Zachary Geyer, of Bristol, won half of a 15 foot Polar Craft aluminum boat in the 11th annual Sebago Lake Ice Fishing Derby, held on Sebago Lake Feb. 26-27.
Geyer pulled the winning 14 pound 14 oz, 36 and a half inch Togue up through his hole on Feb. 26, but ended up sharing the prize with Dave Donnelly, who also had a hook in the massive fish. Geyer was fishing with a 12-inch sucker.
In a whopper of a fish tale, the men battled harder over the tournament winning fish, than the fish put up a fight. By the time it swallowed both Donnelly’s and Geyer’s bait and was tangled up in line it was pretty much all played out. Geyer surmises that the prize-winning fish took Donnelly’s bait first, then came after his, Geyer’s.
The first day of the tournament started out innocently enough. Geyer and friends Steve Nichols, Tyler Plummer and Sam Hancock hit the lake early and drilled their holes around 4 a.m.
Later, Donnelly “set his traps up about 20 feet from us,” Geyer said. The two exchanged words and Geyer told him “it was just going to cause problems.” Donnelly refused to move his trap, setting up a drama packed tourney win that nearly came to blows over the fish.
“He left his traps unattended for quite a long time. His flags went up and he didn’t check them. Then my flag went up and when I started pulling my line in, there was a big tangle of line. The fish came out of my hole eventually,” Geyer said.
“It was obvious from the start that we were together. One of his friends was trying to take my trap and my line. He was trying to get me to cut my line off. I stood up and was about a foot taller than him and he backed off,” Geyer said.
When Geyer pulled the fish up, it had two hooks in it, his and Donnelly’s. “We got into a big argument over it. It was more like a tug of war (for the fish). After we told them how things were going to be, he agreed,” Geyer said.
Geyer told Donnelly that he had a lobster boat so didn’t need the aluminum boat, and that Donnelly could have the boat if he paid Geyer for half of its value.
Tournament director Tom Noonan was called and “agreed with us. He said if you guys have come to an agreement it’s O.K. with me,” Geyer said.
Donnelly gave Geyer a check and kept the boat. The two men shared first place honors for the largest fish in the tournament. When asked how much money he got, Geyer said, “enough to go to Florida on.”
The Lakes Region Weekly quoted Donnelly as saying, “My line took off and it set someone else’s trap off. So the fish I’m fighting got hung up on this other guy’s line and we’re basically playing tug o’ war.” According to The Lakes Region Weekly, “Once Geyer agreed to reduce the slack on his line, Donnelly was able to bring the big fish up through Geyer’s hole, which he (Donnelly) said had a ‘bunch of other lines sinking into the hole.'”
Geyer firmly denies Donnelly’s accounting of events. “He told the papers he hauled the fish out of the hole, but it was a lie. His whole story was a lie,” Geyer said.
Eye witness Steve Nichols, of Bristol, verified Geyer’s story. “We were there around 4 a.m. and started drilling holes. Then this other guy Donnelly shows up and starts drilling holes 10-15 yards from us. In the 29,000 acre lake, we happened to pick his (Donnelly’s) GPS spot. He came and started crowding us out. At the end of the day, he took off to see his buddy on the other end of the lake. He was gone for an hour. His flag goes off and we yell over to them. He had a second flag, then Zach’s flag goes up. He (Donnelly) came back on the snowmobile. Zach hauled it up through his (Geyer’s) hole. It had two hooks in it, one was Zach’s and one was the other guy’s. For about 10-15 minutes we were arguing and yelling back and forth. It was pretty tense,” Nichols said.
Donnelly insisted the “fish was his. He (Donnelly) never pulled the fish up. We told him he shouldn’t have left his traps unattended,” Nicholls added.
In the end, cooler heads and “sportsmanship” prevailed. “It was pretty nice of Zach to offer to split the prize, instead of calling the game warden and reporting him for leaving his traps unattended,” Nicholls said.
Geyer came home with the fish, but both men are having mounts of the prize winner made, and both came home with a whopper of a fish tale.
