Largest halibut - world record set by Günther Hansel

Largest halibut - world record set by Günther Hansel Bolungarvik, Western Fjords, Iceland--Günther Hansel, 70, a Veteran angler from Magdeburg, near Berlin, who fishes mainly for pleasure, has landed a halibut weighing 220kg (34st) – worth £25,000, which sets the new world record for the Largest halibut.

   Photo: Gunther Hansel and the World's Largest Halibut. It weighed in at a mighty 482lbs 13ozs - big enough to serve up almost 1,000 individual fillets. Photo: Reynir SkarsgArd
  (enlarge photo)

   Hansel took more than two hours to reel in the 2.5m (8ft 2in) monster of the deep off Bolungarvik, in Iceland's Western Fjords, where it took five men to eventually haul the 970-portion fish on board.

  'This is the fish I have been fishing for all my life,' said the 70-year-old German.

   He used a 30lb line and a plastic lure to snare the halibut. Once he got it alongside their boat, a rope was tied around its tail so it could be hoisted on to the deck.

   Herbert Loechel, managing director of the fishing tour operator, said: 'After the bite, we had to worry that Gunther would land the fish. It took him 135 minutes.
   'But the boat's crew helped hoist the giant fish, with more anglers on board to help, on to the boat.

   He has now sold it for £2,500 at a local fishmarket and split the money with the others on his trip.

   The previous Guinness World record for the Largest halibut was held by anglers Bosse Carlsson and Hans-Olov Nilsson, weighing 210kg (464lb), caught off Norway in July 2009.

   Atlantic halibut are native to the northern Atlantic ocean, from Greenland to the Barents Sea and as far south as the Bay of Biscay.
   They can reach up to 5m (15ft) in length, weigh up to 320kg (700lb) and can live for 50 years.
    Their diet is usually other fish like cod, haddock and herring although they are hunted by seals and the Greenland shark.

   Guinness World Records also recognized the world's longest goldfish (Carassius auratus), which is owned by Joris Gijsbers and measured 47.4 cm (18.7 in) from snout to tail-fin end in Hapert, The Netherlands.