German Angler Catches Possible World Record Cod
OutdoorHub Reporters 05.14.13
Michael Eisele of Kiel, Germany appears to have broken a 44-year-old record while on a fishing trip to Norway. According to the Daily Mail, Eisele and his fishing party were returning to shore 10 miles off the island of Soroya when his line caught a bite. It was a cod, and Eisele’s sonar told him it was a large one.
“So I concentrated from that moment on,” Eisele said. “It felt like ground contact. I took it very slowly and carefully.”
The fish was in fact so large that the ship’s equipment pinged the cod as not one animal, but two. The battle took slightly over 30 minutes before the anglers were able to haul the catch on board.
“When we saw the fish my knees was starting shaking. It was so big,” the angler recalled. “I needed the help from both boys staying in my boat to get it landed.”
When weighed the massive cod came in at a staggering 103 pounds. It measured roughly five feet in length. The current record was caught off New Hampshire in 1969 and weighed 98 pounds, five pounds shy of Eisele’s catch. Coincidentally, 1969 was the same year that Eisele was born.
While certainly his largest cod–and if confirmed, the largest landed by anyone–Eisele is not unfamiliar to large fish. The German angler is also the managing director of a fishing tackle firm in his native country. Eisele has since then submitted an application to the International Game Fish Association, the world record keeping authority, where his world record is now pending confirmation.
The Telegraph reports that Eisele donated the giant cod to a fisheries museum in Bergen, Norway where it will be stuffed and put on display. Of course, the meat will not go to waste either, being able to provide an estimated 200 meals.
“It was an indescribable feeling,” Eisele said afterwards. “It was fish of a lifetime.”
Here is the video preview of Eisele’s catch:
httpv://youtu.be/TU9snbrZGuY
