GREAT FALLS — For the third time in less than 15 months, a Montana angler has caught a new state record longnose sucker.
Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks said in a news release on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, that Jonathan Miller used a jig to land his 4.78-pound, 22¼-inch fish on May 10 in Hauser Reservoir near Helena.
The sucker family is the third largest family of fish in Montana with nine species, behind only the minnow and salmonid (trout) families. Longnose suckers are native to the state and widely distributed across nearly all of central and western Montana.
In May 2021, Austin Wargo landed a longnose sucker weighing 4.21 pounds. Wargo used a jig to catch his fish, which was 19.5 inches long with a girth of more than 12 inches. He beat the previous record for longnose sucker, which had been set just weeks before by Jacob Bernhardt in Great Falls; Jacob's fish weighed 3.42 pounds and was 20.1 inches long.
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If you catch a fish in Montana that you think might be a record, FWP says:
- To prevent loss of weight, do not clean or freeze the fish.
- Keep the fish cool—preferably on ice.
- Take a picture of the fish.
- Weigh the fish on a certified scale (found in grocery store or hardware store, etc.), witnessed by a store employee or other observer. Obtain a weight receipt and an affidavit from the store personnel if no FWP official is present. Measure the length and girth.
- Contact the nearest FWP office to have the fish positively identified by a Fisheries Biologist or Manager.
Click here to check out FWP's list of record catches.
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