During the winter you likely heard about the world-record fish Keith Ouellette caught while ice-fishing at Long Lake.

As it turns out, Ouellette’s record-setting fish wasn’t the first nor only record-setting fish caught in the Fish River chain of lakes last season.

Over the weekend I received a notification letter from the folks at the National Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame in Hayward, Wis., that told of another fish caught just four days before Ouellette’s 12.78-pound landlocked salmon.

While fishing at Cross Lake on Jan. 24, Winfield Bowden of Sinclair landed a 241/4-inch brook trout that weighed in at 6 pounds even. The fish sported a girth of 141/2 inches.

According to the hall, that makes Bowden’s fish a world record in the ice fishing, tip-up category.

Ouellette’s fish was also recognized as a record in the ice-fishing, tip-up category.

Bowden, who said he fishes nearly every day during the winter, had caught one other fish that Tuesday morning. When his flag flew for the second time, it signaled the beginning of a lengthy battle.

Bowden fought the fish in just four or five feet of water for about 15 minutes, during which the hefty trout made several passes near the hole.

“I’d get it toward the hole and I guess it would see the light and it would take off,” Bowden said. “Every time it swam by the hole my heart would start beating pretty hard. I didn’t know how much more of that I could take.”

Eventually he winched the fish onto the ice, and was amazed at what he saw.

“It was a brute,” he said. “When I got it up through the hole my wife [said] it looked like some prehistoric beast.”

And with the beast on the ice, Bowden decided to quit fishing … and start talking.

“I wanted to brag a little bit, so I had to take it out to the store to get it weighed,” Bowden said with a laugh. “There’s always people hanging around out there, so it was a good chance to brag a little, I thought.”

As I learned after telling you about Ouellette’s fish, a quick disclaimer is necessary in cases like this: Bowden’s fish is a world record. But nobody can say whether it’s actually the biggest brookie ever taken on a tip-up … or even the biggest taken in Maine.

Any list of fishing records is only as complete as anglers make it, and chances are good that somewhere, somebody caught one bigger and simply didn’t send in the necessary documentation for it to be recognized by a record.

That became readily apparent shortly after Ouellette’s fish story was published: In no time other fishermen began calling to say that they’d caught a landlocked salmon through the ice that was even larger than the record.

Especially fired up were the friends of Jim Albert of Glenburn. Back in 2002, Albert caught a landlocked salmon that weighed 13 pounds, 4 ounces while ice-fishing at Schoodic Lake.

The mount is on Albert’s wall … but the fish was never ratified as a record.

All of which shouldn’t detract from Bowden’s tale, of course.

Maybe my phone will begin ringing again this morning with stories from other anglers who caught bigger fish through the ice … or maybe not.

Whatever the case may be, there’s no dismissing this fact: Bowden’s brookie is certainly one he can be very proud of.

And the fact that he sent the proper documentation to the hall of fame means the rest of us get to appreciate the story, too.

‘Gumby’ gets national ink

For many of the river vultures who roost at Six Mile Falls during the annual Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race, the day isn’t complete until they see a few things.

Swamped boats, for one.

Zip Kellogg, standing in his canoe, for another.

And (of course) the Gumby boat.

This year, the paddlers of that boat – who dress up in green costumes and compete in the race with an inflatable Gumby amidships – got more attention than ever, thanks to a national sports publication.

In the April 24 issue of Sports Illustrated, the Gumby crew is featured in the Scorecard section under a “Picture this” caption.

The photo was taken by Robert F. Bukaty of the Associated Press.

The folks at SI weren’t above taking a few potshots at the green team, either.

“An inflatable Gumby is nice, but the team of Daryl Boyington, Toby Day and Larry Doucette picked the wrong claymation figure for their entry in the 40th annual Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race,” the SI cutline read. “Judging by their 49th-place finish, Pokey would have been the better choice. There were 339 boats in the 16.5-mile race, held every spring in Kenduskeag, Maine. Said Boyington of his extra passenger, ‘If you can’t be fast, be funny.'”

Congratulations to the entire Gumby group – one paddler was obscured in the photo – for its continued efforts to keep the mood at Six Mile Falls nice and light … and for gaining some nice publicity for Bangor’s annual rite of spring.

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