IDAHO — A Georgia woman fishing on the South Fork of the Snake River hauled in a monster brown trout recently, breaking the Idaho catch-and-release record.
Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG) stated in a July 1 press release that Caroline Langdale was fishing with a guide from the South Fork Lodge when she caught the hog on May 30. Brown trout are not native to Idaho waters, and those over 25 inches are rare. Langdale’s brownie measured in at 30.5 inches.
“I never dreamed when I started my day of fishing with Ed Emory of South Fork Lodge that God was going to bless me with a fish of a lifetime,” Langdale told IDFG.
Langdale was on a multiday fishing trip along the South Fork when she drifted her fly down a “massive hole” and noticed her indicator dip below the surface. IDFG said that she first believed she had snagged a root ball along the bottom before realizing it was a monster trout. The fight lasted nearly 10 minutes.
After measuring the fish, Langdale submitted the measurements and photos to IDFG’s Sportfishing Program Coordinator Martin Koenig, who verified the fish’s size and place in the record books.
“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,” Koenig said. According to IDFG, fish survey data on the South Fork has recorded more than 57,600 brown trout dating back to 1986. Only four brown trout have been documented to be over 30 inches in that time.
