40-POUND PIKE BREAKS IDAHO RECORD!

This 40.76-pound northern pike is a new Idaho state record. It beat the existing 13-year-old record by a little more than half a pound.

Avid pike fisherman Thomas Francis landed the monster fish on March 21 from Hayden Lake in northern Idaho. The fish was more than 4 feet long, with an official length of 49 inches and an impressive girth of 26.5 inches.

Francis told Idaho Fish and Game he specifically targets big pike almost every day. In late March, ice still ringed the banks at Hayden Lake, so Francis was casting his lure up to the edge of the ice.

“When my lure hit the water, I let it sink all the way to the bottom,” he said. “As soon as my lure hit the bottom, I felt her hit. I fish with 80-poundtest line, and she almost immediately started peeling drag, a lot of it.

“She pinned herself to the bottom and just kept going, peeling drag the whole time,” he continued. “I knew that wasn’t normal, and I could tell it was something special.”

The IGFA all-tackle world record northern pike was caught in Germany in 1986. It weighed 55 pounds, 1-ounce.

For more information, visit idfg.idaho.gov.