A newsletter article from a Chalkstream Website:Here is a fish you will not find in a chalkstream, a 42lb monster caught in New Zealand that has been officially recorded as the largest brown trout captured on rod and line, eclipsing the 41lb fish taken from Lake Michigan, USA in 2010. Here is the story as related by the local paper, The Rotura News.
"Otwin Kandolf thought he had snagged the bottom when he first hooked the monster fish weighing over 42lb (19.1kg). His capture has been approved as a world record. The 71-year-old was fishing the Ohau B Canal, near Twizel, in the South Island's Mackenzie Country, when he hooked the record-breaker.
The Mackenzie Country canals have become synonymous with huge trout after a series of staggering catches in recent years. A few days into their trip, Mr Kandolf said they began spotting some of these leviathans.
"I thought gee what's that. The water is milky and these big fish just appear like a shadowy shape," said the Austrian-born former chef and ski shop owner. He saw the giant fish disappear into the shadowy depths of a pool near the hydro-canal's turbines and began casting a lure to it.
"I cast into the pool a few times. Then I called out 'I'm stuck, I'm stuck again'. And then I pulled and pulled and I could see my little red spinner coming up. I didn't even see the fish at first but then I did and shouted 'it's on, it's on'. He went back up the canal and I followed him up about 100m."
Mr Kandolf, who has been fly-fishing for 40 years, battled the fish for 20 minutes before his next problem revealed itself. "I had only a small, short-handled net. It was a joke of a net for a fish that size but it was all I had." So the angler waded into the water up to his thighs.
"I waited for him to come up to me. I got his head in the net and then just pushed the whole body and everything up towards the bank."
Finding out just how big Mr Kandolf's fish was would prove a saga. "We had no camera, it was dark, all the other anglers had gone and the scales we had were not big enough," he said.
There were no scales at the nearby pub where it was kept in a fridge overnight. The next day saw an unofficial weight of 21kg recorded. By the time certified scales were organised on March 21, two weeks after the event, the fish was recorded at 19.1kg.
Mr Kandolf estimates his fish would have weighed 22kg (48.5lb) when first caught."
It must be said it is hardly the prettiest fish you will ever see, but a record is a record. I suspect the clue that it grew so big is in the hydro-turbines - if it is anything like in the US these are fish that survive entirely by eating smaller fish that get mashed up in the blades. As far as I know the chalkstream record still stands with the fish caught at Houghton Mill over a hundred years ago. It topped 18lbs and was captured on a trotted mouse.
One Ugly Fish!
Ewan
