Holy Moses! This is one BIG TROUT!

[dewman]

Boise teen may have hooked a state record for rainbow trout
If the gutted fish weighs more than 19 pounds, Jake Cecil would shatter the record from 1947.


Photo courtesy of Jake Cecil
Jake Cecil holds a giant rainbow trout he caught from the Boise River below Lucky Peak Dam (about 15 miles S.E. of Boise). The fish measured 30 inches long with a 25-inch girth.

Edition Date: 12/07/07


Did another state record fish get caught?
We may never know, but there's no doubt Jake Cecil of Boise pulled a monster rainbow trout from a very unlikely place.

Cecil, 16, was fishing with a worm in the Boise River below Lucky Peak Dam on Thanksgiving weekend when he hooked a large rainbow trout.

"I set the hook, and the fight was on," Cecil said.

It surfaced once, and he got his first look at the fish.

"My eyes just went like dinner plates," Cecil said.

He was fishing with 8-pound test line, and he estimated it took between 10 and 20 minutes to land the fish.

His brother, Nick Wheeler of Boise, helped land it, and then "we just kind of stood in awe," Cecil said.

He snapped a picture with his cell phone, but it didn't come out.

They went to their grandfather, Tom Money of Boise, and he took another photo.

Cecil had already gutted the fish at the river, and said he didn't even think about it being a possible state record.

He said the fish measured 30 inches long with a 25-inch girth.

According to formulas that estimate fish weights based on length and girth, its live weight would have been more than 23 pounds. That would shattered the former record of 19 pounds taken from Hayden Lake by R.M. Williams in 1947.

Money said he thinks it would have easily broken the old state record. He added that he knew Cecil's trout wasn't a steelhead because it had its adipose fin, which are removed from all hatchery steelhead that are planted in the river.

Cecil said the fish is in his freezer, and he plans to have it weighed.

If the gutted fish tops 19 pounds, he will have a new state record. If not, he will still have a great story about the big one that did not get away.

Idaho Department of Fish and Game biologist Jeff Dillon described the fish as "a freak of nature."

Dillon, who manages fisheries in the Southwest Idaho, said he's never seen a trout that big during surveys of either the Boise River or Lucky Peak Reservoir.

"I haven't seen anything close to that big," Dillon said.

He described the habitat below the dam as "awful" because the sandy bottom produces few insects that normally feed trout.

But he also said a trout doesn't grow that big by eating insects, and it could have fed on other fish that flushed through the dam.

"I don't really have a good explanation how it grew that big in that part of the river," Dillon said. "Clearly that fish found a good place to be."

Cecil's fish comes on the heels of two state records that have fallen and another potential record fish that was released.

Last month, Wes Case of Ashton landed a new state record brown trout from Ashton Reservoir. The fish weighed over 27 pounds.

In July, Cliff Watts of Weiser caught the new state record white crappie from Crane Creek Reservoir. The fish weighed 3 pounds, 8 ounces.

Last summer, Mike Baker of Kuna caught and released a largemouth bass estimated to weigh between 10 and 11 pounds. The current record is 10 pounds, 15 ounces.

[Sauconian]

"My eyes just went like dinner plates,"

Known in my day as " two rabbit turds in a saucer of milk. "

Only problem with a catch like that is, there's no reason to go fishing any more.

Fran

[justold52]

I enjoyed this very much.

I did fish in Lake Michigan for them and in tournaments around Sheboygan WI. The best I ever did in the Super Tournament was 3rd place. I used 17# or 20 # line and down riggers. The largest King Samon I ever got was 32#. She is on my wall.. . Along with my 11# 10oz Walleye.

[Duffy]

What was he using a 4 lb worm for bait? I've caught alot of catfish in NEW RIVER that were big as a truck muffler but never a trout like that. He deserves a big

[Hukk]

What was he using a 4 lb worm for bait? I've caught alot of catfish in NEW RIVER that were big as a truck muffler but never a trout like that. He deserves a big

NAW, it was a 5LB Bass.