Bigger than himself: Angler pulls giant catfish out of the Elbe
Created: 01/01/2023 04:52
By: Victoria Krumbeck
An angler from Saxony-Anhalt got a real surprise just before Christmas.
Instead of a zander, he pulled a 2.40 meter giant catfish out of the Elbe.
Stendal - An angler from Saxony-Anhalt actually wanted to catch a zander in the Elbe the day before Christmas Eve.
But what he pulled out of the river was about four times the size of an average walleye.
A giant catfish measuring 2.40 meters bit his rod.
The fish outperformed a catfish caught in a pond by another angler.
This was over two meters long and weighed around 80 kilos.
Angler pulls 2.40 meter giant catfish out of the Elbe
The 35-year-old angler managed to catch the giant wave with just a 60-gram fishing rod, as he
told
Bild.de.
The fishing rod was designed for a fish weighing just ten kilograms.
The giant fish was baited with a rubber fish.
A bait that is common for zander, as the angler explained.
But then the giant bit.
“I noticed right away that it can only be a catfish.
There was a real hit on the rod,” said the man.
He posts his proud catch on Facebook.
Giant fish from the Elbe: Wels is 2.40 meters tall
It took about 50 minutes for the angler to finally catch the wels.
He carefully pulled the fish ashore, causing the rod to bend so much that the angler was afraid it would break.
The catfish was very sluggish due to the cold water, as the angler reported.
Just before land, a friend helped him with a landing net.
And then came the certainty: The catfish is 2.40 meters long.
"An bycatch is the biggest fish of my life," says the angler.
He didn't want to tell what happened to the catfish.
Whether he let the fish back into the water or gutted it remains a secret.
Again and again anglers show their spectacular finds.
Among them a goldfish from France that weighed 30 kilograms or a sturgeon that measured more than three meters.
(vk)
