Congratulations to Kyle Hatrock of Coeur d'Alene, who reeled in a 27-inch Westslope cutthroat trout catch and release state record.

Idaho’s deepest lake — Lake Pend Oreille — no doubt possesses some aquatic beasts of mythical proportion. At a maximum depth of 1,158 feet and 43 miles from tip to glacially carved tip, that’s a lot of deep blue space for a monster fish to hide.

“We’d just got all the lines out when not 10 minutes later, one pole starts singing out the line,” Hatrock said. “The first run took out 450 feet-plus for about 15-20 minutes, and as soon as it hit the net, my friend started freaking out, saying ‘That’s the biggest freaking cutty I’ve ever seen!’”

He and his buddies immediately put the tape measure to it. Hatrock’s trout officially edged out the previous record by 2 inches.

The new record fish — caught from the lake and not one of its tributaries — is an exceptionally large specimen for a Westslope cutthroat trout, which rarely surpasses 20 inches…let alone 27. This continues to reinforce Lake Pend Oreille’s reputation as Idaho’s top trophy trout fishery.