Angler ‘could barely stand up in the boat because of the waves’

By Julie Harris, Bangor Daily News Staff

Rick and Nancy Labbe are avid anglers who spend a lot of time fishing on Moosehead Lake. 

But when they fished on Maine’s largest lake recently, they had to contend with 4-5-foot waves, some of Moosehead’s worst conditions. They caught several fish anyway, including an impressive 22.5-inch approximately 5-pound salmon that Nancy reeled in.

“I could barely stand up in the boat because of the waves,” Nancy said.

At one point, all four of their rods had fish on them. They have two nets, so Rick worked one side of the boat, while Nancy worked the other, reeling in, netting and releasing the fish to the lake again.

Rick said they caught about 14 fish and probably lost as many that day.

The Labbes have a camp on Moose River and have been fishing Maine’s largest lake for seven or eight years, Rick said. Nancy’s request for Mother’s Day every year is to go fishing.

This year, the giant swells on Mother’s Day were keeping other boats off the lake, but the Labbes went out anyway, feeling their boat was large enough to handle them. 

Nancy said she couldn’t see any other boats out on the lake proper. They were all staying on Moose River, which empties into Moosehead, and stays calmer.

“While everyone else is out having a nice, relaxing breakfast, you’re busting 4-5-foot waves on Moosehead and reeling in salmon. Always an adventure,” Rick wrote on his social media post about fishing with Nancy that day.

The Labbes are from the Jackman area and fished the lakes and ponds around it and in Canada for years. They also fly fish on the Kennebec. Nancy said she grew up on North Pond in Smithfield and often fished alone as a youth.

“I would have my rod, worms and myself and fish for perch almost every day. Then I would zoom around the lake in my boat and deliver fish to people who wanted some,” she said.

Rick grew up fishing too, but when the two got together, Nancy offered to show him how to really fish, she said with a laugh. Their first fishing trip together was on Attean Lake in Jackman almost 40 years ago, she said.

Nancy had to fight hard to get her big salmon in the boat on Mother’s Day. It breached the water several times, and she was worried she might lose it off her spinning rod loaded with 10-pound-test line. She could tell it was bigger than others she had caught that day and wanted to land it.

It’s not the first big fish Nancy has caught in the same vicinity. Last year, she reeled in a 25-inch, 6-pound salmon that won the Fish Moosehead Facebook site’s annual contest. She was awarded new fishing tackle. 

They had Dick’s Taxidermy of Lisbon Falls do a replica of that one.

The spring fishing on Moosehead has been really good for the last couple of years, and the fish are fat, he said. A few years ago, the salmon were long and skinny. 

To illustrate how plentiful food makes fat fish, Rick described catching a 5-pound lake trout that had 47 smelts in its belly.

Anglers can legally keep five togue per day on Moosehead, but only one can be longer than 18 inches. Rick said there doesn’t seem to be many shorter than 18 inches anymore.

The Labbes generally practice catch and release, and take measurements and photos if they want a replica trophy.

“We release all fish unless we plan to eat it. Togue makes good chowder,” Rick said.