The largest catfish in Idaho history? This Fruitland man caught a whopper at CJ Strike

It has been a record summer for catfish fishing in Idaho, with catfish marks broken twice.

In late July, Hammett Valley Fishing Adventures took Paul Newman and John Schafer to CJ Strike Reservoir on the Snake River south of Mountain Home. They were hoping to catch sturgeon, but instead Newman caught the only fish of the day — and it turned out to be a new record in Idaho.

“If you are going to set records, this is the state to set the record out in God’s country,” said Newman. “It was such an awesome catch, we had good adrenaline on the boat, everybody was hyped, they could tell it was a record-breaking catfish.”

The catfish measured 42.5 inches long, had a girth of 32 inches and weighed 37 pounds. It broke the old record for length set in 2020, by 9.5 inches.

The fish could have broken the record for weight set earlier this summer by Kody Kastner, at 32.9 pounds, but these anglers said they didn’t certify the weight. Instead, they let the fish go.

“This is a great renewable resource we have at CJ Strike and the Snake River,” said Tim Parrish of Hammett Valley Fishing Adventures. “We didn’t want to kill the fish. We could have had the record by five pounds, but it wasn’t worth it. That fish was so majestic and such a beautiful fish, we got our measurements really quick, put it in the water, revived it and let it swim for someone else to catch.”