Six-wheel ATV keeps Jandreau in fish tales

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Even now, nearly eight years after the accident that changed his life forever, Philip Jandreau doesn’t allow himself to play the what-if game.

What if I’d done something differently? What if that tree stayed up for a second longer? What if I hadn’t turned my back?

What if I could still move my legs?

Never played that game, Jandreau says … and you believe him.

Never will, he tells you … and you believe that, too.

“I went to work in the woods that morning and probably around 8 o’clock there was a tree I had cut [that] stayed up,” Jandreau says, reliving the moment without emotion. “I was going back to the skidder and [the tree] fell off the hinge and caught me in the back.”

Jandreau, then 39, a career logger from St. Francis, instantly knew the severity of his injury.

“I wasn’t pinned, but I knew my back was broke. I knew that my legs, I didn’t feel them,” he says. “I knew I lost that, too.”

Jandreau has undoubtedly told his tale countless times over the last 71/2 years. But over the weekend, his story took on new meaning for the scores of sportsmen who flocked to Aroostook County.

The Fort Kent International Muskie Derby has quickly grown over its three-year run, and 416 anglers entered this year’s edition of the event.

When the dust finally settled and the sizeable cash prizes were handed out, there was Philip Jandreau, sitting in his wheelchair, telling his tale again … and grinning as a stream of well-wishers stopped to shake his hand.

“I’m probably working harder now than I was when I was walking,” Jandreau says, itemizing a long list of chores that he performs for himself and others.

Jandreau remains paralyzed from his sternum down. But his backyard is his responsibility, and he mows and trims it himself. And those elderly ladies in town whose husbands have passed away? Jandreau takes care of their outdoor chores as well.

Since his accident, Jandreau’s fishing time had decreased dramatically, he says. Once or twice a year, his brother-in-law took him out in a boat for some spring fishing.

And that was about it.

Until, that is, last August, when Jandreau bought a machine that made the woods and waters of Aroostook County accessible to him once again.

That machine, a go-anywhere (more or less) six-wheeled amphibious ATV, is formally called an “Argo.”

To Jandreau, it’s more than that.

To him, you might as well call that Argo “freedom.”

On Saturday and Sunday, Jandreau drove his Argo over a steep bank and down into the St. John River and covered plenty of fish-filled waters in search of his first muskie.

It didn’t take long for him to find it: He caught a small fish Saturday morning and lost two larger ones.

Then, on Sunday morning, he really hooked up … then discovered he had a small problem.

The banks of the St. John River consisted largely of ledges in the place where he was fishing, and he had nowhere to land his Argo … and no net.

“I drifted down the river probably a thousand feet before I could find a place to come to shore,” he says. “When I did, the fish was still active.”

His son, Jacob, and Steve Pelletier were fishing nearby and came to shore to lend a hand.

Two swipes of an undersized net were all it took to convince the fishermen that a new tactic was needed.

“Steve told Jake to grab it by the tail,” Jandreau says.

That plan worked perfectly.

A few hours later (after heading to Fort Kent to get the fish weighed and measured, and after rushing back to the river in order to try to catch a larger muskie), Jandreau sat in the crowd at “Muskie Central” and accepted the congratulations of dozens of other anglers and townsfolk.

Some knew all about his 1999 accident. Others didn’t. And everyone was smiling when Jandreau’s name was called.

Jandreau didn’t win the tournament with his 411/2-inch fish. That’s the reason he headed back to the St. John River after registering the muskie with derby personnel. But he did come in second and won $2,500 for his efforts.

In a tournament marked by hit-or-miss fishing for theoretically plentiful critters, there were plenty of anglers who headed home having seen nothing resembling a muskie.

And there was Philip Jandreau, sitting proudly, having enjoyed one of the most successful weekends of all.

Yes, Jandreau remembers his accident. He remembers the lessons it taught him. But he doesn’t dwell on any of that. The future, after all, awaits. And that’s all he can control.

“Just prior to [the accident] I’d had a divorce, and I had a hard time with it,” he says. “I thought I had hit rock bottom back then, during the summer before I got hurt.”

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

“When I got hurt, I had time to think and I said, ‘Well, I guess I didn’t hit rock bottom,'” he says. “But from that morning on, I didn’t look back. It was just straight ahead.”

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