A Spokane Valley man holds the latest Idaho catch and release record for northern pike.

Mark Mills landed a 46-inch northern pike Nov. 3 while fishing Lake Coeur d’Alene. He released the trophy pike after weighing the 32-pounder on a digital scale.

Mills’s pike weighs a few pounds less than the Idaho state record catch-and-keep pike caught eight years ago in Lower Twin Lake by Kim Fleming. Fleming’s fish weighed in at 40.13 pounds and was 51.5 inches long.

The previous catch and release record pike was caught last March in Hayden Lake and weighed 33 pounds, and it was 44 inches long.

Pike — a predatory game fish known for its size, toothy maw and voracious appetite — were illegally introduced to North Idaho waters in the 1970s.

Technicians and biologists from the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and Idaho Department of Fish and Game have for several years netted fish at Windy Bay on the lake’s west side and relocated them to the northern part of the lake, in an effort to increase the survival for native trout that migrate to and from the Lake Creek hatchery.

“The tribe and the state have been working together to gill net and capture pike prior to spawning and moving them to Cougar Bay,” Coeur d’Alene Tribe fishery manager Angelo Vitale said.

The pike are transported on a truck to Cougar Bay just south of Coeur d’Alene, where they are released.

“In an attempt to keep those fish available to anglers, we decided to (relocate) them,” biologist Carson Watkins of Fish and Game said.

Cougar Bay is a spring fishing destination for many anglers. It’s where the 2007 state record pike, a 40-pounder, was caught. The record was broken three years later by a Twin Lakes pike.

Guidelines for documenting catch and release fish include releasing the fish alive, but not before measuring and photographing the fish in the water. Catch-and-release records are based only on the total length from the snout to the tip of tail. The fish must also be photographed directly next to a tape measure and one photo must include the angler with the fish. A witness must also be present.