That was fast. Idaho Yellowstone cutthroat trout record falls again.
It is safe to say that 2020 has been the year of the big fish catches. With more people on the water than ever before, records keep dropping like flies. Now the Idaho Department of Fish and Game has announced the Yellowstone cutthroat trout record has fallen for the second time this year.
Rexburg's Nate Burr caught the massive 31-inch trout on the Snake River after three days of slow fishing with a friend.
The fly fishing guide's huge catch came late in the day as the sun was setting, salvaging an otherwise unexciting day.
"It was one of those brutally slow days," Burr said in an IDFG press release. "Hunting big trout on streamers means a day on the water can go from zero to 100 in a split second. That was exactly the case with this fish."
The ink on the paperwork for the previous record barely had time to dry before being bumped down to number two on the list. Burr's trout just barely edges Sam Hix's 30.5-inch fish caught back on August 7. Hix's record broke the state's first catch-and-release record that was set back in 2016.
Burr's catch did not make things easy for him. The anglers had to chase the huge trout half a mile downstream before they could finally land it. After getting required measurements and photos, it was released back into the Snake River to await the next lucky angler.
The IDFG says Yellowstone cutthroats over 30 inches are rare. This catch was just one of a glut of trout records that have been set across the United States this year. Some of the records have stood for decades. In Pennsylvania, their 20-year-old brown trout record finally fell. In Utah, the 32-year-old record for lake trout was finally reeled in from a reservoir.
Idaho also saw their catch-and-release record for rainbow trout fall back in May with a 31.25-incher caught from American Falls Reservoir. There's still time in 2020 for some more records to fall, time to get out there fishing!
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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