Posted on 02/25/2009 5:40:58 PM PST by nickcarraway
A British angler – with a dozen helpers – has landed what could be the biggest freshwater fish ever caught with a rod and line, it emerged today.
The giant freshwater stingray, weighing as much as 350kg (772lbs, or about 55 stone), was the size of a garden shed and so cumbersome that Ian Welch had to enlist the aid of 12 other people to get it out of the water.
Welch, a professional fisherman, biologist and columnist for the magazine Angler's Mail, was visiting Thailand to help with a stingray tagging programme when he landed the monster in the Maeklong river. The 45-year-old said he was nearly pulled over the side of the boat when the specimen took his bait.
He said: "It dragged me across the boat and would have pulled me in had my colleague not grabbed my trousers – it was like the whole earth had just moved. I knew it was going to a big one.
"It buried itself on the bottom and the main fight was trying to get it off the floor. I tried with every ounce of power but it just would not budge. After half an hour my arms began shaking and after an hour my legs went. Another 30 minutes went by and then I put a glove on and physically pulled the line with gritted teeth and somehow I found the reserves to shift the fish."
Once the stingray was off the bottom, Welch, who weighs a relatively modest 73kg, managed to lift it to the surface relatively easily.
"As soon as we saw it there was just silence because everyone was just in awe of this thing," he said. "That line from the film Jaws came to mind about needing a bigger boat because we had to get
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Wow.
ping
I didnt know they could survive in freshwater.
Thailand?
YIKES, this guys arms must be vibrating like crazy....LOL
> Thailand?
It’s part of the fishing tour. Fish for mantas during the day, fish for teenage trannies in Bangkok at night.
what kinda bait to you use for the later
....if he’s not careful ,it won’t be the only “thing” he catches in Thailand
U-joints?
big one.
what was the bait?
al baby knows what I mean?
a freshwater variety?
BRD chum
A short rod...needs to be stiff of course.
yup. works miracles. not too good for the Chinese exporters though
ping .
He didn’t get mine about trannies and u-joints :)
Who knows? some critters can move between saltwater and fresh water.
I didnt know the Stingray was one of them. Some sharks can.
How’d ya like to hook this fishing in a kayak?
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