Many moons ago, perhaps a dozen years or more, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek column for the Recorder that related the Legend of “Sackie”, Great Sacandaga’s huge northern pike.

The response to that column was far greater than I had expected and I not only received calls from local and area anglers but also from DEC personnel in Ray Brook and Albany who found the story humorous and interesting and took the time to call and tell me so.

In the ensuing years I’ve had a number of requests to republish the story and with the ice fishing season upon us, I thought I’d also share it with readers of the Sacandaga Express since the subject of the story is  a Sacandaga fish and Sacandaga anglers. Perhaps this is the best time to do it, so here it is, in its entirety, as it appeared in my Recorder column many moons ago, with only the slightest of modifications made in the interests of clarity.

Were the salient points of the following story not relayed to me by an unimpeachable source I would not even bother to repeat it but it now seems we may have a talking mystery fish in Great Sacandaga. And why not? Lake Champlain has “Champ” and Loch Ness has “Nessie” so why can’t we have our own strange creature - lets call it “Sackie” for lack of a better name.

The saga of Sackie began a few weeks ago when Vern Duesler of Northville headed out onto the lake for a day of ice fishing.

Armed with all the accoutrements necessary for a long stay on the ice, Vern thought of everything including plenty of big pike bait, extra terminal tackle, food, liquid refreshment, warm clothes - the works. He even brought along his brand new two-way radio to keep in touch and compare notes with fellow anglers a few miles down the lake.

Fishing was a trifle slow that day so when one of his flags popped Vern wasted no time in getting to the tipup. Line was peeling off the reel at a prodigious rate and as he braced himself to set the hook on what had to be a huge northern the darned radio - still on - fell out of his pocket and right into the hole. In his haste to retrieve it before it sank out of sight he brushed his arm against the tipup reel, snubbing it just enough for the big northern to spit the hook.

In the blink of an eye he lost not only a huge pike but his brand new Motorola radio as well. Efforts to snag the radio with big treble hooks were unsuccessful and a dejected Vern soon abandoned the lake and headed for home.

Now we fast forward a few days and find another angler fishing in the same general area. Similar scenario - slow day and then finally a flag and line peeling off the reel at warp speed.

This time things went a bit better and the angler set the hook on what was a solid 40 pound pike. After skillfully playing the fish for 30 minutes he finally got it out of the hole and into his arms. Looking down at this fish-of-a-lifetime he declared, “ Fifty years I’ve been trying to catch a pike like this and you’re finally mine!”

Now the story turns really weird. Immediately after that jubilant declaration a voice emanated from the fish’s mouth, “That you Vern? Where ya been, Vern?”

Startled, the angler, whose name will not be divulged here because his family says he’s since gone out of town “for a rest,” dropped the fish only to see it fall back into the hole and disappear into the lake - hook, leader and all.

As near as I can reconstruct the details of those fateful encounters, what happened was that the big pike Vern almost caught ended up swallowing his radio and because Vern went into virtual seclusion after losing radio and fish, his friends thought he was still out on the lake and they had been trying to reach him, hence the voice that emanated from the fish when the second angler caught it.

Vern has since emerged from hiding but refuses to discuss the matter with anyone.

It’ll likely take a few months or more for the pike’s stomach acids to dissolve that sturdy radio, and with a brand new set of batteries in it, Vern’s Motorola will likely remain viable right through early May. All I can suggest is that if you’re out pike fishing in May when the statewide season reopens and you hear a faint voice calling for Vern, get ready because Sackie is in your vicinity.

Also, if you do manage to hook and land that big pike, please try to get Vern’s radio back for him.

There you have it - the revisited legend of “Sackie”, Great Sacandaga Lake’s giant northern pike.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

My sincerest wishes to all of you for a very Merry Christmas. Drive carefully and defensively this holiday season and we’ll meet here next week to usher out this year and then welcome in 2012.