Angler reels in Idaho catch-and-release record brown trout

Idaho’s South Fork Snake River is no stranger to productive brown trout fishing. This trophy river — one of Idaho’s most legendary — is known to regularly hold brownies, known for their yellowish bodies and long, angular faces.

Although not native to Idaho’s waters, brown trout offer some of the most exciting fly-fishing opportunities you can get. 

On May 30, Georgia angler Caroline Langdale experienced this firsthand. 

“I never dreamed when I started my day of fishing with Ed Emory of South Fork Lodge that God was going to bless me with a fish of a lifetime,” Langdale said. 

Fish of a lifetime might be an understatement once you see the photo for yourself. 

During a multiday fishing trip along the South Fork, Caroline was drifting her rubber legs fly down a massive hole when she noticed her indicator dip below the surface. At first, she thought she might’ve snagged a root ball along the bottom. But after a nearly 10-minute fight with what she knew must be a lunker of a trout, her wildest dreams soon surfaced. 

There, at the end of her line, was one bruiser of a brown trout, a 30.5-inch monster she hoisted proudly from the boat. With the help of her guide, Caroline stretched the brown trout along a tape measure and instantly was told she might have a shot at the state record. 

Langdale submitted the measurements and photos to Fish and Game’s Sportfish Coordinator, who verified the brown’s size and place in the record books.

“What an amazing experience that I will always be thankful for,” said Caroline Langdale.

Huge browns are rare.e

While brown trout over 30 inches in the South Fork Snake River are exceptionally rare, they do exist. 

In fact, Fish and Game fisheries surveys captured a 33-inch brown in 2016 and another 33-inch brown in 2024. This is mainly based on electrofishing, however. 

According to fish survey data from the South Fork Snake River, biologists have recorded measurements of over 57,600 brown trout dating back to 1986. 

In all those years, surveys have documented only four brown trout over 30 inches. In other words, of all the brown trout captured during surveys, only 0.007% ever exceed 30 inches – that we know of.

“Even brown trout over 25 inches are rare on the South Fork, with only 30 brown trout over 25 inches ever recorded in electrofishing surveys,” Koenig said. 

Again, that’s probably because the biggest trout live in places that are hard to reach with electrofishing, so there are probably more of them out than the survey data suggest. Even so, this is an exceptionally rare fish for this river.