The sun had set Wednesday night over an undisclosed stretch of the Marias River when Robbie Dockter set the hook into something big.
Armed with only an ultralight rod and 4-pound line, at first the Conrad angler thought a lake trout or bigmouth buffalo had taken his small Kastmaster spoon. But on the end of the line was a fish that would shatter a record that has stood more than half a century in Montana.
Robbie Dockter of Conrad holds the new Montana state record brown trout caught March 3 on the Marias River. The fish weighed 32.42 pounds and measured 37 inches long.