New York Fishing Records: 72 State Records From a 3,450 lb Shark Down

New York’s record book covers a stranger range than any other state’s. At one end sits a 3,450 lb white shark taken off Montauk in 1986 — the heaviest fish ever landed on rod and reel in New York waters by a wide margin. At the other, a 6 lb 3 oz brook trout from a remote Adirondack canoe area, caught in 2025, which is the state freshwater fish and a genuinely hard fish to beat. Between them are 72 official records across freshwater and marine waters. For the full picture of the state’s water, see our complete New York fishing guide.

The freshwater records are maintained through the DEC’s Angler Achievement Awards Program; marine records run through the separate Marine Recreational Angler Records Program. Six freshwater records have fallen since 2024, so the book is actively moving.

Records That Stand Out

Northern Pike — 46 lb 2 oz

Peter Dubuc pulled this fish from Great Sacandaga Lake in 1940, and it is the most durable record in the New York book — eighty-five years and counting. At 46 lb 2 oz it is an extraordinary northern pike by any standard, the kind of fish normally associated with remote Canadian water rather than a reservoir in Fulton County.

Great Sacandaga still produces large pike, along with walleye and smallmouth, and remains one of the better big-water fisheries in the southern Adirondacks. Nobody has come close to Dubuc’s fish in the intervening decades, and it is the record most New York anglers would name if asked which one will never fall.

Muskellunge — 69 lb 15 oz

Arthur Lawton’s 1957 musky from the St. Lawrence River is the largest fish in the freshwater book and one of the most famous catches in American angling. The St. Lawrence and the Thousand Islands region remain premier musky water, and the fishery there is managed with the long view — most anglers release everything.

The St. Lawrence appears repeatedly in the modern record book too: the smallmouth bass record (9 lbs, 2024), the walleye record (18 lb 2 oz, 2018) and the fallfish record (2025) all came from the same river system. For a river most of the country never thinks about, it produces an unusual share of New York’s best fish. See our guide to the best fishing spots in New York for how to approach it.

White Shark — 3,450 lbs

Don Braddick landed this fish off Montauk in August 1986, and it stands as the heaviest fish in any New York record book. It belongs to a specific era: four of the five heaviest marine records — the white shark, the 1,174 lb blue marlin, the 1,087 lb tiger shark and the 1,071 lb bluefin tuna — were all taken between 1977 and 1986, when Montauk’s big-game fleet was at its peak.

Montauk still runs one of the most serious offshore fleets on the Atlantic coast, though shark fishing today is heavily regulated and largely catch-and-release. White sharks are fully protected and cannot be targeted.

Striped Bass — 76 lbs

Bob Rocchetta’s 76 lb striper, caught in 1981, is the record that matters most to the largest number of New York anglers. Striped bass is New York’s state saltwater fish, and the fishery around Montauk, the South Shore and the Hudson estuary is the backbone of the state’s marine angling.

Stripers are still caught to fifty pounds and beyond during the spring and autumn migrations, and Montauk Point in October is one of the genuine spectacles in American fishing — birds, bait and fish stacked against the rocks. Rocchetta’s fish has held for over forty years, but this is the record most likely to fall in a given decade.

Chinook Salmon — 47 lb 13 oz

Kurtis Killian’s 1991 chinook from the Salmon River in Oswego County represents a fishery that did not exist before the 1960s. Lake Ontario’s salmon programme transformed the eastern basin, and the Salmon River run each September and October is now the single most concentrated fishing event in the state.

Lake Ontario also holds the brown trout record (33 lb 2 oz), the rainbow trout record (31 lb 3 oz), the coho record (33 lb 7 oz) and the Atlantic salmon record — four of the largest fish in the freshwater book, all from one lake. See our seasonal guide for how to time the run.

Brook Trout — 6 lb 3 oz

The smallest headline fish in this list and arguably the most significant. Benjamin Ferguson caught this brook trout in the St. Regis Canoe Area of Franklin County in 2025, breaking a record for the state’s official freshwater fish. Brook trout are native to New York, sensitive to warming water, and increasingly confined to cold Adirondack ponds and headwater streams.

A six-pound brookie is exceptional anywhere in the species’ range. That one came out of a wilderness canoe area — no roads, no motors — says everything about where New York’s best native trout water still is.

Where the Records Come From

New York’s record book divides cleanly into three regions. Lake Ontario and its tributaries dominate the freshwater list: the chinook, coho, brown trout, rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon, burbot and shorthead redhorse records all come from the lake or the Salmon River. The eastern basin around Oswego and the Salmon River is the single most productive record-producing water in the state.

The St. Lawrence River and the Thousand Islands hold the musky, smallmouth, walleye and fallfish records — cold, clear, structurally complex water on the Canadian border. The marine district off Montauk and Long Island accounts for everything over 500 lbs, plus the striped bass, bluefin tuna, swordfish and tilefish records.

The Finger Lakes, the Adirondacks and the Hudson fill in the rest. Cayuga Lake gave up the current largemouth record in 2024, the Hudson holds the American shad record, and the Adirondack ponds produce the brook trout water that nothing else in the state can match.

The timeline splits too. The marine big-game records cluster in the late 1970s and 1980s and have barely moved since. The freshwater book is far more active — the largemouth, smallmouth, longnose gar, channel catfish, white perch, fallfish and brook trout records have all been set or broken since 2024. A valid New York fishing license is required to fish state waters, and marine anglers also need a free registration.

Complete New York Freshwater Records

The redbreast sunfish record is currently vacant — the DEC is accepting entries.

Complete New York Marine Records

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources: NYSDEC — Freshwater Fishing Records. NYSDEC — Marine Recreational Angler Records Program.