A Georgia woman, Caroline Langdale, was fishing on the South Fork of the Snake River when she caught a massive 30.5-inch brown trout, breaking Idaho’s catch-and-release record.
The Record-Breaking Catch
Langdale was on a multiday fishing trip with a guide from the South Fork Lodge when she made the record-breaking catch. She drifted her fly down a “massive hole” and noticed her indicator dip below the surface, initially thinking she had snagged a root ball before realizing it was a monster trout. The fight lasted nearly 10 minutes.
After measuring the fish, Langdale submitted the measurements and photos to Idaho Fish and Game’s Sportfishing Program Coordinator Martin Koenig, who verified the fish’s size and place in the record books.
According to Koenig, even brown trout over 25 inches are rare on the South Fork, with only 30 brown trout over 25 inches ever recorded in electrofishing surveys. The fish survey data on the South Fork has recorded more than 57,600 brown trout dating back to 1986, with only four brown trout documented to be over 30 inches in that time.
Original reporting: Buckrail (Jackson WY) — read the source article.
