Fisherman breaks NY state record for species considered living dinosaur

A Hilton, New York, man returned home with a huge fish story.

Chuck Zimmerman set a New York state record for longnose gar, the state Department of Environmental Conservation announced.

Zimmerman hooked the monster 15-pound, 14-ounce fish on Butterfield Lake in Redwood, Jefferson County. It toppled the previous record, which stood since 2018, by 1 pound, 4 ounces.

Zimmerman used a topwater swimbait and was fishing on an annual weeklong friends trip when he caugt the gar, which measured more than 53 inches. The world record longnose gar is 60 inches in Mississippi in 2017.

The longnose gar is considered a living dinosaur as the species dates back 100 million years to the Cretaceous Period. The fish have long, cylindrical bodies and are grayish to olive in color. Their long needle-like snouts are filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth.

The gar have thick scales that doesn't make them susceptible to many natural predators once they reach full size, and are often found in shallow weedy areas near the water's surface. In New York, most populations are in the St. Lawrence River, Niagara River, Lake Champlain and eastern Lake Ontario, and the larger tributaries to those waters. They eat fish along with frogs, snakes, turtles and waterfowl.

"DEC congratulates Mr. Zimmerman on an impressive catch," DEC interim Commissioner Sean Mahar said. "From the Hudson River to the St. Lawrence River, Lake George to Chautauqua Lake, New York waterways support strong, healthy fish populations and provide world-class fishing opportunities for anglers of every level."

The DEC has a newly overhauled Angler Achievement Awards Program, which tracks individual achievements and state fishing records. Anglers can enter freshwater fish that meet qualifying criteria to officially document their catch and receive species-specific stickers.