sacandaga almost everyday spring through fall.
He got to know it so well he’d take bets that he
could guess within two feet and rarely lost. In 1945
the house by the bay and the boat livery that housed
10 boats burned. It was a total loss. The land was sold
and he moved to Albany. But he regularly returned and
rented a boat to fish the Sacandaga.
Meeting with Gail Dubuc Freeman,
she talked about fishing trips with her father on the
Sacandaga when she was very small: “He would get
me up at 3 am. He believed in getting to the lake early
and the Sacandaga was an hour drive from Albany. You
never knew what you would find in the bathroom on those
mornings as he would get different kinds of live bait
the night before and keep it in the bathtub. And there
they would be, minnows, bullheads, whatever, swimming
around in the tub with faucet water trickling”.
She added “After landing the
record pike things started arriving in the mail. Fish
poles, plugs, reels, all kinds of things from company’s
wanting him to try their products so they could use his
name for endorsements”. When sorting out her fathers
things her brother got the rods, reels, and fishing gear. “But
I wanted the lure”. She also brought newspaper
clippings, photos including one of Peter’s sister
ice fishing, the framed artwork by Lynn Bogue-Hunt and
the lure her father used to catch the World Record Pike.
Peter passed away in 1970 at age 80.
Gail had sent a photo before the
meeting of a sign that some people may remember along
the roadside by Route 30 in Cranberry Creek a sign that
advertised for a place called “Fisherman’s
Rest” which in later years was the “Sportsman’s
Lounge” and is now Lanzis on the Lake. The Fisherman’s
Rest sign was testament to Dubuc’s World Record
catch and included a painted pike, her fathers name,
the date, weight, and length of the pike that was caught.
The actual catch was made near Benedict on the Broadalbin
side of the lake.
Gail added this“ The world
record pike was most likely first weighed at Pelcher’s
Store as that where he went with most all of his catches” He
was not aware he had caught a world record and had told
her he didn’t have it mounted as it would have
cost too much money. These were the Depression years. “He
didn’t have any of the fish he caught mounted.
Mostly he shared his catches with friends”
“A 12 pound test was common
weight for him” Gail confirmed “He said that
you can catch the big one with any weight and plug if
you know how to play them out. Most fishermen try to
bring them in to soon and their line breaks.”
The lake was only ten years old
at the time the record pike was caught. Going back in
early history to when the Great Sacandaga was a river,
14,000 acre wetland area known as the Vlaie (Vly) was
swallowed up by the newly formed reservoir. It was a
fisherman’s paradise that was a home to pickerel,
trout, walleye bass and pike.
Dubucs 46-pound, 2-ounce monster
reigned as the planet's biggest pike until a 55 pound
pike was caught in Germany. The Dubuc pike caught in
the Great Sacandaga Lake still holds the record for the
largest pike caught in the USA.
Keeping the Sacandaga an “anglers
haven” has been the focus of the Great Sacandaga
Lake Fishing Federation (GSLFF) a federally recognized
not for profit corporation dedicated to the preservation
and enhancement of the fishery of the Great Sacandaga
Lake. All officers and members work is done on a volunteer
basis. Formed in 1984 and was originally comprised of
various fish and game clubs, some of which are still
members of the Federation. In the 1990’s, membership
was opened up for all who hold an interest in this great
resource. The GSLFF has stocked 85,860 fish at a cost
of over $380,000.00 for the last 20 years. The organization
yearly stocks game fish in the lake. For more information
visit www.gslff.org.
By L.L.Decker
