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New Idaho state brown trout landed in Ashton
Posted on: November 08, 2007
Idaho Falls-Wes Case knew there were some big brown trout in Ashton Reservoir, but he wasn’t thinking “state record” big when he went fishing on November 6th. Yet, when he landed the 37 inch behemoth, he knew it had to be one of the biggest brown trout ever caught in Idaho. In fact, it was. A certified scale and a verified identification by Dan Garren, Regional Fishery Biologist with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game confirmed the 27.3 pound fish is indeed the new state record. The previous record was a 26 ½ pound fish caught from the South Fork of the Snake River in 1981.
Case, an Ashton resident, has fished Ashton Reservoir for years, but prior to Wednesday, an 8 pound brown trout was the biggest he’d ever caught. Landing the fish was no easy feat, given that Case was only using 8 lb test line. “It took me about an hour to land it” he said, “it headed out to deep water and just laid there, so I just kept the pressure on it”. But fighting the fish was only half the battle. Case, who was fishing from the shore, was by himself and didn’t have a landing net. “I had to scramble down the rocks and through the brush to land it. When I finally got it up on the bank, I just sat on the shore and stared at it for about 10 minutes” he said. “It was totally amazing”.
According to Garren, who examined the fish after it had been skinned by the taxidermist, the stomach contained two partially digested hatchery rainbow trout about ten to twelve inches, and scales from a very large sucker. Based on the otoliths, or ear-stones, which are used to estimate ages of fish, Garren said the fish was at least ten and maybe eleven years old. “I’m guessing that fish had eaten a lot of rainbow trout and suckers in its years”.
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About Dave Langston
Outdoor writer Dave Langston resides in Chubbuck. He grew up in the Midwest and south fishing and hunting across the country.
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