MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) – A 25-year-old charter boat captain in Michigan City has caught the largest lake trout in Indiana history.

Tyler Kreighbaum, owner of Tightline Fishing Charters, caught the 44-inch long, nearly 38-pound fish in Lake Michigan on Saturday. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources says the catch breaks the previous state record by about 8 pounds.

Kreighbaum says he thought he was hooked on the bottom and was trying to break the line. He says he didn’t know right away that he had caught a record fish.

Ben Dickinson, the DNR’s assistant Lake Michigan fisheries biologist, says the average lake trout caught in southern Lake Michigan is 8 to 10 years old and weighs 7 to 8 pounds.

The previous record was a 29-pound fish caught in Lake Michigan in 1993.