4-Year-Old Helps Reel in Monster Brook Trout From Maine Lake

Editor's note: This article was written by a Townsquare Media Northern New England contributor and may contain the individual's views, opinions or personal experiences.

This happened back in June, but the record still holds.

John Templin Jr. and his wife Ceara took their 4-year-old Gracie fishing at Moosehead Lake. John's been fishing Moosehead for most of his life and he's never seen the monster his wife and daughter pulled in back on June 11. The Bangor Daily News did a great story about the day of fishing.

That monster is a Moosehead Lake brook trout that was 24 3/4 inches long and it weighed 5 1/2 pounds! Poor Gracie, she's gonna be super disappointed when she catches a regular trout. It's like getting bumped up to first class. It's best you don't know what you're missing.

The Templins have a camp at Moosehead and were out on their new boat. John set up a rod just for Gracie with a lure she picked out. He heard the line start going and knew it was a good one. He hooked the fish and had Ceara and Gracie help reel it in. It was quite the battle for little Gracie.

Dad told the Bangor Daily News about having Gracie reel it in,

She was getting tired and I’m like, come on, keep going.

Moosehead has a slot limit and you have to throw back brook trout that is between 18 and 22 inches. This was a keeper! Ask anyone what's the biggest brook trout they've ever caught, and it won't be near the size of this sucker!

This one was a definite keeper. They didn't eat it, they actually will always have the memory as they dropped off the brookie to the taxidermist.

It is still number one in the 2022 Moosehead Big Fish Competition being sponsored by the Fish Moosehead Facebook page. Since that day in June, John said he hasn't caught another brookie. That's fishing for you. You just never know.