The call was from Senator Edmund S. Muskie’s office. The date was February 1, 1975. The senator came to the telephone and the request was that we meet in Bangor and spend a day ice fishing.

One of Maine’s most famous natural resources, it happens also that Muskie has been a lifelong advocate of fowling and fishing. He was no stranger to goose and duck hunting off Maryland’s eastern shore nor Merrymeeting Bay in his home state. His angling exploits, from boyhood in his home town of Rumford, have taken him the full length and width of Maine.

Thus it was no surprise that the man who rose to become governor, U.S. Senator and then, before retirement, U.S. Secretary of State, would want to spend a day on a frozen lake where only the hardiest humans confront the blustery winds that blow in our northern climes.

I suggested that we fish in the then seventh annual Brewer Kiwanis Club Ice Fishing Tournament.

“Fine,” answered Muskie, “When I get to Bangor, I’ll call you and make plans for the day.”

A call was made to George “Big O” Ovseychek, who along with his wife Jed, owned and operated a general store in north Ellsworth. I figured this might be an ideal one-day marriage, since both Muskie and Big O were Polish and both treated the fiery sausage that Jeddy would prepare for our noon lunch as something delivered from heaven.

Muskie and I met at the Main Street Holiday Inn at 6 a.m. and departed immediately for Ellsworth where we were to join up with Ovseychek before heading out to Green Lake. It was a bitter cold day. A field of more than 2,000 fishermen plumbed the depths of Green Lake, Branch Pond, Phillips Lake, Hopkins Pond and Beech Hill Pond.

For some reason, Muskie’s presence as a tournament participant was hardly known. There had been no advance word that the popular Maine senator would be one of the anglers.

The Big O drove us to the fishing grounds, a cove in the Green Lake Narrows where the ice measured 23 inches. No one ever accused George Ovseychek of being short on equipment. He took the wraps off a power auger and began punching holes in the thick blue ice as Muskie set the first trap.

There are two methods of fishing through a hole in the ice: one is the tip up, trap and bait technique and the other is to jig an artificial bait off the lake floor. Coming from the old school, Muskie chose the trap and bait. He cleared the first hole with a scoop and put down the first bait – a four-inch smelt, a refrigerated victim captured earlier in the 1974 open water season.

Muskie continued baiting and setting the traps while Big O completed the drilling. In a matter of minutes, Muskie wheeled and shouted, “Got a flag … fish on!” Muskie used the same long strides that once earned him a track letter at Bates College, only this time, the senator was dashing to a fishing reel that was rapidly running out of line.

Muskie tightened up and began reeling in the taker.

“This is a good fish. Strong,” he said.

The word soon spread to hundreds of fishermen on Green Lake that Senator Muskie was fishing in the narrows. The snowmobile traffic picked up and when word flashed that Muskie was into a good fish, an audience of 30 or so stood by and congratulated the smiling senator. He’d landed an 8-pound, 2-ounce lake trout within the first half-hour of the five-lake tournament.

By day’s end, anglers had put some good scores on tournament chairman Lew Arsenault’s sheet. Dick Laffin of Bangor landed the day’s heaviest fish, a 10 pounder out of Green Lake. Then there were 7-pounders or better by Harry Roberts of Rockland and by Ellsworth police officer John Clough.

Laffin’s 10-pounder took the heavyweight title while Muskie’s catch earned him the day’s division honors for togue landing. By taking division honors, Muskie won a new sleeping bag.

Photographer Norman “Spike” Webb, covering the tournament action for this newspaper, heard Muskie was on hand and photographed the senator and his catch moments after the fish came to surface. The picture shown here was published the day after the tournament and was immediately picked up by the Associated Press wire service for national distribution.

Muskie returned to his Washington office while newspapers throughout America were publishing Webb’s photo. Senate colleagues soon began filing into Muskie’s office carrying hometown newspapers and kiddingly demanding a blow-by-blow description of the feat.

The senator used the moment to declare that his catch “was a small trout by Maine standards. You gentlemen in other states need to visit Maine and get a taste of real life.”

One senator laughingly responded, “Not in the wintertime, Ed, and not for ice fishing.”

Weeks after the happening, Muskie wrote to say, “In all my years in public service, I have never been so publicly acclaimed as I have in taking this one fish. I’ve even had mail from all over the country, and much of it, from Republicans.”

Winter fishermen have an ally in Senator Muskie.

“The sport, I have found, affords people an opportunity to see and enjoy Maine in the dead of winter. Ice fishing is for the hardiest folk, and the ones I know who fish in the dead of winter, are top of the line StateL