Frank, the Museum's 100 Year Old Trophy Fish

The museum received an unusual call recently.  Scott Boettger from the Wood River Land Trust was interested in the hundred-year-old trout that the Museum has mounted and displayed in the museum. We have fondly named this fish Frank. 

Frank was caught in 1912 by sixteen-year-old Jess Stitt. A true trophy trout, the fish was donated to the Museum as a star specimen of the Wood River. He weighs in at an impressive 11.3 pounds.

The Wood River Land Trust inquired if it could collect a sample of Frank in order to conduct DNA testing to see how clearly he is related to other specimens from Pacific Northwest locations. 

You can imagine the excitement of what the DNA findings will bring. To whom might Frank be related? Charlie the Tuna? Billy the bass perhaps? 

Bob MacLeod, the BCHM President, carefully unmounted the case that Frank is displayed in, allowing Scott Boettger to collect the scale samples from the fish for the Land Trust project.

Many thanks to Scott Boettger for thinking of us as a resource, and we await the results with interest! 

Jess Stitt, far left, who caught the trophy fish