{"id":23040,"date":"2020-05-23T12:57:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-23T18:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/news\/record-setting-northern-pike-caught-in-routt\/"},"modified":"2020-05-23T12:57:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-23T18:57:00","slug":"record-setting-northern-pike-caught-in-routt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/record-setting-northern-pike-caught-in-routt\/","title":{"rendered":"Record setting northern pike caught in Routt"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"767\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/05\/RecordFish-shn-052220-1-1024x767.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/05\/RecordFish-shn-052220-1-1024x767.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/05\/RecordFish-shn-052220-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/05\/RecordFish-shn-052220-1-768x575.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/05\/RecordFish-shn-052220-1.jpg 1461w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>Aided by Brady Wettlaufer of Steamboat Fishing Adventers, a pair of local anglers caught a potentially state-record breaking Northern Pike in Stagecoach Reservoir in early May.<\/strong><br \/><em>Courtesy Brady Wettlaufer<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 On a Friday in early May, three grown men stood in a boat along the south side of Stagecoach Reservoir in Routt County, crying.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Brady Wettlaufer of Steamboat Fishing Adventures had just helped a pair of young local men, who wish to remain anonymous, catch a massive fish that he had seen in the reservoir for years. The trio worked tirelessly for half an hour, reeling in a northern pike that was 48 inches long and weighed 38 pounds, large enough to become the new state record holder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cTime stood still. It was a good 30 minutes, and it took all three of us to land it. It was an amazing thing, it truly was. I was absolutely beside myself. I couldn\u2019t believe it happened,\u201d said Wettlaufer. \u201cA fish of that caliber and that age has seen every trick in the book, so to say. To get it to end up on our boat was a heck of a feat. At the end, we were all hooting and hollering, and there were tears in everybody\u2019s eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The pike hasn\u2019t been measured on official equipment to be in the running for the record, yet, but if it were, it would blow the previous record out of the water. The current record for largest northern pike in Colorado was set in 2006 at Stagecoach Reservoir with a 30 pound fish. The young men who caught the fish may decide to not make their feat official, though.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row shn-donation shn-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/shn-logo-2x-wht.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/shn-logo-2x-wht.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote p402_hide\" readability=\"2.5\">\n<blockquote readability=\"8\">\n<p>\u201cA fish of that caliber and that age has seen every trick in the book, so to say. To get it to end up on our boat was a heck of a feat.\u201d\u2014 Brady Wettlaufer, Steamboat Fishing Adventures<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">If they choose not to, Wettlaufer completely understands. He isn\u2019t in the fishing business for the recognition or the feats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">If the fish were officially measured, the anglers\u2019 name as well as the location of their catch would be public. So, if that were to happen, anglers may flock to Stagecoach to try to bag a record pike of their own. Even after a photo of the pike was posted on Facebook, Wettlaufer saw an increase in people fishing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThis past weekend, I was down there, and I was like O.M.G. look at all these people,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, we\u2019re not certain what we\u2019re going to do, but I am certain that fish is going to be mounted and used for educational purposes within the division of wildlife, then it will find it\u2019s final resting home at Dude and Dan\u2019s. I think it\u2019ll be up there a while.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Hauling in the enormous fish was a task that required work from all three men on board. When the fish was hooked, Wettlaufer said they were about to get spooled, or that all the line would run out. Adding to the stress, the fish had swum under the boat and was bending the line through a metal support of the boat\u2019s Bimini top. The spooling was happening a lot faster than he presumed, though. He soon realized that his trolling motor was on autopilot and bringing the boat towards the middle of the lake, causing the fish to go under the boat.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWhen I noticed my mistake, I quickly turned the boat to a position where my client was able to pull the line out of the side of the bimini and the line popped loose and the fish came out,\u201d recalled Wettlaufer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Only the head of the fish fit in the net, so Wettlaufer broke out a cradle net, typically used for handling fish in the water, to pull the fish onto the boat. The fish was not successfully revived and was not returned to the water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cA fish of that size was nearing the end of its life. It probably only had another year or two in it,\u201d said Wettlaufer. \u201cWith the stress upon it, I tried to revive it. I tried for a good 20 minutes, and it wasn\u2019t happening.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/news\/record-setting-northern-pike-caught-in-routt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aided by Brady Wettlaufer of Steamboat Fishing Adventers, a pair of local anglers caught a potentially state-record breaking Northern Pike in Stagecoach Reservoir in early May.Courtesy Brady Wettlaufer STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 On a Friday in early May, three grown men stood in a boat along the south side of Stagecoach Reservoir in Routt County, crying. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 10:33:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}