Some guys have all the luck.
An Idaho fisherman is back in the record books after landing a monster lake trout that measured 43.25 inches long. And somehow, this isn’t even the first time he’s done it.
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Idaho Falls angler Dylan Smith was fishing on Payette Lake near McCall on May 2 when a giant lake trout decided to make his day. After a battle, Smith managed to get the fish into the boat and onto a measuring tape, where he discovered he’d just broken Idaho’s catch-and-release state record for lake trout.
The previous record was 42 inches.
And here’s where the story gets crazy: Smith already held this exact record once before.
Back in 2018, he landed a 41.5-inch lake trout — also in Payette Lake — and earned a spot atop Idaho’s record book. Eventually, another angler surpassed him with that 42-inch fish.
That’s when Smith set out on a mission to avenge his prized laker!
OK, not really. But as fate would have it, he did manage to reclaim that top spot.
“The former lake trout record holder has returned!” Smith wrote on social media after the Idaho Department of Fish and Game made his latest record official. ‘43.25’ is the new length to beat!”
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Payette Lake has become one of Idaho’s premier destinations for trophy lake trout, thanks in part to years of management efforts by Idaho Fish and Game. Biologists have worked to reduce the number of smaller trout in the lake, which has helped improve the kokanee population and allowed the remaining lake trout to grow bigger and healthier.
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The strategy appears to be working.
After all, if one guy can break the state record twice on the same lake, who’s to say an even bigger monster isn’t swimming around down there right now?