A German angler crushed previous world records when he caught an Atlantic halibut that weighed 513 pounds, approximately 100 pounds more than the previous record holder.
Marco Liebenow, a German angler, made the catch of his life when he hooked a 513 pounds, nine-feet long Atlantic halibut. The fish weighed more than a gorilla and could not be hauled onto the fishing boat.
The current International Game Fish Association record for Atlantic halibut is 419 pounds made in 2004 also from Norwegian waters, but Liebenow's latest catch was enough to crush this record by exactly 94 pounds.
According to a Field & Stream report, Liebenow may also bag a new record for the biggest halibut ever caught with a rod and reel, though nothing has been confirmed yet.
"It took four men to bring it towards their 19-foot boat and then they could only put a sling around its tail and pull it back to the harbor," Daily Mail quoted Daivd Bottcher, a representative from Angelreisen Hamburg, the angling tour operator that organized the fishing trip to Kjollefjord as saying. "Marco was elated afterwards and celebrated with the boat skipper and their housekeeper by having a few beers. Before he left for the trip, he called us first to ask for a few hints about how and where to fish - I guess our advice paid off. It looks like it is a world record for a halibut but we are waiting to have it confirmed."
The Atlantic halibuts belong to the fish family Pleuronectidae. They live at depths of between 50 and 2,000 meters and are generally found on or near sand, clay bottoms or gravel. This fish is the largest flatfish in the Atlantic and one of the largest species of flatfish in the world. It boasts a lifespan of up to fifty years and can weigh up to 710 pounds. Atlantic halibuts usually eat smaller fish but are the staple diet of the Greenland shark.
