Georgia angler reels in new Idaho catch-and-release record brown trout

There on the end of her line was one bruiser of a brown trout, a 30.5-inch monster she hoisted proudly from the boat. With the help of her guide, Caroline stretched the brown trout along a tape measure and instantly was told she might have a shot at the state record.

Langdale submitted the measurements and photos to Fish and Game's Sportfish Coordinator, who verified the brown's size and place in the record books.

"What an amazing experience that I will always be thankful for," said Caroline Langdale.

Huge browns are rare

While brown trout over 30 inches in the South Fork Snake River are exceptionally rare, they do exist.

In fact, Fish and Game fisheries surveys captured a 33-inch brown in 2016 and another 33-inch fish as recently as 2024. This is mainly based on electrofishing, however.

"Really big fish can be difficult to capture our typical survey gear, so there's likely more of them out there since the data is a little biased by size," said Martin Koenig, Fish and Game's Sportfishing Program Coordinator.

According to fish survey data on the South Fork Snake River, biologists have recorded measurements of over 57,600 brown trout dating back all the way to 1986.

In all those years, surveys have documented only four brown trout over 30 inches. In other words, of all the brown trout captured during surveys, only 0.007% ever exceed 30 inches - that we know of.

"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.

Again, that's probably because the biggest trout live in places that are hard to reach with electrofishing, so there's probably more of them out than the survey data suggests. Even so, this is an exceptionally rare fish for this river.

More About Idaho's State Record Fish

Thinking about chasing a state record fish? Check out the state record fish page for more information.