Idaho fisherman Thomas Francis has spent a ton of his free time fishing for northern pike.
With that being said, all of those hours finally paid off, as he is now a state record holder for northern pike.
Francis, who set the record back on March 21st at Hayden Lake, told For The Win:
“Pike is what I go after all the time. I spend almost everyday fishing for pike.”
And on that March 21st trip, he reeled in a monster pike that weighed in at 40.76 pounds, and measured 49 inches with a 26.5 inch girth.
He admitted that it was just an ordinary day, with his normal intentions of catching a big pike.
Francis described the catch:
“When my lure hit the water, I let it sink all the way to the bottom. As soon as my lure hit the bottom, I felt her hit.
I fish with 80-pound-test line, and she almost immediately started peeling drag, a lot of it.”
The fish continued to strip line, and was powerfully swimming at the bottom of the lake, so Francis knew he had something special on his hands.
Immediately after the catch, he went straight for the dock with a certified scale to see just how big it truly was. Turns out, he’s officially the Idaho northern pike state record holder.
It doesn’t get much better than that.
