Thunder Bay angler surprised by huge pike

Surprise Lake north of Thunder Bay, Ont. made good on its name this week when an angler caught a giant pike there by accident.

Matt Taylor was headed back to shore with his catch a small fish attached to a stringer when he sensed something tugging at the boat.

Taylor reached over to pull in the stringer, and saw a 1.25 m pike trailing behind.

"I saw this huge snake. A huge, huge fish," he said.

"So, I put the boat in neutral and I tried to get it into the net. But it was so big that it wouldn't fold to get into the net."

Taylor eventually managed to get the fish in the net and then into the boat.

"I didn't know what to think," he said. "It was just, ... crazy. I was just in shock."

Once on shore, Taylor used a rope to get the pike out of the boat.

Afterwards, he had his picture taken with the fish and then his mom fileted it into steaks. Taylor said 20 people werefed from the catchand there wasstill somefish meatleft over.