September 08, 2008

Mapleton, ME – The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife confirms that an 11-year-old young man from Mapleton has caught a record-setting Arctic Charr, breaking a 35-year-old record.

Carter McLaughlin, 11, of Mapleton, caught the charr on Aug. 20 at Pushineer Pond in T15 R9. According to IF&W Assistant Fisheries Biologist Frank Frost, who measured the fish, the record-setter was 25.4 inches in total length and weighed 5.24 pounds.

The previous record weighed 4 pounds, 4 ounces and was 22-3/8-inches long. It was caught by Merton Wyman of Belgrade on Basin Pond on May 5, 1973.

What makes this fish a “truly incredible catch” is its overall size and weight as well as the fact that it was caught in one of Maine’s 12 native charr waters, according to Peter Bourque, a supervisor in IF&W’s Fisheries Division. The previous record (1973) was taken from a then-newly introduced population of Arctic Charr, which also are known by the name “blueback trout.” New introductions tend to seek out new niches where they will often grow beyond normal sizes, Bourque said.

According to IF&W records, the fish that was caught in 1973 was one of 27 adult “bluebacks” stocked in Basin Pond in 1969. The 27 adult fish originally came from Wadleigh Pond in Piscataquis County and were part of a fishery research project to perpetuate the blueback trout in waters other than those in which they occurred naturally.