RUTLAND, Vt. (WCAX) – A Pennsylvania angler is getting top honors for a record fish he caught last year.
Vermont Fish and Wildlife says Jeremy Bicking’s longnose gar has been certified as a new state record. Bicking caught the 18.6 lbs., 54 ¾ inches behemoth in May while bow fishing on Lake Champlain. It is ¼ inch longer but three ounces lighter than the current record gar taken by rod and reel in 2007.
State records are kept separately for four species of fish that can be taken both by hook-and-line and bow fishing.
Although not new state records, two other notable fish were entered in the State Record Fish Program in 2023 – an 11.86 pound Walleye from Lake Champlain and a 25.6 pound Lake Trout from Echo Lake in Charleston.