A New Hampshire teenager on a deep-sea fishing trip this week hauled in an 80kg Atlantic halibut, a fish so big that it weighed more than him and could be a world record.
Jackson Denio, a 13-year-old from Hampton, New Hampshire, was fishing about 161kms off the New England Coast on Cashes Ledge when he caught the fish.
“I think I screamed, honestly,” said Denio, who only weighs around 54kg and is 1.75m tall. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but I was very excited.”
Watch the moment Jackson reels in his giant catch on TVNZ+
Denio had set out with about 30 others on an overnight charter trip with Al Gauron’s Deep Sea Fishing and Whale Watching. After everyone had caught plenty of pollock and other fish, Denio told the crew he wanted to catch a shark. They told him to fish at the bottom.
Minutes after he dropped his hook with pollock on it, Denio got a hit and knew he had something big.
He fought the fish for about 30 minutes, bringing it near the boat only to have it dive back down. He was eventually able to get the fish to the surface, guided by the crew and cheered on by fellow passengers who uttered plenty of oohs and ahhs spiced with profanity as the size of the fish became clear.
One person even yelled out: “Jackson, you are an angel of a man.”
“I’m standing there watching him. Then all of a sudden the fish took off it, bit it and started pounding away,” said Jim Walsh, the captain of the vessel Denio was on.
“I looked at him and I said, were you on the bottom? And he goes, yes. And I said, you don’t have a shark.”
Walsh said he was most impressed with Denio's composure.
“He did not let go once. He never let anybody else touch the rod. And he worked him, worked him. Then eventually, the fish starts to tire out,” Walsh said. “Even though he’s that big, they go to tire. Then he got it up to the surface. That’s when we looked and went, oh my God. We were all ecstatic.”
Before the fish was carved up, Denio officially got it weighed and took photos and video of the fish, and he has provided other information about his fishing gear that will go into an application for a world record with the International Game Fish Association.
The family plans to file an application under the junior record for Atlantic halibut and one under line class that includes all fish.
The association didn't respond to a request for more information. Its website lists as vacant the record for Atlantic halibut under the junior male class.
And while he is relishing all the attention, Denio is itching get back out on the water again - and catch something even bigger.
“It makes me want to keep fishing even more and try and beat the record if I can,” he said.
Denio with his giant catch - Watch on TVNZ+
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