Caroline Langdale of Valdosta, Georgia, broke Idaho's catch-and-release brown trout record on the South Fork of the Snake River, landing a 30.5-inch brown that edged out the previous record by half an inch. She was fly fishing with guide Ed Emory of the South Fork Lodge when the fish took on rubber legs in a deep hole, requiring a 10-minute fight and careful boat maneuvering to net.
Earlier this week, the Idaho Department of Fish & Game (IDFG) confirmed a new catch-and-release record for brown trout. The enormous brown, caught by Caroline Langdale of Valdosta, Georgia, measured more than 30 inches in length, just edging out the previous record for the species caught in 2016.
Langdale was fly fishing the South Fork of the Snake River, a legendary Idaho tailwater that flows from the Palisades Dam to the equally famous Henry’s Fork. She’d just driven to the area from Sundance, Wyoming where she killed her first-ever Merriam’s turkey with a local outfitter.
Good Guiding
“I was in fabulous hands with guide Ed Emory of the South Fork Lodge,” Langdale tells Field & Stream. “My trip was already made in the first 5 minutes when Ed rowed us back upstream from the put-in to a special hole where I caught a 21-inch hybrid rainbow. I had no idea what God was going to bless me with a couple of hours later.”
Langdale says she and Emory fished the river methodically after that. “I broke off a couple of big ones along the way,” she says. “Then, as my flies were drifting across another deep hole, I felt something on the rubber legs that I truly thought was bottom.”
Emory assured her that she wasn’t hung up. “No Caroline, this is a huge fish,” she recalls him telling her. He could tell that the fish was rolling itself up in her line.
Langdale fought the trout carefully to keep it out of a large submerged tree near the boat. After an intense 10-minute fight, and some careful boat maneuvering, Emory finally scooped the record-breaking brown trout into his long-handled net. “We were both in such shock that neither of us said anything for awhile” she says. “Ed rowed us over to the bank, and we got out of the boat to admire the fish in shallow water.”
Edging Out the Previous Record
Langdale says the fish’s sheer mass left her and Emory speechless. The guide’s tape showed 30.5 inches, one half-inch bigger than the previous record, caught by Chase Nelson on the Snake River in October 2016. “It was as big around as my thigh,” Langdale recalls. “She was big enough to swallow both of my hands. Her colorings were beautiful—particularly the metallic-blue markings up around her head.”
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Back at the lodge, a staff member printed out an IDFG records application, which Langdale quickly filled out and emailed to the department. IDFG made the record official on Wednesday, July 1, 2026, after a mandatory 30-day investigation period. “Everyone there was just genuinely so excited for me,” she says. “I know the Lord bless me with this fish, and the experience, from top to bottom, is something that I’ll just never get over.”
Record fish rarely announce themselves. Langdale thought she was snagged on bottom—a reminder that the biggest trout in a river often move with such deliberate, lumbering weight that they don’t register as alive. What broke the record wasn’t exotic technique; it was methodical fishing of deep holes on a well-known tailwater with an experienced guide who knew what he was looking at before the angler did. The South Fork of the Snake has produced trophy browns for decades, and this catch underscores that legendary water stays legendary for a reason. Show up, fish it right, and trust your guide.
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