New Zealand angler Otwin Kandolf’s name has officially been entered into the International Game Fish Association’s (IGFA) record book for taking the biggest brown trout ever on a rod-and-reel—a 42-pound, 1 ounce monster!
He originally thought it was a river rat similar to the one pictured below.
An article from the Bay of Plenty Times explained how the 71-year-old angler bagged this brown in Oahu Canal on New Zealand’s south island.
“My friend was fishing 50m further up and shouted ‘there’s a water rat coming down’.”
But it wasn’t a river rat—it was the dorsal fin of a massive brown trout sticking out of the water that soon disappeared in a swirling pool. He battled the giant for around 20 minutes before pulling it out of the water.
Kandolf didn’t have a certified scale or camera to document the catch, so he kept it in the refrigerator of a nearby pub overnight. It was two weeks before the fish could be measured by a certified scale.
On Saturday, July 27, Jack Vitek, record-keeper with the IGFA, said the agency approved Kandolf’s fish as the new all-tackle world record. It beats out Roger Hellen’s Lake Michigan brownie caught in 2010, which weighed 41 lbs., 8 ounces.
Photo from 3News.com.
