KALISPELL - As fish stories go, this one is huge, and Eric Tullett can tell it with a straight face.
The Kalispell man landed a fish so big on Tuesday that it tied a state record.
How big was it?
All of 3.7 ounces.
My arm is still hurting, Tullett joked hours after reeling in the pygmy whitefish while ice fishing on Bitterroot Lake.
The pygmy is one of three types of whitefish found in Montana, and like the considerably larger mountain whitefish, is native to the state.
Tullett caught the less-than-quarter-of-a-pound whopper in 80 feet of water using a glow hook and maggot.
Pygmy whitefish have very large eyes in relation to their size and live at the bottom of lakes such as Bitterroot, Ashley and Flathead, where they feed on tiny zooplankton, bottom insects and mysis shrimp.
The shrimp, which were introduced to Montana waters and have wreaked havoc with other fish populations, are made-to-order for the bottom-feeding pygmies. Jim Vashro, Region 1 fisheries manager for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, guesses the shrimp may be responsible for an increase in growth rates among pygmy whitefish.
Tullett's catch tied the state record held by two other anglers, who caught 3.7-ounce pygmies in February 2005.
At 8 1/4 inches, Tullett's fish was shorter than the other two, which measured 9 and 8 1/2 inches. But his pygmy was particularly fat, with a girth of 5 3/4 inches.
John Fraley of FWP said Tullett did everything right to have his record fish certified.
Tullett took the lunker to Super One Foods in Kalispell, where he had it weighed on a certified scale. He then brought the fish and the weight slip to FWP offices in Kalispell, where fisheries biologist Mark Deleray examined it, measured it and certified that it tied the state record of 0.23 pounds.
