“We were just moving forward.  I got a pair [of pike] right off the bat, and as we were jumping in spots, and when that fish hit – like judging by the weight and how it hit – I could tell it was a good fish,” Sampson tells CTV News Toronto.
“I just assumed it was a big pike, apparently.”
As Sampson reeled in the fish, he initially thought he was hooked on the line with how much weight there was.  Then he noticed what color it was.
“As soon as I saw it was a muskie, my knees immediately turned to jelly.  They just, like, buckled,” he said.
Muskie, officially known as muskellunge, is a type of fish related to the northern pike and is usually a light silver, green or brown color with stripes.  Northern pike tend to be darker with lighter markings.
Sampson estimates the catch was 43-and-a-quarter inches and weighed just under 20 pounds, though he adds that he didn’t have the equipment to safely weigh the fish.  While that’s a decent size, he notes that muskies can reach the mid-50-inch range.
“We knew it was a unicorn, just as there are apparently muskies in Lake Ontario, [but] in Toronto Harbor it’s extremely unheard of,” Sampson said, later adding that you can usually find the bow and the occasional walleye in these waters
Sampson, a sport fish guide who says he’s been fishing his whole life, tells CTV Toronto he’s caught a muskie before, but this is the first, ever, in this area.
He could not determine why there were muskies in Toronto Harbour, but notes that there are plenty of them at the mouth of the Niagara River and across Lake Ontario near Kingston.
Muskies once thrived in the waters surrounding the Toronto Islands about 200 years ago, according to the City of Toronto.
“After the arrival of Europeans, a series of changes led to the destruction or degradation of fish habitat,” says the city’s guide, Fishes of Toronto.
“A total of 15 exotic fish species were either deliberately introduced for food and recreation, or introduced through navigation channels or ocean liner ballast.  Today, populations of most native fish have declined dramatically, and 10 species have completely disappeared.”