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A potential fishing world record shortraker rockfish was caught in Elfin Cove, Alaska out of the Tanaku Lodge and once certified it will beat the existing world record by a few ounces. This fish looks like a goldfish that got lost inside nuclear sludge and mutated into a giant… or like a magikarp from Pokémon IRL.
The pending world record shortraker rockfish weighed in 44.8 pounds and was landed by angler Glenn Krieger. He was fishing out of the Tanaku Lodge last week when they landed the fish of a lifetime.
Currently, the IGFA Fishing world record for shortraker rockfish sits at 44 pounds, 1 ounce. When congratulating angler Glenn Krieger on the catch and Captain Joe for putting him on the incredible fish, Tanaku Lodge listed the fish’s weight as 44.8 pounds which would put it well clear of the existing world record. Check this thing out:
They also landed three fish listed at 34 pounds, 33 pounds, and 22 pounds. Again, these look like literal Pokémon. It is such a wild species I cannot get enough of them:
Potential World Record Shortraker Rockfish In Alaska Is Special
Looks aside, there are several reasons this fish is incredible, over a hundred reasons actually. In the Gulf of Alaska, the Shortraker Rockfish is believed to be most abundant at depths of 980–1,310 ft.
It is a deep water fish in a very cold part of the world. Do you know what that means? They live for a very, very long time. Shortrakers are the second-longest living species of the rockfish family and are estimated to live up to 140 years. A potential world record specimen like this could be older than that! And as you can see, the bigger they get the more fun they are to catch…This video is of a 42 pounder caught last year:
If you were like me and went snooping around in the Instagram comments then you might’ve already noticed people calling out the age. To call this pending world record catch ‘controversial’ would be a gross overstatement but there are some people in the comments questioning the age of the fish.
That said, they are fine to keep in Alaska there is just a bag limit of 1 per day for anglers. The current world record shortraker was caught in Cross Sound, Alaska back in 2017. As far as fishing world records go, this one wasn’t stood for all that long.