Man takes the day off work to go fishing, then his catch shatters Rhode Island record

In the winter stillness on a frozen lake, a man’s gleeful howl torpedoed the quietude.

“Whoooooo mama! Look at the size of this thing!”

He was alone, save for the massive fish in his hands. He stabilized the creature in one hand and pulled his phone out with the other, immediately hitting record.

Zachary Taylor had taken the day off work to do his favorite thing — fish. He told The Valley Breeze that he didn’t expect to catch much, he just liked the activity.

It was Jan. 18, a good day for ice fishing at Peck Pond in the Pulaski State Park and Recreation Area in Rhode Island.

Taylor cut a 6-inch hole in the ice. He used a jig stick, a smaller fishing pole, and waited. When he felt the pull, he jumped into action, he told The Valley Breeze.

The creature on the other side of the line was bigger than usual. In fact, it was so big, Taylor had to reach into the ice cutout and lift the fish by the gills, the outlet reported.

In his hands was a mammoth rainbow trout, almost too big to hold. The creature weighed 15 pounds, a full 3 pounds more than the state-record-breaking trout caught nearly four years earlier, in 2020, according to NRI Now.

“It was a very exciting moment on 2 inches of ice,” Taylor wrote on his Instagram.

The next day, the Rhode Island Division of Fish and Wildlife certified Taylor’s catch as the official new state record.

“Congratulations Zachary on your catch!” the organization said in a statement.

The trout was 29 inches long with a girth of 21 inches.

This story was originally published February 6, 2024 at 5:39 PM.