Bigger than him: 13-year-old reels in a potentially record-breaking giant fish
A teenager in New England may have become a world record holder, after claiming a crazy catch on a fishing trip at the weekend.
A New Hampshire boy is waiting to find out whether he is officially a record-breaking angler, after catching an enormous fish that is bigger than he is.
How much does the fish weigh?
In a dramatic moment that was caught on camera on Sunday, 13-year-old Jackson Denio reeled in a halibut weighing 178.9 pounds during a fishing expedition around 100 miles off the New England coast.
The teenager made the colossal catch while on a trip operated by Al Gauron Deep Sea Fishing, a company that carries anglers out into the Atlantic Ocean from Hampton Beach, a seaside resort in New Hampshire.
Waiting for world-record confirmation
In a post on its website, Al Gauron confirmed that details of the youngster’s catch have been submitted to the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) for certification as a junior world record for Atlantic halibut.
The company also published photos of Denio posing next to his catch. Hanging vertically from a hook, the halibut visibly towers over the teenager.
Per a report in CBS, the fish’s length has been measured at three inches greater than Denio’s height, while it is over 50 pounds heavier than him.
“Oh my god, look what it is!”
Recalling the moment he caught the huge halibut, Denio told the Associated Press: “You could just feel the big head shaking, because that’s the way they swim. They move their head and their tail, and just whack it hard.”
Jim Walsh, the boat’s captain, told AP: “He [Denio] did not let go once. He never let anybody else touch the rod, and he worked him, worked him, and then eventually the fish starts to tire out. Even though he’s that big, they go to tire.
“And then he got it up to the surface, and then that’s when we looked and went, ‘Oh my god, look what it is!’ It was great. We were all ecstatic.”
Denio added: “It took the three deck hands and the captain to get it in the boat. Once it was in the boat, everybody was just yelling and cheering.
“I think I screamed, honestly. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I was very excited.”
Speaking to the New England media outlet WCVB, Denio said the current junior world record for an Atlantic halibut is 131 pounds. On the IGFA’s website, the record appears to be listed as vacant.
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