This is one fishing trip he’ll never forget.
Wade Merschat, 12, of Trout Creek, Montana, set a state record after reeling in a largescale sucker this week. He landed the fish at his favorite, secret fishing spot in Noxon Rapids Reservoir with his father and other anglers from Waypoint Outfitters Inc.
“I saw them all swimming on the surface and swimming up the falls, and then kind of saw that one,” Wade Merschat told Fox News Digital.
“And then I cast at it and had to get the perfect drift for it, and then I caught him.”
The young angler saw the fish before finally reeling it in, but he had no idea just how large it actually was.
“It looked a lot, lot smaller in the water, but then when I pulled it out of the water [and] it was 10 times bigger than I thought, so I was very happy,” Wade Merschat said.
Wade’s dad, Josh, told Fox News that his son had been eager to land a state record, so he spent time researching various records, and memorizing the weight and lengths that were required to set a new one.
“They go fishing down there quite a bit and they caught a couple of big ones — and he [Wade] is obsessed with looking at the state records,” said the elder Merschat.
“And they kind of knew that [was the record]. That’s what he knew instantly.”
The moment when Wade Merschat caught the record-breaking fish was captured on video.
“That’s a state record,” he can be heard saying in the footage. “I’m in disbelief.”
In order to ensure the record was eligible, Wade and Josh Merschat found the closest approved scale at Harvest Foods in Thompson Falls only a few miles down the road. There, they also met a biologist with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
The fish tipped the scale at 6.72 pounds and measured 25.25 inches long.