![]() Apparently never submitted for official certification, this fish nevertheless stood for three years as the fish to beat for wels fanatics across the continent. Not much is known about the catch, except that it was 9.02 feet long. The first European catfish to break 9 feet was caught by angler Ronny Zurcher in the River Po in October 2017. They initially thought the catfish was around 250 centimeters, but final measurements proved it was 280, at the time the longest wels on record. He arrived at the scene to find his fellow angler battling a massive wels, and the two men finished the fight together, according to the French fishing magazine La Peche. Austrian fishing guide Roland Ebner, who posted a video of the fish on his Facebook page, said he received a call for help from a friend while fishing on the Po. Seub said catching the fish was the “absolute dream of both of us.” 3) An Anonymous AnglerĮxactly who hauled a 9.19-footer out of the Po on March 21, 2021, isn’t widely known, as news reports noted that the angler preferred to remain anonymous. The catch was 281 centimeters, or 9.22 feet, long and was briefly considered the longest wels ever caught after barely edging out a 280-centimeter fish. Their River Po trophy was the result of a quarter-century chase for the two German anglers, who estimated its weight at 140 kilograms, or about 308 pounds. On the same river a month before Biancardi’s catch, Stefan Seub and Christian Ritzinger caught their own 9-footer. Like many wels anglers, Biancardi elected to forego weighing his catch to minimize the stress on the fish the measurements he collected were submitted to IGFA’s newly introduced catch-and-release length record. Biancardi reported that he hooked the fish after just a handful of casts in his first spot of the day, then fought it for 40 minutes before pulling his small jon boat to shore to bring the giant under control in the shallows. MADCATĪlessandro Biancardi caught the pending 9.35-foot IGFA world record wels in May while fishing the River Po in northern Italy’s Lombardy region. 1) The Biggest of All Time The River Po is famous for producing giant wels catfish. ![]() Here’s a look at 10 of the biggest whopper wels catfish ever caught on rod and reel. Since 2017 the length record has been beaten five times, including twice in the first half of this year. The wels also inspires a nearly cultlike following of anglers obsessed with catching and releasing a specimen that’s fractionally bigger-even if only by a few centimeters-than the previous longest fish. Related: Giant Wels Catfish Beach Themselves While Hunting Pigeons ![]() They are capable of living for decades, grow continuously as they age, and reach their largest size in a handful of rivers that have become world famous for their association with the species, most notably the River Po. The species is the largest freshwater fish in Europe. Wels catfish are so big they make the biggest blue catfish look small. Spooks and Jumpin Minnows caught all the blues and stripers today.Both of these wels catfish easily topped 9 feet. This big blue has just clobbered a white popper. But, there was not a single big fish under them and we saw no one land a fish on a menhaden. We found a ton of pogies miles from where we hit the blues. Interestingly, many fishermen were running all over the Bay today trying to snag or fish with pogies. I'm sure they would have been eaten by the ravenous blues.Īll of our fish today were caught on plugs. There were no small schoolies in this melee. We also landed half a dozen stripers from 22 inches to small keeper size. There were so many blues that when we were reeling one to the boat, there were often four or five following the hooked fish trying to steal the plug from its mouth.Īnd, not only did we get blues. The monster blue described above was caught on a black back Rebel Jumpin Minnow. Just about any topwater plug like poppers, Spooks and Jumpin Minnows were blasted by these super aggressive blues in the 8-15 lb. For hours we had a hit or a fish on just about every cast using a topwater plug. We found big blues stacked up in a corner of the Bay. It was unhooked and released so the beast still swims in Gansett Bay. I would estimate this fish went in the low to mid 20 lb. ![]() While this fish bests the state record in length, I don't think it was fat enough to beat the weight. The state record for blues is listed at 39 inches and 26 lbs. My brother Steve landed this Mother of All Bluefish, a 40 inch monster on the best day of fishing for blues we have ever had in June. We've landed some big bluefish over the years from shore and boat, but today yielded the biggest one I have ever seen. This bluefish, the biggest we ever caught, measuredĪ whopping 40 inches. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |