Post Falls angler sets Idaho pike record on Lake Pend Oreille

Timothy Hicks of Post Falls landed a 49.75-inch northern pike on Lake Pend Oreille on June 13, setting Idaho’s new catch-and-release state record and adding a rare father-son footnote to North Idaho fishing lore. Social posts tied the catch to a family milestone on the same lake, where Hicks’s father had held the state-record pike for more than 30 years.

Idaho Fish and Game entered Hicks into the state record books after the fish edged out the previous catch-and-release mark held by Scott Blahnik in 2020 by just 3/4 of an inch. Hicks safely released the pike after documenting it for the record, and Outdoor Life reported that he planned to have a replica mount made of the fish.

The catch puts Lake Pend Oreille back in the center of a fishery that has long been one of Idaho’s most watched. The lake is the largest in Idaho and supports native species including Westslope cutthroat trout and bull trout, along with more than 10 non-native species. Fish and Game has also described Lake Pend Oreille as a place where anglers can find unusual northern pike opportunities while helping keep the population in check, a management balance that matters for other species in the lake.

That tension is part of why this record resonates beyond one angler’s wall space. Northern pike are a predatory species, and Fish and Game’s angler incentive programs for Lake Pend Oreille show how closely the state tracks fish that can affect the broader fishery. At the same time, a 2023 Fish and Game article said the lake has already produced notable pike and remains a productive northern Idaho fishing water, a reminder that the lake’s reputation is built on both trophy-sized surprises and sustained management.

Hicks’s fish is the latest entry in Idaho Fish and Game’s catch-and-release record program, which recognizes fish released alive. For Kootenai County anglers, the record is another sign that Lake Pend Oreille still carries the kind of history where a family story, a single fish and a statewide record can all come together on the same stretch of water.