LEWISTON – This isn’t the fish story Rick Webb wanted to tell.

“This was a good fish, and it would have been a good story, but it almost caught my life,” he said.

Webb, owner of Webb’s Market on Pine Street, was out on Carr Pond – about 17 miles west of Portage in northern Maine – at about 5:30 Saturday morning, fishing from his 14-foot Grumman boat. That’s when he hooked the whopper.

“It had to be about 30 to 36 inches long,” he said. “And strong, too. At first, I thought I hooked a log.”

He found out just how strong it was when he pulled it up alongside his boat and reached down to take it in.

“It kind of kicked and I just lost my balance,” he said. He toppled into the 45-degree water and spent the next hour struggling to get back into his boat.

“One thing I do know: When you fall in, you don’t leave your boat,” he said. He wasn’t in danger of drowning, he said. He’s a strong enough swimmer and was wearing a safety jacket.

“But I was wearing boots and wool clothes,” he said. His concern was hypothermia. He figured he didn’t have much time before his body temperature dropped and he froze to death.

“I’m kind of embarrassed, but I couldn’t get back into my boat,” he said. “I’ve got a bit of a belly and I could pull myself up on top of the engine, but I just couldn’t get that belly over the top.”

The water was cold, and his hands turned white, he said. But he didn’t get worried until his legs started to cramp up.

That’s when he spied Roger Fortier, who was camping nearby. Fortier, a Sabattus resident, was headed out on the pond himself in a small kayak when Webb saw him.

“I started yelling as loud as I could, and he saw me and started to come over,” Webb said. “I think the first thing I said to him was, ‘You should’ve seen the fish I just lost.'”

Fortier radioed his wife Pam and pulled Webb and his boat back to shore. The pair dried Webb off, got him into a warm shower and fed him hot soup and some breakfast.

“I was back out on the lake, later that afternoon,” Webb said.

He partly blamed his ordeal on poor sleep the night before. A family of bats sharing his cabin kept him up all night.

“I’m used to the water,” he said. “I’ve been out in Sebago Lake in 4-foot waves and never had a problem. This was just more embarrassing than anything else.”

He’s learned his lesson. Next time, he’ll keep an air horn with him – just in case he falls.

“I’ll have a whole system set up,” he said.