Big news Henrys Lake anglers! The new Idaho catch-and-release state record hybrid trout (Rainbow Trout X Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout) was caught out of Henrys Lake this fall, and it’s a whopper. Hailey Thomas of Rigby caught this 36-inch hybrid, which easily beats the prior catch-and-release state record by 6 inches. Based on length and girth measurements, we estimate that this fish weighed somewhere between 17-20 lbs! The best part is that this fish is still swimming around out there and growing, so we may have another record catch on our hands in the near future. Read more about Hailey’s experience catching this once-in-a-lifetime fish here.
We’ve completed our annual fish stocking efforts for the year and ended up stocking over 1 million trout into Henrys Lake in total. In June, we stocked 157,070 sterile hybrid trout. In September, we stocked 796,565 Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout and 104,160 sterile Brook Trout. Take a look at some of our historic stocking trends over the last 30 years below! Note: YCT = Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout, HYB = hybrid trout (Rainbow Trout X Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout), and BKT = Brook Trout.
In other news, we have expanded the Henrys Lake Hatchery public parking lot by approximately 40% to accommodate increased use. This will certainly benefit open water anglers during the uptick in fishing pressure that we observe in the spring and fall, but ice fisherman will see the greatest benefit since many other lake access sites are not plowed/maintained throughout the winter.