Biggest Ever Fish Caught off British Shores

 



Daniel Bennett, 26, recently reeled in what is considered to be the largest fish ever caught from British shores.

The Yorkshire, England, fisherman caught a massive common skate, weighing an estimated 208 pounds, while he was sifting with members of The Whitby Bass Club off the northern tip of the Isle of Skye in Scotland.
See the impressive fish below. (Warning: Some NSFW language.)


It was the first common skate caught off the Isle of Skye in "at least 30 or 40 years," Bennett said.
The common skate, which looks similar to a stingray, ate Bennett's mackerel fillet bait, then "took off at a thousand miles an hour."
"The key to catching the fish was having a lot of patience," Bennett told the Daily Express. "My back is absolutely killing me now though."
It took two hours for Bennett and his fellow fisherman to land the fish on the rocks and take its measurements: 88.25 inches long by 66.75 inches wide. According to The Shark Trust, which keeps charts of estimated weights based on measurements, the fish likely weighed about 208 pounds.
(To put its size into perspective, a female Eastern Lowland gorilla typically weighs about 200 pounds. A Vespa moped weighs 197 pounds.)

Because the common skate is a critically endangered species, the men released the fish, still alive, back into the water.

"There is not a larger fish recorded as being caught on our current record list," Nick Simmonds, the secretary of the British Record Fish Committee, told the Daily Express.

"Once we receive pictures from Dan we will pass them on to our scientist who will check the images and hopefully confirm the unofficial record. It can't be confirmed as a record as it was not weighed at the scene. [But] it will be seriously considered for the Notable Fish List, which was created for situations like this where the fish cannot be weighed."

"This list is historically important, at least in the angling world," Simmonds added.

Before Bennett's catch, the largest fish caught from British shores was a 159-pound skate caught off the Isle of Lewis in 1994.

Earlier this month, a California man on a fishing trip in Alaska reeled in "the catch of a lifetime": a 482-pound halibut.