Some wives might steal their husband’s French fries or the TV remote. Jared Holt just lost his position as a state record holder to his wife, Brandi.
On August 2, Brandi Holt of Homedale, Idaho, reeled in a Snake River flathead catfish that measured 44 inches, knocking her husband off the top of Idaho Fish and Game’s catch-and-release record books.
If the last name sounds familiar, that’s because Jared held the record twice. First, with a 42-inch flathead he caught in 2020, dethroning the reigning fish by 4 inches. He then topped himself with a 43-incher in 2022. But on a rare date night without their 10-year-old daughter, Brandi put her husband’s lessons to work and landed an even bigger flathead.
“We decided to take the boat out for an evening cruise, just to enjoy ourselves. Then we pulled up to our spot and started fishing at dark,” Brandi tells Wired2Fish. “It was quiet, just peaceful. Then that first fish hit.”
Brandi says she didn’t realize how big the fish was, because flatheads tend to be pretty docile and don’t try to shake the hook. But when she saw the head and mouth come to the surface, adrenaline started pumping.
“I was like, ‘Oh honey, please get the net. This is a big one.’”
The couple was fishing a favorite stretch of the Snake in Owyhee County with cut crappie they dug out of the freezer. The flathead hammered Brandi’s bait in about 16 feet of current. What followed was a blur of excitement and net work that ended with a new state record.
“I didn’t realize just how big it was until we measured it,” Jared admits. “We’ve caught 30 or 35 this year between 30 and 40 inches, but this one was definitely over.”
For Brandi, the record almost stayed in the family vault.
“I didn’t want to send it in at first,” she says. “He works so hard at this. He goes out every weekend. I mostly fish for fun. But he convinced me. He had the tape measure out and everything. He was just as excited.”
Jared’s taking it in stride, even if it stings a little.
“It’s better to get beat by somebody you know,” he says. “But now I’ve got a lot of work to do to get it back before the season closes.”
The Holts are passionate about catch-and-release. They’ll keep one only if the fish is mortally hooked, and they’re quick to point out that releasing big catfish helps keep the fishery strong.
“It hurts our hearts when we see people with big ones on stringers,” Brandi admits.
“The big ones are the ones that make the babies,” Jared says. “The bigger the fish, the better the quality.”
While Jared admits he’s actively trying to earn back the state record, Brandi says she’s taking catfishing a lot more seriously now.
“When we don’t have our daughter with us, it’s serious. It’s on,” she says, laughing. “He fishes the left side, I fish the right side. That night, the right side was hot.”
For Jared, that just means one thing: The race for the record is officially on.
