Brandon McGirl landed a 1,116-pound bluefin tuna off Rye, New Hampshire, on Saturday, October 3, 2026, and the fish set a new New Hampshire state record. The catch came aboard the Out of Line of Savage Charters NH with Captain Jamie Savage.
The scale of the fish is the reason it is drawing attention. It was more than 150 pounds heavier than the previous New Hampshire record, which had stood since 2013, and it was hooked on a trip that turned into much more than an ordinary outing.
McGirl said the conditions were rougher than expected, and the crew spent more than a mile chasing the tuna before they finally got it close enough to see what they had. Savage said that once they lifted it out of the water, they knew immediately it was far bigger than they thought and bigger than anything either of them had seen before.
That is what made the catch feel so improbable. The fish was expected to be a difficult haul, but not a record-breaker of this size. Even by bluefin standards, 1,116 pounds is enormous, and it was framed against another record-breaking bluefin catch in San Diego that weighed nearly 500 pounds.
McGirl put the moment in the language of someone who has spent a long time around tuna. Catching a 1,000-pound fish, he said, is the sort of thing anglers dream about. For New Hampshire, it is now the benchmark to beat.
The unanswered question is how long that benchmark will hold. The previous state record lasted 13 years, and this one arrived from a single hard-fought trip off New Hampshire's coast, in conditions that were rough enough to make the crew work for every foot of line. Now the number on the scale belongs to McGirl, and every future pursuit of a New Hampshire giant bluefin tuna starts from there.
