Tyler Grimshaw, a veteran fisherman at age 10, reeled in a 41-pound lake trout from the famous Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Utah, doing so all by himself as if it were old hat for him—which it is, apparently.
Tyler was fishing with his father Lance Grimshaw with at least two other boats of anglers nearby witnessing the recent battle.
“He was vertical jigging at the time,” his mother Vanessa Grimshaw told USA Today/For The Win. “The battle to reel it in was about 15 minutes from hook set to net.”
Lance netted the lake trout and weighed it in the net. Then he got a couple of quick photos before carefully releasing the fish back into the reservoir.
“Tyler gets excited for every fish, it doesn’t matter the size,” Vanessa told For The Win Outdoors. “But when he saw the weight on the scale for this one, he smiled so big his cheeks pushed his eyes closed. He did a happy dance jumping around the boat so excited.
“Then the guys in the other boats—friends of Lance’s—heard the weight and they all got as excited and pumped up for him too, which just started his excitement all over again.”
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It was a personal best for Tyler, and it wasn’t that far off from the Utah state record for lake trout. In 1988, a 51½-pounder was caught at Flaming Gorge Reservoir, known for its big lake trout. The world record is 72 pounds caught in 1995 at Great Bear Lake in Canada.
To show this wasn’t a fluke, 30 minutes later Tyler caught another big lake trout, this one in the 25- to 28-pound range (below). It wasn’t weighed. His previous biggest was a 38-pounder when he was a 6-year-old.
“To catch a lake trout in the 30-pound range is not uncommon for him,” Vanessa told For The Win. “He has been in a boat fishing since he was born. He has been reeling them in since he was so little that we had to hold the pole while he ran the reel.”
Not surprisingly, Tyler wants to be a professional fisherman when he grows up.
“When most kids were watching cartoons, he spends spare time watching fishing shows,” Vanessa said. “YouTube is constantly on fishing tutorials. Bass fishing is his first love. Lake trout is just the most popular fish around where we live [in Vernal, Utah].”
Apparently Tyler is well on his way to becoming a pro. He has won multiple fishing tournaments already.
Photos of Tyler and his two lake trout, and of him fighting the big one with bib overalls he later took off for the photo are courtesy of Vanessa Grimshaw.