Behemoth State Record Northern Pike Caught in Idaho

Northern pike tend towards beefiness, but the specimen Thomas Francis pulled from Hayden Lake in North Idaho is a chonky beast even by its species’ standards.

The 40.76-pound, 49-inch-long pike edged out the previous Idaho record-holder, a 40.13-pounder caught in 2010. The fish was so big that it was a struggle to find a certified scale with the chops to provide an accurate weight.

“I immediately headed for the dock to try and find a boat with a scale and tape measure. We found a boat with a scale, and the fish pegged the scale out at 30 pounds, so we knew we needed to find a bigger scale,” the angler told IDFG.

Francis, an experienced pike angler, knew as soon as the fish hit his lure that he “had something special.”

“She pinned herself to the bottom…