Speckled trout reeled in from North Carolina river shatters decades-old state record

A North Carolina man recently broke the state record for the largest speckled trout, dethroning the fish that had held the title for the last 60 years, local media reports.

Todd Spangler, from Merritt, caught the 12-pound, 8-ounce fish on Feb. 9, OBX Today reported. The previous record was 12 pounds and 4 ounces, according to the outlet.

The trout reeled in by Spangler was the first to bite that day while he was fishing at the mouth of the Neuse River, Field and Stream reported.

But he almost didn’t get so lucky — he anticipated he might have to release the hard-fighting fish, Spangler told Field and Stream.

“I kept fighting it, and when I saw it flash right below us I said, ‘Man, that’s a big striper right there,’” Spangler told the outlet. “Then it came up to the surface, and I saw that it was a trout, I went all to pieces. I said, ‘Oh, my lord. Get the net! Get the net!’”

After pulling the trout in, Spangler and the friend he was fishing with that day headed to Neuse River Bait & Tackle to weigh it.

“A true fish of a lifetime!” the store said in a Facebook post. “Congrats Todd!”

The fish Spangler caught measured 33.5 inches from snout to tip and had an 18-inch girth, The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality said in a news release.

Spangler caught the fish with a custom-built spinning rod, the agency said in the release.

The previous record-setting speckled trout was caught at Wrightsville Beach in 1961 by a man named John R. Kenyon, according to Fortune Hunter Charters, a tourist center in the area.

The Neuse River is in the Raleigh-Durham area.