The question of what is the biggest fish ever caught on rod and line is surprisingly difficult to answer. Many huge fish have been caught all around the world over the years, but only those which have been submitted to the IGFA (International Game Fish Association) and then accepted by the organisation appear in the official world record list and a number of significant catches which exceed official world records are omitted from the IGFA list. There can be many reasons for this: the catch may pre-date the establishment of the IGFA, anglers may have used equipment or techniques which the IGFA prohibits, the fish may have been released meaning it could not be submitted to the IGFA, or they may have been happy claiming a national record and not wanted the fish considered for a world record. This article, therefore, looks at the biggest fish catches which are listed by the IGFA as official records, and also at some other famous fish that have been caught by anglers on rod and line but are not listed as official records.
The International Game Fish Association
In the early decades of the twentieth century there was no overall governing body or organisation to verify and list new record catches on a worldwide basis. The IGFA was therefore established in 1939 as a non-profit organisation to compile a definitive list of the largest sea fish caught around the world. In the 1970s it also took on responsibility for freshwater fish records. Today the IGFA is based in Dania Beach, Florida and remains responsible for maintaining record catches from across the world while also working with scientific organisations to carry out research into marine conservation and also works to promote angling as a sport.
The IGFA has a number of different categories into which potential record fish can be submitted. These include different line class categories, tippet (fly fishing) classes, a junior class, and the small fry class (for anglers under the age of ten). World record catches fall into the all-tackle class which does not distinguish between shore caught and boat caught catches. In 2011 the IGFA introduced a new all-length category that allows fish to be caught, measured and then released alive. The IGFA has an extensive set of rules and regulations which need to be adhered to for any fish being submitted for a record: scales fish are weighed on must be officially certified, tackle and equipment may need to be checked, and a long list of other regulations must be adhered to (more on those below). Furthermore, the IGFA does not consider mini-species so any fish submitted to it must be over 1lb in weight. The official form which is used to apply for a world record catch can be viewed and downloaded here.
International Game Fishing Association All-tackle World Record Catches
The top five largest fish which are official IGFA all-tackle world record catches are listed below. All of these fish were retained by the angler who caught them and submitted to the IGFA who verified the catch as meeting their criteria and regulations. These catches are therefore in the record books as the largest ever caught on rod and line.
Great White Shark
Confirmed weight:
- 2,664 lb (1,208 kg)
- Angler: A. Dean
- Location: Ceduna, South Australia
- Year: 1959
The largest fish ever caught which is verified and listed by the IGFA is a 2,664lb (1,208kg) great white shark. It was caught by Australian angler Alfred Dean in April 1959 off the coast of Ceduna, in South Australia. The shark was captured around twelve miles out to sea and was successfully pulled up alongside the boat after being played for only seventy minutes. Dean was a fruit farmer from Irymple, Victoria and only became interested in shark fishing when he was middle-aged. He was a remarkably successful shark angler, catching seven great whites over 2000lb, and reportedly losing one which was estimated at near 4,000lb in 1952. The size of Dean’s all-time record catch is underlined by the fact it is 879lb heavier than the next fish on the IGFA list.
Tiger Shark (tied record)
Confirmed weight:
- 1,780 lb (807 kg)
- Angler: W. Maxwell
- Location: Cherry Grove Pier, South Carolina, USA
- Year: 1964
Confirmed weight:
- 1,785 lb 11 oz (810 kg)
- Angler: K. Clapson
- Location: Ulladulla, Australia
- Year: 2004
The sometimes complicated rules of the IGFA can be seen by the fact that the second-largest fish is a tied record for tiger shark, despite one being confirmed as being heavier than the other. The first tiger shark was caught off Cherry Grove Fishing Pier in South Carolina by Walter Maxwell in June 1964. According to an article in The Post and Courier, Maxwell had already lost a tiger shark which was estimated at 2,500lbs when it was brought to the end of the pier but it could not be gaffed and broke the line. Undeterred, Maxwell returned the next day. He used a Penn Senator reel (the largest the company made) which contained almost one mile of 130lb breaking strain line. A live fish bait was then taken 700 yards offshore by a boat. The bait was eventually taken by the tiger shark and a three-hour battle began. The shark made around thirty runs but Maxwell was eventually able to bring it to the pier where a tow truck was used to hoist it from the water. It was weighed the next day and verified at 1,780lb.
Maxwell’s catch stood alone as the second-largest fish listed by the IGFA, but in 2004 Australian Kevin Clapson caught a 1,785lb 11oz tiger shark when fishing off the coast of Ulladulla, Australia in March 2004. While this tiger shark is clearly heavier than Maxwell’s, the IGFA has a rule which states that new records have to be larger than the current record by a half of one per cent (for fish 25lbs or over). This would mean that Clapson’s tiger shark had to be 8lb 14oz heavier than Maxwell’s existing record. It was not, being only 5lb 11oz heavier. For this reason the IGFA list Maxwell and Clapson as holding joint records, despite Clapson’s catch being heavier.
Greenland Shark
Confirmed weight:
- 1,708 lb 9 oz (775 kg)
- Angler: T. Nordvedt
- Location: Trondheimsfjord, Norway
- Year: 1987
This shark was caught by Norwegian angler Terje Nordvedt off the coast of Trondheimsfjord, Norway in October 1987. Greenland sharks are one of the longest-living species in the world and have been confirmed as living for 272 years, and in all probability can live significantly longer. The maximum size this species can reach is unknown but it is believed to be over 2,000lbs. The Greenland shark caught by Nordvedt was 1,708lb 9oz in weight and was accepted by the IGFA as the fourth largest shark captured on a rod and line. Other than the fact this Greenland shark was caught on a herring bait little other information about the catch or Nordvedt appears to be available. Larger Greenland sharks have been captured by anglers (see below) but as these have been released alive they were not eligible for consideration by the IGFA meaning Nordvedt’s record still stands today.
Black Marlin
Confirmed weight:
- 1,560 lb (707 kg)
- Angler: A. Glassell
- Location: Cabo Blanco, Peru
- Year: 1953
The largest bony fish ever caught and recognised by the IGFA is a 1,560lb black marlin caught by legendary angler Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Glassell was a successful businessman in the fields of oil and gas exploration in the 1930s and 1940s before putting this on hold to serve as an officer in the US Army during the Second World War where he saw action in Europe and North Africa. Following the war he resumed his business career and became interested in big game fishing, becoming the first person to boat a marlin weighing over 1,000lbs.
Glassell travelled the world catching huge fish and set the record for black marlin when the 1,560lb catch was made off the coast of Cabo Blanco, Peru in 1953. Following the capture of the marlin, Glassell became something of a celebrity. He appeared on the front cover of Sports Illustrated magazine in 1956 and was used as the face of an advertising campaign for a whiskey brand. Footage of the marlin being played by Glassell as he reeled it in was also used in the 1958 film The Old Man and the Sea. The preserved black marlin is today displayed at the Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. Hall in the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Texas. Glassell died aged ninety-five in 2008.
Bluefin Tuna
Confirmed weight:
- 1,496 lb (678 kg)
- Angler: K. Fraser
- Location: Aulds Cove, Canada
- Year: 1979
Fifth on the list is a 1,496lb bluefin tuna caught by Ken Fraser who was fishing out of Aulds Cove, Nova Scotia in eastern Canada in October 1979. The tuna was taken on a mackerel bait which was trolled behind the boat Fraser was fishing from and the battle to reel the tuna close enough to gaff took a remarkably short forty-five minutes. The tuna was reportedly weighed ten hours after being captured, meaning that it would have lost weight due to dehydration and could have broken the 1,500lb barrier if it was weighed sooner. Fraser’s record was set during a time when huge bluefin tuna were plentiful and today, with reduced bluefin numbers and most recreational tuna fishing taking place on a strict catch-and-release basis, it is unlikely that the catch will ever be beaten.
Record British Catches
British catches are verified by the British Record (Rod Caught) Fish Committee (BRFC). This organisation is part of the Angling Trust and is responsible for verifying sea and freshwater record catches made within the United Kingdom. The biggest fish caught in British waters and listed by the BRFC is an 851lb tuna captured by Lorenzo Mitchell-Henry off the coast of Whitby, North Yorkshire in 1933. Mitchell-Henry gained experience of catching huge fish such as tuna in North America and then transferred his skills and experience to Britain. He made his catch during a golden age of big game fishing for tuna in British waters with bluefin weighing hundreds of pounds being caught on a regular basis in the North Sea from the 1920s to the early 1950s.
Main article: Big Tuna Game Fishing in British Waters
Henry-Mitchell’s record was challenged by John Hedley Lewis, a farmer from Lincolnshire. In 1949 he claimed to have caught a tuna weighing 852lb, but Henry-Mitchell successfully argued that the rope which was used to weigh Lewis’s tuna was soaking wet which added additional weight to the catch and the record was not accepted. Lorenzo Mitchell-Henry’s bluefin tuna still stands today as the largest fish caught in British waters and is listed in the current boat caught category British Record Fish Committee.
The largest shore caught fish listed by the BRFC is a 169lb 6oz skate captured at Loch Roag, Isle of Lewis, Scotland by G. MacKenzie. However, multiple skate which would have easily beaten this catch have been caught from the shore since then, but as skate are critically endangered anglers always return this species to the sea. The weight of these catches is calculated from the wingspan and length of the skate. The BRFC’s Notable Fish List was established as a way of listing significant catches which have been made with the fish then being returned to the water. As of 2020, there are three shore caught skate larger than the current shore caught BRFC record on the Notable Fish List. These are a skate with an estimated weight of 188lbs caught by Duncan Paul in 2016 off the north coast of Scotland, an estimated 226lbs skate caught by Craig Mackay off the east coast of Scotland in 2014 and a skate with an estimated weight of 229lbs which was captured off Rackwick, Orkney in 2012 by Roy Anderson.
In terms of IGFA verified catches the largest fish captured in British waters is a 507lb porbeagle shark which was successfully boated by Christopher Bennett off the coast of Caithness, Scotland in 1993. This catch is twenty-first on the IGFA all-tackle world record list [at the time of writing in February 2021] and is also the world record for porbeagle shark. Like skate, larger porbeagle sharks have been landed by anglers since this record was set, but as anglers now always release large sharks they are not eligible for consideration to the IGFA or BRFC. This was seen in 2012 when a porbeagle estimated at 550lb was caught off the Cornish but was unhooked and released rather than being killed and submitted as a record catch.
Another huge catch which was made in British waters was a 500lb mako shark caught by 61-year-old grandmother Joyce Yallop off the coast of Looe, Cornwall in 1971. Yallop used a mackerel bait to catch the shark which was successfully captured after a two-and-a-half-hour fight. This is currently listed by the BRFC as the boat caught record for mako shark, but anglers have caught and released larger mako sharks off the coast of Britain, such as the 11ft long mako boated off the west coast of Wales by Rob Rennie in 2020. This shark was estimated at being 800 – 1,200lb based on its length and girth but the shark was released. The same can be seen with other species of sharks. In 2016 James Fellows caught a blue shark estimated 253lb off the coast of Milford Haven, Wales which would have beat the existing record of 218lbs which was set in 1959. Fellows released the shark, meaning it was added to the Notable Fish List instead of the BRFC record catch list.
A bluefin tuna estimated at 505lbs was also caught off the coast of Wales by Gavin Davies in 2017. Davies was targeting other species on relatively light gear (as it is prohibited to specifically target tuna) when the bluefin was hooked. Due to the regulations in place to protect tuna the fish had to be released meaning that Davies was unable to claim it as a record and returned the tuna to the sea after being photographed with it.
Non-IGFA Rod and Line Catches
It is therefore clear that just because a fish is listed by the IGFA it does not necessarily mean that it is the largest of that species to be caught on rod and line. Indeed, in these increasingly environmentally-conscious times, most anglers see it as totally unacceptable to kill a large and potentially endangered fish just so that it can be weighed to claim a record. For this reason, many of the listed records have been beaten many times over by fish which will not show up in the record books. There are reasons other than conservation why fish may not show up in the IGFA or BRFC lists. Both organisations have strict criteria which must be adhered to for a fish to be eligible as a record. In the detailed regulations set out by the IGFA they state that anglers cannot use line over 130lb breaking strain or wire line, treble hooks are prohibited when used with bait (but up to three can be used on lures) and fish cannot be intentionally foul hooked. Reels used to catch a record fish must comply with “sporting ethics and customs” which rule out power-driven reels or those which are designed to be cranked with both hands at the same time. “Unconventional rods” which give the angler an unfair advantage are also prohibited and only one angler can reel in the fish which is being submitted for consideration by the organisation. The full list of IGFA rules can be seen on the IGFA website by clicking here.
Other reasons why a potential record catch may not have been submitted to the IGFA include the fish being too large to get on board a boat, the catch pre-dating the existence of the IGFA or the angler simply not wanting the catch to be considered as a world record due to the cost, hassle and bureaucracy of making a claim. A number of current British BRFC records are actually larger than the IGFA all-tackle world record. This can be seen with Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus). At the time of writing [February 2021] the IUCN website lists the all-tackle world record as a mackerel of 3lb 8oz caught by Lorenzo Roca at L’Ampolla, Spain in August 2015. However, the British shore caught record is listed by the BRFC as a mackerel of 5lb 11oz and the boat caught as a 6lb 2oz mackerel. Both records were set in the 1980s but were presumably not submitted to the IGFA as the much smaller 2015 Spanish catch is listed as the all-tackle world record.
Any list of the largest fish caught on rod and line which have not been submitted to an organisation such as the IGFA for verification is inevitably partial and what is and is not included is subjective. The list below considers a selection of very large fish which are verified as being captured on rod and line (as they have supporting photos and media reports) but have not been submitted to the IGFA or other organisations and are not therefore listed as record catches.
Great White Shark
Estimated weight:
- 4,000 lbs (1,814 kg)
- Angler: A. Hales
- Location: Cape Agulhas, South Africa
- Year: 2014
In 2014 British angler Andy Hales caught a great white shark which would have broken the existing IGFA record by over 1,000lbs had it been submitted to the organisation. Fifty-five-year-old Hales, a company director from Warwickshire, was fishing for yellowfin tuna off the coast of Cape Agulhas, South Africa when he hooked the shark. The shark was taken on a tuna head bait and a size 14/0 hook and was reeled to the side of the boat after a two-hour battle. The 18ft shark was far too large to bring on board the 32ft boat Hales was fishing from, and South Africa’s strict shark protection laws mean that the great white had to be released. The skipper of the boat estimated the weight of the shark at 4,000lbs based on its size.
Great White Shark
Confirmed weight:
- 3,427 lbs (1,554 kg)
- Angler: F. Mundus
- Location: Montauk, New York, USA
- Year: 1986
One of the most famous rod and line catches of all time, Frank Mundus caught a 3,427lb great white shark off the coast of New York. Charter fisherman Mundus was a well-known character in the New York fishing community, having caught numerous large sharks over his lifetime and reportedly harpooned a 4,500lbs great white shark in the 1960s. He was reportedly the inspiration for the character Quint in the book and film Jaws. In 1986 he took a group of businessmen shark fishing on his charter boat Cricket II. A whale carcass was located twenty-eight miles out to sea and had attracted a large number of sharks. After a number of smaller sharks had been caught the businessmen needed to return home but Mundus wanted to stay, sure that the presence of the whale carcass gave him the opportunity to catch a huge shark. The businessmen were transferred to another boat and taken to shore and Mundus was joined by another charter boat and continued fishing. Eventually, he hooked the shark he had been waiting for and battled against it for one hour and fifty minutes. As the shark tired and came to the surface he was able to get it alongside the side of the boat where it was secured by a flying gaff and was then tied to the boat with ropes and cables. Too large to bring on board, the shark was instead towed behind the boat back to shore where a crowd had gathered after being informed of Mundus’s catch over the radio. A forklift truck was not capable of lifting the shark so a construction crane had to be brought in. When weighed on industrial machinery and the weight of the cargo net which was used to hold the shark was deducted the weight was calculated at 3,427lbs.
The catch made Mundus even more famous and was reported in the national and international media. In the end, Mundus’s shark was not accepted as a record by the IGFA. By his own admission, he had not reeled in the shark alone but had passed the rod on to another fisherman during the fight – the IGFA state that any catch must be made by one person only. Additional reports also said that the line used was stronger than the 130lb breaking strain allowed by the IGFA. In an article in the Washington Post published in 1986 Mundus was asked about his reaction to the IGFA rejecting his catch as an official record and is quoted as saying: “I don’t care … we still caught the biggest.” Mundus’s brashness made him somewhat unpopular with some members of the fishing community in New York who were upset with his flamboyant displays of the carcasses of large sharks he had caught, his practice of harpooning whales to use as chum and his habit of killing sharks by shooting them.
Mundus became more conservation-minded as he got older and attitudes over catching and killing large sharks changed. In the later years of his life he believed that shark fishing should only be practised on a catch-and-release basis and advocated using circle hooks as they were easier to remove and caused less damage to sharks. He also took part in a number of scientific projects which involved tagging and releasing sharks that had been caught on his charter boat. Mundus authored a number of books on shark fishing, including an autobiography entitled Fifty Years a Hooker and White Shark Sam Meets the Monster Man. The latter is a children’s book which is aimed at improving knowledge of the oceans and promoting conservation. Mundus died of a heart attack at his retirement home in Hawaii in 2008 aged eighty-two.
Greenland Shark
Estimated weight:
- 2,425 lbs (1,099 kg)
- Angler: A. Alvestad
- Location: Nedstrandsfjorden, Norway
- Year: 2013
In 2013 angler Asgeir Alvestad reeled in a 14½ ft long Greenland shark which was estimated at 2,425lbs at Nedstrandsfjorden, Norway. The shark was caught at a depth of several hundred metres on a size 16/0 circle hook. It was estimated that a Greenland shark of that size would have been over 500 years old. The shark was released alive meaning that it could not be submitted for an IGFA all-tackle world record claim. If it had been it would have beaten the existing IGFA record (described above) by over 700lbs. Sadly, the shark was found dead at the surface a week after being caught and was lowered back to the seabed to provide food for other species. Footage of the shark being caught can be seen on YouTube by clicking here.
Conservation and the Future
As the world of fishing moves into more conservation-minded times it may well be the case that many of the current official records will never be broken as anglers will no longer kill fish which they catch just to claim a record. This can be seen in many of the examples above where the IGFA or BRFC records have been broken by catches that have been released, meaning they will never be entered into the record books. Positive changes have been made which allow significant catches to the recorded without being killed. These include the BRFC creating a Notable Fish List for large catches which have been released (and there are also plans for the BRFC to allow video evidence to be accepted for official British records), and the IGFA have brought in an all-length record that allows fish to be released after being measured. However, as it stands claiming an IGFA record today still requires the fish to be killed which encourages anglers to kill large and potentially endangered species in order to claim record catches. How much longer this will be allowed for, and the impact that this will have on the reputation of angling as a sport, is a source of ongoing debate.