According to the IGFA, these 17 beasts are the biggest fish ever caught! From prehistoric
Groupers to Billfish, and more Sharks than you can imagine – we’re covering them all here.
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Number 17. Let’s kick things off with a massive Goliath Grouper.
Before catch and release regulations for this species became widely enforced,
angler Lynn Joyner caught this 680 lb monster in Fernandina Beach, Florida.
Number 16. Sharks are the ocean’s fiercest predators and few things are more frightening
than coming face to gills with a massive Bull Shark. The current world record holder?
697 pounds and 12 ounces, caught by angler Ronald de Jager in Malindi, Kenya.
Number 15. Yep, another Shark.
And you better believe it’s not the last one on this list, either.
This 764-pound Dusky Shark was caught in 1982 off Longboat Key, Florida by angler Warren Girle.
You knew there was more coming. We’re going across the globe to New Zealand for number 14.
Coming in at 767 pounds,
you can bet that reeling in this Thresher Shark was no easy feat for angler David Hannah.
Coming in at number 13 is a close relative of our previous record-breaker. Angler Dianne
North caught this 802-pound Bigeye Thresher Shark in 1981, just a few years before David
Hannah. What’s even more interesting? These two catches occurred just 30 miles from one another!
Number 12 on our list is another incredible catch from New Zealand. Angler Donna Pascoe battled this
907-pound 6-ounce, Pacific Bluefin Tuna for over four hours in extremely tough weather conditions.
To date, it’s the largest fish ever caught on rod and reel by a woman in New Zealand.
Number 11 brings our first fish hitting over the 1000-pound mark. After almost 70 years, angler Lou
Marron’s world record for the biggest Swordfish ever caught still stands today at 1,182 pounds.
We break into our top 10 biggest fish ever caught with another fierce Shark.
Angler Luke Sweeny landed this
1,221-pound Shortfin Mako during a fishing tournament in Chatham, Massachusetts back in 2001.
Starting to see a pattern? Sharks are some of the biggest fish in our oceans so it’s not surprising
there are so many on this list. Number nine on our list is a Great Hammerhead Shark, caught
off the coast of Boca Grande, Florida in 2006. This monster came in at 1,280 pounds.
Number eight. This might be your first time hearing about Sixgill Sharks.
They’re true monsters of the deep and only come up to the surface at night. Angler Clemmens Rump
caught the current 1,298-pound record-holder back in 2002 off of Ascension Island.
Number seven. Pacific Blue Marlin are the trophy fish at the top of every bucket list on account
of their striking appearance, great fight, and incredible sizes. And speaking of sizes,
angler Jay de Beaubien’s Hawaiian catch came in at a whopping 1,376 pounds.
The Pacific Blue Marlin’s sister species
takes the 6th spot on our list. Angler Paulo Amorim takes credit here, landing a 1,402
pound Atlantic Blue Marlin off the coast of Victoria, Brazil, using a Mold Craft lure.
We’re breaking into the top 5 with another epic Atlantic catch. While Donna Pascoe’s Pacific
Bluefin Tuna record is impressive, it still can’t beat Ken Fraser’s 1979 catch. This 1,496-pound
beast was caught in Nova Scotia, Canada – the mecca of Bluefin Tuna fishing.
Number four. Angling legend Alfred C. Glassell Jr. caught this enormous Black
Marlin way back in 1953, making it one of the longest-standing IGFA World Records to date.
1,560 pounds of Marlin meat is hard to beat, after all.
This top three record-breaking catch was landed off the coast of Norway by angler Terje Nordvedt.
Coming in at a wildly big 1,708 pounds and 9 ounces,
it’s hard to imagine anyone hauling a Greenland Shark of this size onto land again.
Our runner-up is this enormous Tiger Shark caught by angler Kevin J. Clapson in 2004.
Kevin’s Tiger Shark came in at 1,785 pounds and 11 ounces, making the official ruling a
tie with Walter Maxwell’s catch from 1964. That doesn’t make it any less impressive, though.
And without further ado, the biggest fish ever caught is a Great White Shark. Reeled in by Alfred
Dean in 1959, this 2,664-pound fish is by far the largest predator on this list. And since Great
Whites are now a protected species in most of the world, it looks like his record is here to stay.
All of the catches on this list present incredible feats by some of the best anglers on earth.
With today’s conservation-oriented regulations,
most of these won’t be broken any time soon. But that’s not a bad thing – we’ll
have more of these incredible creatures roaming the oceans for years to come.
Now it’s your turn. What’s the biggest fish you’ve ever caught? Have you fished for any
of the species on this list? Let us know in the comments below! And see you next time!