The second his lure hit the bottom of Hayden Lake, Thomas Francis felt his line peel with a ferocity he knew “wasn’t normal.”
The avid angler from North Idaho would garner a new state record for his catch that day, March 21, reeling in a behemoth northern pike that weighed 40.76 pounds, measuring 49 inches long with a girth of 26.5 inches—it was an absolute monster!
Francis is huge on pike fishing in North Idaho and has been for a while. “Pike is what I go after all the time,” he told Idaho Fish and Game (IDFG). “I spend almost everyday fishing for pike. As soon as the ice is off and until it comes back.”…