What a whopper in Shoshone County

This unbelievable story was published in today's Shoshone News Press.

A Shoshone County man hooked a little more than he bargained for this month.

Marvin Smeltz, 42, a lifelong resident of Star Gulch and avid lake fisherman, was enjoying a day of spincasting on Lake Elsie when he snagged a behemoth creature on the end of his line.

Smeltz, who said he was the only fisherman on the lake that day, was perplexed at the strike of good luck and record-breaking discovery.

“Heck, well, I only tied a little worm on the end of my line,” Smeltz told the News-Press. “I’ve been fishing here my whole life and I’ve never seen a fish that size.”

Smeltz said he keeps his 12-foot rowboat chained near the shore of Lake Elsie and frequently rides his ATV up to the alpine lake during the fishing season.

But the ripple effect created on Sunday, March 9 during Smetlz’s epic two-hour battle with the fish — later determined by state Fish and Game officials to be a 30-foot, 2,100-pound white sturgeon— would send ripple effects of its own through the fishing community in Shoshone County.

Smeltz reported that he hooked the fish at approximately noon that fateful day in the center of the deserted lake. Alone in his rowboat, Smeltz was dragged from one end of the lake to the other as he kept a tight line that he said refused to snap.

“My arms were feeling like they were about to fall off,” Smeltz said. “I couldn’t believe the line wasn’t snapping--it was only a 20-pound test.”

But in the end, it wasn’t a snapped line that concluded the heavyweight bout. Smeltz’s fishing rod was ripped from his hands when the fish jumped clear out of the water and over his small rowboat. Smeltz, who was able to get a glimpse of the fish as it soared over his head, was knocked from the boat into the frigid water.

In a panic, he swam safely to shore, jumped on his ATV and rode back to civilization in his soaked clothes.

“Luckily, I was a state champion for the high school swimming team,” Smeltz said.

The following week, however, after reporting the story to local police and Idaho Fish and Game, authorities believed the story to be a hoax.

“The chances of a fish that size being in an alpine lake was unfathomable to us,” said Sgt. Damian Middleton.

While officials at first remained reluctant to take Smeltz’s bait on the story, the idea the fish might exist had officials reeling after citizens spoke out.

“We were getting reports and phone calls non-stop from fisherman who were saying they hadn’t caught a fish in Lake Elsie for over a year,” Middleton said.

Those reports prompted a search effort led by Idaho Fish and Game Conservation Officer Claudia Pritchard beginning on Thursday, March 13.

Pritchard said she organized a team to fly a helicopter above Lake Elsie. The team used a large fish finder and for several hours tracked the sturgeon swimming around Lake Elsie.

“That was a big fish,” Pritchard said.

After determining that Smeltz’s story checked out, Pritchard and local county officials had to figure out a way to remove the fish from the lake.

“There’s just no more fish in the sea for this one, so to speak,” Pritchard said, adding that the sturgeon had eaten all the bass in Lake Elsie. “When something like this is discovered, you want to keep it alive not only because its remarkable to look at but because of how it could help modern science.”

Last week, Pritchard said she is working with a coalition of local citizens and elected officials to draw up a plan. She said they will maneuver a large crane up to the lake, grab the fish and place it into the back of a large, clear tank attached to an even larger semi-truck.

“Citizens need to expect that the road up to Lake Elsie will be blocked for sometime,” Pritchard said.

The next step of the plan will be to work with state transportation personnel to close down the westbound lanes of Interstate 90 as crews drive the sturgeon west to Lake Coeur d’Alene where it will be dropped off.

“After that, it’s their problem,” Pritchard said.