To the editor:
Just 88 years ago, on May 30, 1929, my mother, Ina Porter, caught an 11-pound landlocked salmon, 31 inches long, setting a record for the largest one taken from Nickerson Lake.
Porter had guided the quarter-horse motor on the Old Town boat, which had air-filled sponsons along the top to keep it from rolling over. The fish had put up quite a fight, according to Porter, as he told us the story many years later. When people asked exactly where they were located on the Lake, they had kept it to themselves.
Once the fish returned from the taxidermist, it went into a glass case above the bookcase with a glass door on the front porch. We kids found the fish a bit scary with the wide-open mouth and the eye staring down at us.
We saw Ina as a heroine for reeling him in as Porter wielded the net.
At some point, the sun coming in the windows surrounding the porch finally took its toll and started to bleach the fish. Ina put a piece of cloth over it to protect it from further discoloring.
Years later, the fish was rescued by my brother’s widow when she and their kids were visiting. They left it in the New Limerick Town Office, and later an accomplished local woodworker built a beautiful case for it.
Porter, then 44, printed a little sign with his portrait of Ina, which he labeled “A Portergraph,” and identified his 29-year-old wife as Mrs. O.B. Porter. Missing from his sign is the significance of the date as their third wedding anniversary and Memorial Day.
Byrna Porter Weir
Rochester, N.Y.
