World-record halibut caught in Norway
Jon Stokes 08.21.13
While fishing off the coast of Norway, German Marco Liebenow caught a world-record 513-pound halibut. The DailyMail has the pictures and story, and this thing’s a monster.
The enormous flat fish tipped the scales at a whopping 37 stones – heavier than a wild gorilla. It was caught by Marco Liebenow who jokingly thought he had hooked into a submarine when the monster halibut took his bait.
So he and three friends tied a rope around its tail and towed it back to shore where it had to be hoisted on to the quayside by a crane. It weighed in at 513lbs, easily beating the existing record of 419lbs for an Atlantic halibut as recognised by the International Game Fishing Association.
Marco, who is in his 30s and from Germany, has now submitted a claim to the IGFA and is awaiting confirmation.
I’ve caught halibut off the coast of Alaska, and I have to say, while I had a good time I’m not dying to go again. It seemed less like “fishing” than “meat hauling”, i.e., you put some bait on a hook, drop the line way down, and when the fish takes it you haul it back up.
But maybe I just didn’t know what I was doing. Is there an art to halibut fishing? Set me straight in the comments if there is.
