Andre Rosset, a German tourist, caught a 175kg heavy and 240cm long halibut while fishing in Súgandafjördur fjord in Iceland’s Westfjords yesterday, on the last day of a seven-day sea-angling tournament.
“They tell me this is a European record,” Rosset told Morgunbladid. Local fishermen said this is the largest halibut ever to be caught on a sea angle, at least in Iceland.
According to the book Íslenskir fiskar (“Icelandic fish”), a 266kg halibut was caught in 1935, which is believed to the largest halibut ever caught in Iceland, but it was not caught on an angle.
Recently fishermen brought a 181kg halibut to shore in Djúpivogur, southeast Iceland, but it wasn’t caught on an angle either.
“I’ve unsuccessfully tried fishing halibut for many years and then I catch this monster,” Rosset said. “It caught the bait and then a two-hour-long fight began. After a lot of struggling I managed to get the halibut up close to the boat, but then I lost it to the bottom again. The fight continued and finally I won.”
Rosset belonged to a group of 80 German tourists who participated in a fishing tournament organized by the travel agency Hvíldarklettur ehf. in Sudureyri by Súgandafjördur.
