At 14 years old, Tucker Smith of China already describes himself as an avid fisherman.
He’s also lucky, according to his aunt Kayla Smith, who helped raise him after his father Justin Smith died in 2012. He already has his Big Buck patch after shooting a 224-pound, 8-point buck last fall. He also fishes for big bass and trout with his friends.
“He always gets the biggest or the most fish or the biggest deer,” Kayla said Tuesday.
That was a knack his father had as well, she said.
Tucker caught his latest big fish during the Belgrade Lakes Chain ice fishing derby last weekend. It was a 19.66 pound 45-inch pike.
He originally thought he had won the youth division with the big fish, but later found out he was just a year too old for that division. The winning fish was 15.85 pounds, according to the derby’s listing on its Facebook page. The winning adult division pike weighed 28.3 pounds. Second and third in that group were 24.25 and 22.81 pounds respectively.
Tucker’s dad had won the adult division in that derby with a pike years ago, she said.
The young fisherman started out with an 8-pound pike. A teen with a 15-pound pike came by, asking where the weigh station was, he said.
That motivated Tucker to shake things up a bit. He relocated a couple of traps and not 20 minutes later, one of his flags went up.
The fish was ambitious. It kept taking runs. After several attempts to swim away, it finally tired out and Tucker got it up to the hole, grabbed it and pulled it onto the ice. Usually the Smiths practice catch and release, but that doesn’t work in a fishing derby.
The Smiths were fishing in 40-50 feet of water and had about 18 inches of ice, they said. Kayla had only one flag all day, she said, and Tucker’s grandfather Virgil Smith didn’t have a flag all day.
In between flags, the Smiths warmed themselves in their insulated popup shack and Tucker rode the four-wheeler on the lake.
Tucker has been drawn to fishing ever since he could walk, Kayla said.
She described him running down to his grandfather’s pond that was stocked with trout, eager to fish. His first word was “fish,” she said.
“He keeps me on my toes, but it’s fun watching him in his element,” Kayla said.
A previous version of this story inaccurately listed Tucker Smith as the winner of the youth division of the derby.
