Maine father and son team up to catch their biggest native brook trout ever

By Pete Warner, Bangor Daily News Staff

Bill Huot of Topsham has enjoyed plenty of thrills as an angler. 

That includes many successes on the ocean, where he and his sons, Charlie and Tristan, have caught sharks, tuna and striped bass. But after eight years on saltwater, Bill Huot was ready for a change.

“I recently sold my offshore boat in favor of the lakeside camp and in the last few years have spent more and more time searching for the ‘Big One’ shoreside,” Huot said.

That has led to plenty of fun targeting fish on Maine lakes and ponds. Huot shared one of those moments recently, posting the accompanying short video on the Maine Lakes Trolling Facebook page.

The Huots have been looking for what he called intriguing, remote waters where they could pursue trout. Last year, they made the 11-mile hike to Wassataquoik Lake in Baxter State Park to pursue blueback trout, which are more commonly known as Arctic charr.

This spring, the Huots targeted native brook trout and the S-18 Special Fishing Law that limits anglers to one brook trout, splake or Arctic charr per day, with a minimum length of 18 inches.

“This particular location this spring allowed us to stay at the Chewonki Big Eddy Campground. It is an amazing place,” Huot said. “The ability to camp along the west Branch of the Penobscot, awake at 3:45 a.m. and hook into your first salmon at 4:10 a.m. is just awesome!”

Bill and Charlie Huot fished four ponds in that area and caught some nice fish at each of them, including the undisclosed pond shown in the video.

It wasn’t far from their campsite, so Bill Huot was skeptical about how many other anglers or hikers they might see.

“We did not think that was far enough to get away from the crowd but, believe it or not, in the three days we fished on the different ponds we were the only three people on the pond,” he said.

The greatest challenge may have been the mosquitos.

They walked the shoreline of the ponds and in each case found a canoe or boat available for use, so they jumped into a canoe and hit the water.

Since the pond allowed artificial lures, Bill and Charlie split the difference and used a spinning rod and fly rod, respectively.

“We were on the pond for about half an hour when I tossed a Kastmaster and wham, the fight was on!” Huot said. “I knew he was big when he took drag out multiple times as he approached the boat. The whole time I was fighting him, all I could think of was please God let me land this fish.”

Huot’s video begins with him getting the plump trout close to the boat, where Charlie was manning the net.

“I was confident in my fishing buddy he could get the job done and he did netting the brookie,” Bill said.

Getting the fish into the canoe triggered an outburst of excitement and laughter from the father-son duo, who marveled at the beautiful native trout, which weighed 2.14 pounds. 

“My wife (Lori) could not stop laughing at how excited I was to have caught that fish. It happens to be the biggest native brook trout I have caught to date,” Bill said.

He wasn’t able to measure the length.

“Did not get a length. Also did not get a picture holding it, as when I went to  pose for a pic the fish kicked and overboard it went,” Bill said.

The experience is one he and Charlie won’t forget.

“Maybe not the fish of a lifetime but a memory that will last forever fishing with my son Charlie. Certainly, one for the books!” Huot said.