Larry Warren knows all about the fish that got away from the record books.

The Orofino man caught a 28.37-pound rainbow trout on the North Fork of the Clearwater River near Orofino last Thursday. The catch was more than 8 pounds heavier than the current 20.2-pound state record, but it's not going into the record books.

Warren said that he and his fishing partner knew that it was likely a record, so they did everything they knew of to qualify but it still wasn't enough.

"I don't want people to get the idea that my partner and I didn't know what was going on," said Warren, adding that some reports made it sound like he wasn't aware that it could be a record. "I knew that it could potentially be a state record when it came 2 feet out of the water. It took a 70-yard run up the river."

Warren and his buddy weighed the giant fish on a digital handheld scale and took measurements. The girth was 28.25 inches and length 32 inches, he said.

A photo was taken of Warren with the fish before it was released because it had an adipose fin. The state requires fish with adipose fins to be released.

"The pressure cooker was on," Warren said. "Fish that big are fragile, so we knew we had to get it back into the water as fast as we could."

Warren, a 55-year-old who retired as an Idaho Department of Correction officer three months ago, used a 6-pound test line and caught the fish bouncing a piece of shrimp across the bottom of the river. Idaho Fish and Game estimates the fish is about 7 years old.

Warren and his buddy then went to a local supermarket butcher to compare the digital scales used in the boat to the butcher's scale.

"There was only a two one-hundredths of a pound variance between the scales, so that would have classified the scale as certified," Warren said. "We got a signed letter from the butcher, so the scale was not the problem."

Warren learned, however, that there has to be at least two witnesses of the catch, not including the angler who caught the fish. Warren only had one witness.

He said it also would have helped if the photo would have been taken of both the fish and the scale showing the weight together.

"We didn't do that," he said. "It was a stressful situation to be in. The seconds were ticking against the fish's life."

A clipped piece of fin was another requirement so testing could be run to indicate the sub-species of trout.

Warren said he understands and respects the integrity of the fish record process, but he's also saddened and a bit frustrated over the record that got away.

He said one IDFG employee believes it should be in the books, while others disagree. The situation is already causing talk among the record keepers about possibilities for change, including starting separate records for catch-and-release fish.

Warren, who has been fishing since he was 5, said he'll never forget the experience.

"I do want that record; it's something I've dreamed about my whole life," he said. "We tried to do what we could to qualify. But I'm enjoying it for what it is. It was quite a moment in a fisherman's life."