Idaho man caught 42.5-inch state record-breaking catfish

Idaho angler Paul Newman was fishing for sturgeon when he caught a record-breaking 42.5 inches of catfish on C.J. Strike Reservoir on July 20.

According to the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Newman set out on C.J. Strike Reservoir on July 20 hoping to catch a sturgeon. While he didn’t land any sturgeon that day, he did take home a new state record catfish! At 42.5 inches long.

This shattered the previous record of a 33-inch catfish that was caught on Lake Lowell near Boise in 2020.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game reported that Newman weighed his catfish on a digital scale, coming in at 37 pounds.

Before releasing the huge catfish back into the reservoir, Paul used a digital scale to weigh the fish at 37 lbs, the department stated.

While this fish will earn a Catch-and-Release Record, the fish was easily large enough to beat the current 32.9-pound Certified Weight Record set only a few weeks ago by Cody Kastner, also from C.J. Strike Reservoir, the department said.

The reservoir is 7,500 acres of water that sits between the Snake River and the Bruneau River in southwestern Idaho.

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