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Alessandro Biancardi was recently fishing in the Po, Italy’s longest river, when he reeled in the fish of a lifetime: a catfish that measured over 9 feet long.
Biancardi, a member of the MADCAT Italia fishing team, said the catfish measured 9.35 in length, which would put it 1.5 inches longer than the International Game Fish Association record.
Coincidentally, the record prior to his massive catch was caught by a pair of German fishermen in the same river earlier this year, according to a UPI report.
Biancardi says he will also be seeking Guinness World Records recognition for his monster catch.
“Hi everyone, I’m Alessandro Biancardi from MADCAT ITALY team, I’m here to describe with trembling voice and eyes full of joy, what happened just few days ago, after 23 years of intense catfishing!” he told madcat-fishing.com.
“I approached the first spot and after few casts a powerful bite arrived, the fish stood still some seconds before starting a very complicated fight, between strong currents and a lot of submerged obstacles,” he continued. “I calmly managed to fight what I felt to be a prehistoric fish. I followed it for 40 endless minutes, when it surfaced for the first time, I really realized that I hooked a monster, adrenaline started pumping hard and the fear of losing it almost sent me into a panic, I was alone facing the biggest catfish I ever seen in 23 years.”
If you are wondering what a 9.35 foot long catfish weighs, so was Biancardi, but he didn’t get to weigh it.
“I was very curious about the weight but I feared to stress too much that rare specimen so I decided to safely release it, hoping it could give another angler the same joy he gave to me,” he explained.
Considering a 8.75 foot long catfish caught in the same river as Biancardi’s catch weighed 280 pounds, it’s pretty safe to say this 9.35 foot long monster was definitely in the 300-plus pound range.
The world record for the heaviest catfish ever caught was a 8.9 foot long Mekong giant catfish that was captured in 2005 in Thailand and weighed in at a whopping 646 pounds.
Take a look at several more photos of Biancardi’s huge catfish over on Instagram.