Here's where you check your trivia skills on record fish caught in Idaho

November 5, 2014

Ready for your Idaho Record Fish Trivia Extravaganza Contest? Information on Idaho's record fish catches is available on the Idaho Fish and Game website. You now get a chance to see how well you fare on a few skill-testing questions from Idaho's record book: Q-1: Have any record fish been taken in Boundary County? A: Yes. Idaho's record burbot, a 14-pounder, was taken out of the Kootenai River in 1954. Other nearby waters have also yielded a few record setting fish. The current Idaho record Dolly Varden, Kamloops, and Lake Whitefish were taken from Lake Pend Orielle, and the current record holders for Kokanee and Mackinaw came from Priest Lake. Q-2: Has a 20 pound rainbow trout ever been caught in Idaho? A: Yes, by Michelle Larsen-Williams. She caught Idaho's record rainbow trout in the Snake River in 2009, fishing with a worm. That record rainbow was over 34 inches long--just short of a yard long. Q-3: What is the oldest, longest-standing record in the book that still stands and hasn't been surpassed? A: The oldest record in the book that still stands is the record 675 pound sturgeon caught in the Snake River on a set line way back in 1908, over a hundred years ago. The fisherman who captured that fish is unknown. The record still stands. And as we all know around here in Boundary County, sturgeon can no longer be legally harvested, going back many years. Q-4: So what is the oldest, most long-standing record for a fish that CAN be legally harvested, and that still has active fishing seasons? A: So far, no one in Idaho has beat the 37 pound Kamloops caught in Pend Orielle by Wes Hamlet 67 years ago, back in 1947. Q-5: What is Idaho's newest, most recent record fish? A: That would be just 18 days ago, when Ethan Crawford of Moscow hauled in a 9 pound, 6 ounce, nearly 31 inch ocean-run Coho from the Clearwater River (using a Vibrax spinner) just last month on October 18. He caught that record Coho the day after Idaho's first ever Coho season opened. It happens that Mr. Crawford is a fisheries biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Game. Idaho Fish and Game officials were not surprised to see a new Coho record set, since this was the first season for Coho, coming after the species was re-established in the Clearwater after many years work by the Nez Perce tribe, the Department of Fish and Game, and others. And after Fish and Game officials counted more than 15,000 adult Coho returning to the Clearwater this year--one factor leading to the establishment of the first ever Coho season. And, speaking of Mr. Crawford's record 9 pound, 6 ounce bruiser of a Coho, Joe DuPont, regional fisheries manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, had this to say: “I can tell you that there are many more out there that are even bigger.” If you're thinking you might want to try to land one of those big Coho, the season runs through November 16. Idaho's Record Fish register is available online. You can look over all the specs on all of Idaho's trophy record fish at this web address: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/public/fish/?getPage=82 Look it over, and maybe you can put together some of your own Idaho Record Fish Trivia Extravaganza.