Tim Hicks had been chasing one fish for most of his life. On June 13 the 44-year-old from Post Falls finally caught it: a 49.75-inch northern pike hauled from the cold, deep water of Lake Pend Oreille that broke Idaho's catch-and-release state record and settled a family score three decades in the making.
"I've been looking for this fish for over 30 years – ever since my dad Dennis caught the Idaho record 49-inch pike weighing 38 pounds, 9 ounces in 1992," Hicks said in a statement released by Idaho Fish and Game.
His father's fish, taken from Coeur d'Alene Lake, had long been the mark Hicks measured himself against. His own pike beat the previous catch-and-release record — Scott Blahnik's 49-inch fish from 2020 — by three-quarters of an inch. Because Hicks released the fish, it was scored on length rather than weight; he estimated it at around 35 pounds, but it was never put on a scale.
Hicks was fishing a pike tournament with his brother Steve when the strike came. He described it as barely perceptible at first.
"I felt a slight 'tick' of a strike," he said. What followed was not subtle. "The fish made several big runs around my boat, and then a strong power run at the end pulling drag off my reel."
Once it was in the net, the brothers suspected they had something unusual. "He thought it might be a state record, so we looked it up on the Idaho website, and sure enough it was," Hicks said.
The timing helped. Pike on Lake Pend Oreille spawn later than in shallower waters, and Hicks's fish had only just finished. "My fish had just spawned — its tail was all torn up — so it didn't fight as hard as it would have at other times of the year. That helped," he told Wired2Fish. "They spawn late on Pend Oreille because it's so deep and cold."
Northern pike are not what most anglers associate with Idaho, a state built on its trout and salmon fisheries. Hicks says that reputation sells the species short.
"I've fished for northern pike my whole life here in Idaho. They get overshadowed by the trout and salmon, but we have some big northerns here, too," he said. He has watched the Pend Oreille fishery mature firsthand. "I've been fishing Pend Oreille since the northerns really took hold about 10 years ago. I've caught some big fish but nothing like this one."
For anglers hoping to follow in his wake, Hicks offered a seasonal tip. "April through June and October and November are our best times for northern fishing. That's when the big ones will usually be most active."
Idaho keeps its pike records in two categories — a certified-weight record and a catch-and-release record measured by length. Only the catch-and-release mark changed this summer. The standing weight record, a 40.76-pound pike caught by Thomas Francis at Hayden Lake in March 2023, still holds.
Hicks already knows what happens next. His father's record fish hangs on his wall. Soon it will have company.
"I'm going to have a replica mount made of my fish and hang it on the wall right next to my dad's fish," he said.