Joel Hoerner of Columbia Falls was fishing Saturday on the lower Flathead River with his seven-year-old son Lane. It was a nice day and they were working shallow water, maybe two feet.

The fish weren’t cooperating, however. The biggest fish they’d caught was a 3-inch perch Lane hooked. Then Hoerner’s line stopped. He thought he had a snag, but the snag started to move.

“It jerked really hard a couple of times,” he said.

Then the fish got mad. Fortunately, Hoerner had a stout rod and was using a wire leader because he had hooked onto the biggest northern pike of his life.

Pike have jaws lined with extremely sharp teeth. Ten minutes later, he landed the behemoth — 49 inches long and 29.7 pounds.

“It weighed more than the dog and was almost as long as Lane is tall,” Hoerner said. “Lane’s 51 inches tall.”

The toothy bruin went straight to the taxidermist for mounting.

“I don’t have a freezer big enough to put it in,” Hoerner said.

While huge, the pike was shy of the Montana state record, which was taken out of the Tongue River Reservoir in 1972 by Lance Moyer. That beast weighed 37 pounds, 8 ounces.

Hoerner said he’s fished this particular spot on the Flathead River for the years. The big pike in that area generally run about 10 pounds.