Roy Day – a true outdoorsman | Lewiston Sun Journal - The Bethel Citizen

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Day holding his fishing pole. This photo is believed to be more than 80 years old. Submitted photo.

WOODSTOCK — Living to 90 is uncommon. Living to 100 is rare. Hunting and fishing at 100 – now that’s almost unheard of, unless you’re Woodstock native Roy Day.

Born on June 24, 1916, Day grew up in a farmhouse on the Gore Road along with two older half-sisters and a younger brother. Outside of a short period following high school and his time in the military, Woodstock has been Day’s only home. And he has definitely not wasted any of his days there.

An avid hunter and fisherman since childhood, Day spent much of his life hunting Maine’s vast woods and fishing its many bodies of water. His daughter, Mary Day, said she remembers her father being gone most weekends – either fishing or hunting, though the former was always his favorite.

“He always had his fishing pole with him, no matter what,” said Mary.

And he really did bring his pole everywhere. Even when he was stationed in the Aleutian Islands during World War II.

Pictures show Day and friends shooting at fish in the Aleutian Islands during his stay there, too, a different way of getting fish.

While in the service, Day earned the nickname “precision” given to him by the other men he served alongside with. When he came home after the war, he brought that preciseness back with him.

So much so, that after he returned he began keeping a record of every fish he caught. He documented his catches in several different notebooks, all of which he still has today. The details in his notebook don’t end after species of fish, either. On top of that, Day often wrote down the time of day he left and the time he returned home following a fishing trip. He also kept track of the date, how many fish he caught, the largest fish he caught, what the weather was like and the location of his fishing hole. And he had many fishing holes in the area.

Day also had a small section in his notebook labeled “remarks,” where he would write very briefly about how the fishing went and who he went with, among other things.

In Day’s notes, it’s clear he targeted brook trout more than any other fish. The bulk of his catches were brookies, as he referred to them in his notes, but he caught other types as well, including: rainbow trout, brown trout, salmon, yellow perch, white perch, pickerel, bass, smelt, chub, cusk, bluefish, hornpout and togue.

He did a lot of his fishing on Maine’s many rivers, lakes and streams but sometimes ventured into New Hampshire and occasionally traveled with friends to New York to fish for salmon.

He also recorded many animals he shot during hunting season. One of his more notable kills was a 201 pound albino deer.

Roy Days sons, John and George, stand next to his albino deer, which he shot in the fall of 1952. Submitted photo.

Sadly, Day had to give up to his days of fishing at 101. He also gave up driving that same year, another difficult thing for him to let go of, considering his love for driving Maine’s abundance of back roads.

Now at age 104, he can reflect back on memories of fishing and hunting, dating back decades, all thanks to his precision.

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