‘A real monster of the river’: a giant catfish was hooked, and the fisherman was almost injured

A monstrous catfish of almost 3 meters was caught by a fisherman in the Italian Po River, the largest in the country. Despite looking happy, Alessandro Biancardi faced an uphill 43-minute struggle to lift the giant animal out of the rough waters, almost losing control of the boat.

A giant catfish was caught by an Italian in the Po River

The monstrous animal scared Internet users with its size – Photo: Reproduction / Instagram / @alebiancardi_catfishing_madcat / ND

Alessandro stated that it was the biggest battle he had been involved in in his 23-year professional career and the result was the biggest fish he had ever caught from a river, a 2.85 meter catfish.

At a certain point in the battle, Alessandro “paniced” when he realized he was fighting alone against the biggest fish he had ever seen.

Despite the long work to fight the giant animal, the fisherman did not have time to weigh it, because he did not want to strain and had to be returned to the river.

At the same time, he even almost lost the boat, which did not have time to anchor and went with the flow. Alessandro had to sail to get his things on the boat.

“I hope he brings the same joy to another fisherman as he did to me,” Alessandro wrote in his Instagram post.

Because he released the animal before it was weighed, the catch could only apply to the longest fish, not the heaviest. According to the records, this should be the largest catfish ever caught and released in the world, 4 cm more than the current record.