FishRook
A fisherman who caught a huge tiger trout had tried to release it thinking it could grow to become a state record only to discover it was already of record size.
While fishing at Loon Lake 30 miles north of Spokane, Wash., Caylun Peterson landed a 24.49-pound tiger trout that eclipsed the previous record by six pounds, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Thursday.
Peterson, fishing early in the morning to avoid triple-digit heat on June 26, used a whole nightcrawler to entice the tiger trout into biting, and he knew it was a good fish right away.
“I hooked into that thing and he pulled drag for quite a while before it stopped,” Peterson said.
Once he landed the fish, he attempted to release it, but the fish was unable to swim away on its own.
“Honestly, I was ecstatic, but tried to let it go because I was thinking in my head that if this thing is this big now, in a year it might be a record,” Peterson said, laughing. “Well, it turned out it was a record…
