‘Fight was on’ for angler who reeled in record-breaking ‘monster fish’ in Montana

A man was fishing with his wife and friends on a Montana lake when one bite turned into a record-breaking catch of a “monster fish,” officials and news outlets reported.

Jim Fauth was on Fort Peck Lake on Aug. 9, the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks said in a Facebook post.

He put his 15-year-old Walmart rod to work, which still had the original line, when he saw some movement, Outdoor Life reported.

“I saw my rod jump and I thought my wife had bumped it with her elbow,” Fauth told Phillips County News. “She jumped up and then the rod kept jumping, so I grabbed it, and the fight was on .”

It took about five minutes of battling with the fish before Fauth’s friend was able to net it and help him get it into his pontoon, Outdoor Life reported.

That’s when the massive fish shocked everyone.

“I knew it was a good fish, but I didn’t know that it was that good,” Fauth told Phillips County News.

Angler beats 2020 record

He had caught a 32.62-pound Chinook salmon, wildlife officials said. It was weighed on a certified scale and measured at 38 inches long with a 28 inch girth.

The previous record for the fish was 32.05 pounds. It was caught in 2020 in the same lake, officials said.

Wildlife officials said Fort Peck Lake is the only body of water in the state where anglers can catch Chinook salmon.

About 200,000 fish are stocked in the reservoir every spring.

Fort Peck Lake is a reservoir in northeastern Montana.

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