A massive muskie pulled through the ice on Greenwood Lake is stirring up a little interstate rivalry.
The 45.02-pound fish, caught Feb. 24 by Warwick, N.Y., angler Victor Gelman, appears poised to set a New Jersey state record. But because Greenwood Lake sits directly on the border between New York and New Jersey, there's been some debate about which state actually gets to claim the fish.
Either way, it's an absolute giant.
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Gelman — who owns the Warwick Chocolate Company — was icefishingalone on the lake when he hooked the fish of a lifetime.
"I was all alone, sitting in a chair that morning watching my tip-ups with live 8-to-10-inch sucker baits below the ice," GelmantoldOutdoor Life. "The wind was blowing 25 miles per hour, and the temperature was about 20 degrees. It was right after the blizzard of the century when I got on the ice at 8 a.m., and the fish didn’t bite until 4 p.m."
After eight hours in brutal conditions, he finally got the only bite of the day. And it was a good one.
When the flag popped on his tip-up roughly 80 yards away, Gelman hurried over and began hand-pulling the line.
"I pulled on the line, and it was like having a tug-of-war with a Rottweiler," the 47-year-old angler said.
When the fish's head finally appeared at the ice hole, he knew he had something special.
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