HOW about this for a monster cod – a hulk scaling 70 lb 5 oz for a fan of Angler’s Mail magazine on Facebook.
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Will Irving, from West Wales, shared the impressive catch with Angler’s Mail after a boat trip in Soroya, Norway.
Although not a record, it’s a heck of a fish and dwarfs what has ever been caught by any sea angler in the UK.
The British cod record from a boat stands at 58 lb 6 oz by Noel Cook from the North Sea off Whitby in 1992.
And the British shore best remains at 44 lb 8 oz, caught off Wales way back in 1966 by Brandon Jones at Tom’s Point near Barry, Glamorgan.
Brit’s 66 lb 8 oz giant set shore cod record
Will’s boat catch came just a fortnight after another Norwegian giant – the World’s biggest ever shore-caught cod – which slammed the scales to 66 lb 8 oz for another British saltwater specialist angler.
Dorset-based Tom Ascott hauled up his monster in the cold and deep aters of Saltstraumen where an almighty tidal current runs, and the huge cod twice took 200m of line Tom’s reel.
The beast took a piece of herring on a size 10/0 hook to a 150 lb trace in 100m of water, and gave a hard 30-minute fight before finally coming to the boat.
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Tom Ascott displays his 66-pounder from the shore.
Tom fished with Guided Fishing Norway who last year notched a world shore-caught ling record for a 59 lb 8 oz fish by British angler Phil Hambrook.
The huge fish measured 4ft 9in long, with a girth of 2 ft 11 in. The International Game Fishing Association (IGFA) does not differentiate between boat and shore caught specimens.
Therefore Tom will claim a line class world cod record and a European shore-caught record.
German’s 103 lb giant holds World cod record
A German angler holds the world record for cod with a hulk of 103 lb in 2013.
That catch smashed record that had been held for 44 years, and came in 90ft of water off the Norwegian coast.
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This World record cod scaled 103 lb!
Michael Eisele, from Kiel, Germany, was on a boat trip and the cod was so big two of his friends had to hold him back in fear he would have been dragged overboard by it.
They helped him heave it on board, measuring it at 5ft long. The existing record at the time was 98 lb 12 oz caught off New Hampshire in 1969.
Michael caught the fish in 90ft of water 10 miles off the Norwegian island of Soroya… the same mecca for sea giants where Will Irving visited!