Colorado outdoorsman Scott Enloe caught and released what is likely a new world-record lake trout while fishing with his son, Hunter, on May 5. The fish weighed 73.29 pounds, according to the handheld scale they had in their boat. That’s at least 20 pounds heavier than the current state-record laker, and more than a pound heavier than the IGFA all-tackle world record for the species.
Photos of the gargantuan, egg-laden female will make your head spin. The roughly 47-inch fish had an astonishing 37-inch girth.
In an exclusive interview with Free Range American, Enloe chose not to disclose the location where he and Hunter caught the giant lake trout. He did reveal that he was using a heavy rod and a baitcaster spooled with 10-pound fluorocarbon line. The fish ate a six-inch Basstrix tube jig. After a nearly 15-minute-long battle, the two had to haul the trout into the boat by hand because their large landing net was much too small.
Unable to fit the massive laker in their livewell (which was also too small), the father and son photographed, measured, and weighed the fish as quickly as possible. They were determined to release it alive. Hunter’s scale, which topped out at 50 pounds, read “Full”, while Scott’s registered 73.29 pounds. Altogether, that process took around two minutes, and a series of Instagram videos show the Enloe’s releasing the fish into the lake.
Enloe, who also caught a state-record brown trout in 2021, said that he didn’t even consider killing the huge fish.
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Because the lake trout was released, it is being considered by the International Game Fish Association as an “all-tackle (length) world record.” As the category’s name implies, these world records are determined by length alone. (The current length record is around 42.5 inches.) To qualify as an official all-tackle world record, the two anglers would have had to kill the fish and bring it to a certified scale.
The current IGFA all-tackle world record lake trout weighed 72 pounds. Angler Lloyd Bull caught that fish from Great Bear Lake in Canada’s Northwest Territories in 1995. And even though Enloe’s lake trout can’t replace Bull’s record, it was most likely heavier than Bull’s fish. (Using a formula based on the trout’s length and girth, Enloe’s fish would have weighed around 80 pounds.) It’s impossible to determine the age of Enloe’s laker, but it could have been over 40 years old, reports Free Range American, which has the full story behind the historic catch.
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