Angler Andrew lands a whopper off Welsh coast
A TRULY enormous fish has been caught off the coast of Wales by a Penarth fisherman.
Andrew Alsop runs his own charter business and was taking some customers shark fishing off the coast of Neyland, Pembrokeshire.
Commercial fisherman Gavin Davies had chartered Andrew’s boat to take some of his staff out for a day.
They were not targeting tuna and were using relatively lightweight equipment, but they ended up catching this monster bluefin, whose weight has been confirmed at 505lbs – that’s an incredible 36st or 229kg.
Andrew said: “Gavin has chartered my boat before and he takes his boys from work every year.
“I don’t normally fish on these trips. It is unusual to get a tuna because they don’t normally take anything.
“They knew it was big and Gavin said I should take the rod and he would take the controls.
“I know how long it can take with tuna because I had a previous one that took five hours. This one was less at about two hours and 15 minutes.
“I had previously caught one that was 315lbs, but that was with big, heavy gear. We didn’t realise how big it was because of the tackle we were using until it broke the surface.”
After his battle 49-year-old Andrew was feeling the strain.
“I am aching now,” he said.
“It was a real battle. To be fair, the others were giving me drinks.”
Andrew, who runs White Water Charters in Penarth, is no stranger to catching huge animals of the deep. He was the first angler to catch five different species of fish over 100lbs in the British isles.
After a quick photo with the tuna, they returned it to the sea.
Andrew took to Facebook to show off his catch. He wrote: “This 460lb-plus [now confirmed at 505lb] bluefin tuna is now the biggest fish ever landed from Welsh waters. I’d just like to thank Gavin Davies and his boys for helping me.”
The record for a bluefin tuna is 1,496lbs – 106st/679kg. It was caught off Nova Scotia, Canada, on October 26, 1979.
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