New Idaho Sturgeon Record

[wiperhunter2]

Wow, what a monster, "Hey Kent, you jealous much?" In the back ground it looks like a guide might have put them on that fish.

The article also makes reference to a new channel cat record from CJ Strike.  But on that link you have to subscribe to the newspaper to get the info.  Here is a reprint of a notice in Outdoor Life

Angler Paul Newman of Fruitland, Idaho, was looking to catch sturgeon when he set out on C.J. Strike Reservoir last Wednesday. Instead he caught a new catch-and-release state-record channel catfish.
According to Martin Koenig, Idaho’s Natural Resource Program Coordinator, Newman’s heavyweight channel cat measured 42.5 inches long. That’s plenty long enough to better the former catch-and-release record channel catfish of 33 inches, set by Reed Monson at Lake Lowell in 2020.

Before releasing the channel cat, Newman weighed the fish on a hand-held digital scale, which registered 37 pounds. That means Newman’s fish would have most likely beaten Idaho’s current certified weight record for channel catfish—a 32.9-pound, 36.5-inch fish that was caught by angler Cody Kastner on June 16. As Koenig pointed out, that record fish also came out of C.J. Strike Reservoir.
However, to earn the overall state record title, Newman would have had to weigh his catfish on certified scales, which would have meant killing it. It’s possible that he could have kept the fish alive to reach a location with certified scales, and then released it, but this is always a risky proposition.

Wow, that is a monster cat, with a size that big I wonder if the guy thought he had a small sturgeon on before he got it in.