Fishing with four others in a team tournament on Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula last month, Chris VanEvera hooked into a huge lake trout that he initially thought might be a snag.

“It took a few minutes to get the planer board into our boat, and when I did, and could feel the fish directly, I knew it was a good one,” VanEvera told Outdoor Life.

After a 35-minute battle, VanEvera landed a lake trout that tipped the scales at 38.15 pounds and whose age just might be equal to the 45-year-old VanEvera, who plans to have the fish mounted.

“The taxidermist, Tim Gorenghan, is going to have my laker aged, because they grow so very slowly in Lake Superior,” VanEvera told Outdoor Life. “They think my fish may be about as old as me.”

“Lake trout are generally slow-growing, but long-lived, which means that populations are susceptible to overfishing,” Orvis News reported. “They reach sexual maturity at 6 or 7 years, commonly live in excess of 25 years, and have been recorded up to 60 years old.”

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According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Alaskan lake trout are said to live to a maximum age of 62 years old with a maximum weight of 102 pounds.

VanEvera stated on Facebook that they were trolling in 135-feet of water in Traverse Bay but was only down 45 feet. “I’m not sure why he was so high in the [water] column,” he wrote.

The lunker lake trout wound up being the biggest caught in the Keweenaw Bay Classic Fishing Tournament (produced by Baraga County Next Gen Team) and was worth $2,400.

While VanEvera’s lake trout was no doubt massive, it fell far short of the Michigan record of 61.5 pounds, also caught in Lake Superior, in 1997.

Photos courtesy of Chris VanEvera.