Most times, fishing is a somewhat solitary pursuit. Anglers head out onto the water. They catch fish … or they don’t. And no matter how much they try to convince themselves otherwise, down deep they know the stories they tell … over and over and over … aren’t nearly as interesting to those who weren’t there at the time.

At other times, however, a fish is more than a fish. A trip is more than a trip. And word of a successful outing can spread through a town, a region, and the state.

Just ask Frank Bycenski. Or Dennis Derosier. Or Bowman Grant.

Grant is from Camden, and he’s the guy who caught the fish you’ll hear about in the next few minutes. But he’s not the guy who told me about it. Not at first. Not even close.

That was Bycenski – a guy who lives 300 or so miles away from Grant’s hometown – whose only real roles in the story (save publicizing it by making a single phone call) are these: He owns a store. He has a digital scale. And he was the man who made Bowman’s 8.64-pound landlocked salmon official.

Bycenski owns the Neighborhood Market in St. Agatha, a pretty hillside town in the St. John Valley that offers spectacular views of Long Lake.

This is how Bycenski’s tale began: “I thought you might want to know, yesterday morning a man who was visiting us from down state came in with a little fish.”

A little fish indeed.

Bycenski, for the record, was interested in publicizing Grant’s catch for a bit of a selfish reason: Good fishing on Long Lake means good business at the store. If there’s good fishing … and nobody knows about it? Well, I’m sure you can figure out the answer to that one, too.

Now meet Derosier. He didn’t catch the fish, either. He didn’t net it. He didn’t even weigh it. He did see it, and he built up Grant’s confidence by overestimating the fish’s weight.

Derosier owns Cozy Log Cabins. That’s the place Grant and his wife, daughter and son-in-law decided to stay during their week of fishing.

Derosier’s motives, he’ll admit, aren’t altogether altruistic, either. People aren’t as likely to travel all the way to St. Agatha, which is located between Fort Kent and Madawaska in northern Aroostook County, unless the fishing is good.

Grant’s fish was so good, Derosier wanted to tell everybody. He even took photos, and got Grant’s permission to use them on his Web site.

“The past two years have been dead,” Derosier said. “This week this guy caught this, and it stunned me. I didn’t think there were any more that size. It was nice to see.”

Now, let’s hear from Grant. After all, he’s the one who landed the 29-incher. He’s the one who thought he might have netted a 10- or 12-pounder.

And he’s the one who understands his fish has caused a bit of a stir.

“I was pretty excited myself,” Grant admitted Monday, a day after landing the fish.

Grant isn’t secretive. He’ll tell you that he caught the fish on the live bait locals call “tommycod.” He’ll tell you he was using a noodle rod, and that his downrigger was set to 21 feet.

He’ll even tell you that as of Monday afternoon, he and his party hadn’t caught another fish.

But the fish they did catch? That made it worthwhile.

“I’d just caught a small salmon on a smelt and spinners, and rebaited [that rod],” Grant said. “The guy with me said, ‘there’s a big fish at 20 feet [on the fish finder].’ I said, ‘Well, I’m at 21. I’ll leave it.’ I no more than said that, then off it went.”

Grant doesn’t know exactly how long he fought the fish, but says it was less than 15 minutes. And he didn’t know how big the fish was until late in the game.

“It got closer to the boat, maybe halfway, and made some really good runs, but I still wasn’t sure,” Grant said. “We got it 20 feet off the side of the boat and his nose and back came out of the water. I still didn’t know how good it was until we got it in the net.”

And it wasn’t until he got it to Bycenski’s store that he knew for sure.

Bycenski and Derosier hope the fish lures people up north for a trip. They hope it means fishing will improve.

Grant is just happy he and his fishing party decided to head north for the first time a few years ago.

“Years ago I used to see articles about the big fish,” Grant said. “Five or six years ago, we just took a ride to check it out. We used to fish Moosehead and First Roach, East Grand and West Grand.

Each enjoys a reputation among anglers, and each is worth a visit or two.

But no matter how the rest of his trip goes, Grant can say he caught the biggest landlocked salmon of his life on Long Lake.

Of course, he may not have to.

Derosier and Bycenski are perfectly willing to do that for him.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.