One angler in England caught a massive catfish that would have broken records. However, the fisherman made the boneheaded decision of throwing it back before it could be certified.
Just check out the complete image below and tell me that's not a dinosaur instead of a catfish. According to the fisherman, Tomas Marcinkevicius, the catfish weighed 133 pounds. He caught it at a a catch-and-release pay lake in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, so he had to release the fish. That would have fed a lot of people down at the fish fry. But, Marcinkevicius didn't have interest in getting it certified.
The official record for a catfish is 62 pounds caught from Withy Pool in 1997, according to AnglingTimes. But Marcinkevicius told the outlet that he isn't interested. He said, "It'd be nice, but I already know of larger UK cats that've been caught. I'm just happy with the fish."
Fisherman Catches Monster Catfish
However, what Marcinkevicius didn't realize is those previous wels catfish didn't qualify for record status. You see, the British Record Fish Committee suspended record-taking for wels catfish over 20 years ago. The last year was 2000. The organization was concerned about it being an imported fish. However in 2023, the committee removed the ban since local fish are self-sustaining and growing to large sizes. So he missed the record by not submitting it.
Despite the blunder, Marcinkevicius loves to fish and has had a lot of success. For instance, he said that he caught caught a 115-pounder, a 97.5-pounder and six others over 70 pounds over a two day period in December. In total, he caught more than 30 fish. A week later, he caught a 60 pound fish at Willowcroft Fisheries.
"On the way close to the bank, he hadn't realized I had hooked him, then he turned around and ran to the other side of the lake," he told USA Today/For The Win Outdoors. So it sounds like he knows his stuff. For, the fisherman catching big fish is an adrenaline rush. The catfish ended up being the biggest he's ever caught.
"I knew it was a big fish," he said. "It's my biggest fish so far that I've caught in my life. I'm really pleased." He said he's named the catfish Tom Cat as a result. Worldwide, the record for wels catfish sits at 297 pounds, 9 ounces. Attila Zsedely caught the fish in the river Po in Italy on March 11, 2010. So it was still a ways off from the world record.
