Lake monster: Center Harbor man hooks 37.65-lb. trout

PITTSBURG — Thomas Knight, of Center Harbor, knows what it’s like to pull in a big fish. He spent 25 years as a commercial fisherman operating out of the Seacoast. Yet, he said, the lake trout he pulled out of the ice on Tuesday morning eclipsed the experience of any tuna or cod that he hooked in the ocean.

“I’m a very happy guy,” Knight said on Friday, while he was driving to Alfred, Maine, to have his prize fish taxidermied.

The trout that Knight landed earlier this week was a whopper, weighing in at 37.65 pounds, obliterating the previous state record of 28 pounds. 

Andy Schafermeyer, fisheries biologist with the state’s Fish and Game Department, verified the fish’s weight, measured it to be 40 inches long and 27 inches around, and estimated it to be between 50 and 60 years old.

By Schafermeyer’s estimate, Knight’s trout might have hatched just a few years after the previous record-holder was caught in 1958.

Somewhere up north

Knight began fishing for lake trout about a decade ago, after the wear and tear on his body from fighting big tuna pushed him out of that line of work. He caught the big laker bug eight years ago, he said, when he thought he might have a record-breaker on the end of his line.

“I caught a fish back in 2012 that was a half-inch longer than the state record, but it didn’t have the weight,” he said.

Since then, he said, he and a group of angling friends have been chasing big trout in an attempt to do what he just accomplished, “so this one was very, very rewarding for me.”

Knight’s was an all-or-nothing approach. He used an “old-fashioned tip-up” and “the biggest shiner or sucker you dare” as bait — in this case, his bait fish was an 11-inch sucker. With bait that big, he knew that he wouldn’t get a bite unless it was a contender.

“We’re out hoping for the best. We’re dreamers, you’ve got to go for it or it won’t happen,” he said.

Specific details about how he made his catch are going to stay under his cap, he said. Knight wouldn’t say where he was fishing, except to say that it was on a water body “near Pittsburg.” He also wouldn’t say when on Tuesday he caught it, only that he and his friends went out to lunch afterward to celebrate.

He did say, though, that he knew he had a big fish as soon as he felt it on the line. That suspicion was confirmed when the trout made its first run and the line gouged a groove into the ice.

Knight said his tuna fishing experience “came in very handy” when the lunker togue took the bait. He also credited his friend, Anthony Riciput, and girlfriend, Cynthia Baker, for helping him fight the fish to the surface.

Like a tuna, Knight said the trout make “three big runs. I didn’t let the fish rest between the runs. We whipped him in 15 minutes, but it was 15 minutes of battle. The first big run cut a groove in the ice and we knew it [was a big fish],” Knight said. “It was the best crew I could ask for in that moment. There was nobody yelling and screaming; it was smooth, it was fantastic. It felt like the old days of tuna, the line gets so tight, it gets thin,” and the challenge for the fisherman is to manage the line so it doesn’t snag on a button or zipper, or wrap around an arm or leg, while the fish is running.

“You have to get past the first three big runs, then the fish starts circling, then the circles get smaller,” he said.

When the fish finally gave up the fight, the trio had a challenge that tuna fishermen don’t have to face: pulling the trout up through the ice.

Knight said they were fishing through a 10-inch hole in the ice which was “just barely” enough room for Riciputi to reach through with both hands, grab the fish on either side of its jaw, and haul it up through the hole.

“Right away we knew we had the record. We were jumping up and down, screaming like schoolgirls,” Knight said.

While catching a big saltwater fish will always be exciting, Knight said, “I get more of a thrill out of this than a giant tuna.”

Record shattered

Lake trout are the longest-lived fish in New Hampshire, said Schafermeyer, the Fish and Game biologist that certified Knight’s catch. Even so, it’s uncommon for them to live so long.

“A whole series of variables has to fall into place,” Schafermeyer said. Good water quality, abundant food supply, and light fishing pressure, all contribute to making such a prize fish possible. “When you combine those variables, it allows a fish to live a long, happy life.”

Schafermeyer said he was happy to have played a role in the record-breaking event. “It’s very exciting, I think this one’s going to stick for quite a while. It didn’t just eclipse the record, it shattered it.”

Knight isn’t so sure, though. If he was able to land such a big fish, he knows several others who will redouble their efforts to do the same.

“I’ll be happy to own it for a day, but I know it’s still in range; I know it won’t hold for long.”

To contact Adam Drapcho, email ad@laconia

dailysun.com.