Monster smallie menaces record

Quinten Kelly tossed a Rapala jointed shad rap on some rocks ringing a small inlet at Dworshak Reservoir, slowly retrieved the diving lure over a submerged ledge and then felt what he thought might be a sunken log.

"It felt like a snag. He was pretty lethargic. He didn't do much movement. He didn't fight," said the 18-year-old senior at Lewiston High School.

But that changed when Kelly got the fish close to the boat he and his dad were fishing out of.

"Then he freaked out."

Even so, with the water still frigid from spring snowmelt, the massive smallmouth bass was soon in the net. It tipped out at 10 pounds on Kelly's hand-held scale. The state record, caught from Dworshak by Dan Steigers of Juliaetta in 2006, weighed 9.72 pounds. With the record book in mind, Kelly and his dad put the fish in a cooler with an aerator and headed for town and a certified scale. By the time they got to Rosauers in Lewiston, the fish weighed in at 9.5 pounds, just shy of the record.

So Kelly and a buddy returned the still-living fish to the reservoir and released it. He is hopeful to nab the state record in the catch-and-release category.

"It was 241/2 inches long and 20 inches around on the girth. It was a big one," Kelly said. "It didn't have any scars on it, no fighting marks; it was in perfect condition."

In order to qualify for Idaho's new catch-and-release record category, anglers must release the fish alive after measuring and documenting with photographs the length of the fish from the tip of its nose to the lobes of its tail. They must also submit a picture of themselves with the fish and have at least one witness to its length and release.

Kelly has arranged for a taxidermist to make a replica of the fish so it can be displayed. It's something the teen dabbles in himself. But instead of mounting fish, Kelly's side business, Stacks of Racks, specializes in making European-style mounts of deer and elk racks. Along with his part-time job at the Idaho Forest Group sawmill in Lewiston, it helps fund frequent fishing and hunting trips.

An online story about his bass has started attracting the attention of angling companies and could further offset the cost of angling. Kelly said a few have sent him gear and asked him to take photos of himself while using it.

"It's pretty cool," he said.

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Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.