As far as fishing records go, this one was kind of a surprise.
On March 3, Robbie Dockter of Conrad set a new Montana state record for brown trout, catching a 32-pound, 6-ounce fish.
Dockter’s fish broke the old state record for brown trout of 29 pounds for a fish caught by E.H. Peck Bacon in Wade Lake south of Ennis, in 1966. For now Bacon’s fish is still listed in the state record books.
The 37-inch fish was caught in an undisclosed reach of the Marias River. I’m guessing it wasn’t too far from Tiber Reservoir, where the fish likely found the forage necessary to get that big. You don’t grow 32-pound trout on a diet of mayflies; they need forage fish to put on that kind of weight.
Despite topping the old brown trout record, Dockter’s fish is only the third largest record trout ever caught in the state. The largest is a 42.69-pound lake trout caught in Flathead Lake in 2004. The second largest is a 33.1-pound rainbow trout caught in…