The Codfathers! 93lb fish batters British record for biggest catch
WHEN Paul Stevens reeled in a monster cod weighing 83lb, he was surely confident his record-breaker would be the biggest of the trip.
But his triumph at beating the 76lb record was short- l i ved when the next day fellow angler Bert Williams hauled in a 93lb fish – the biggest cod ever caught by a Briton.
Mr Williams, 71, reeled in his 5ft- long catch – enough for 186 fish and chip meals – after a gruelling 20-minute struggle in the waters off Soroya, Norway.
The angler, from the Wirral, said: ‘I’ve never felt anything like it before. As soon as it caught my bait it pulled 20 metres of line from my reel – the only time that’s happened before is when I got snagged on a boat propeller.
‘When I’d recovered I saw there was so much air coming up out of the water I thought it was some kind of whale, it was just so big.’
The cod died after it was caught, so there are now plans for it to be mounted in the office of the holiday firm that arranged the fishing trip.
The catch, which took two men to haul into the boat, is still 10lb off the world record – but experts believe it is only a matter of time before the title is taken, as the once-threatened species is now thriving in Scandinavian waters. Mr Stevens, 39, of Sportquest Holidays, which ran the trip, said: ‘It was absolutely enormous, I couldn’t believe it was real. Even though it was 10lb bigger than mine I was delighted for him.’
The catches come after the record-breaking exploits of Dorset man Tom Ascott, 32, who hauled in the biggest ever shore-caught cod earlier this month, weighing 66lb 8oz. The world record was set three years ago when a 103lb specimen was caught off Norway.