After a strenuous thirty-minute fight with the fish, Jackson Denio (13) managed to reel in a halibut three inches taller and thirty pounds larger than him!
The IFGA (International Fish and Game Association) is currently in the process of checking if the fish has set a record.
While the 177-pound halibut might not be the largest ever caught, but may be a record for the largest fish reeled in by a person under 16.
Captain Jim Walsh, who was the witness for this legendary catch, has stated that even some young adults pass the rod when a fish that large bites the lure. “Everyone was coaching him on, and he fought that thing to the end,” said Walsh. “That was a prize of a prize. I got to tip my hat to him.”
When Denio recalled the fight, he laughed as he spoke: “I didn’t want anybody touching the rod. I wanted to do it myself.”
Captain Walsh took the crew on a 20-hour fishing trip out of Hampton Beach. Denio set his shark rod around 8:30, where he chose to drop the hook. Once the fish bit, it only took thirty seconds for Danio to realize that it was a halibut.
According to Denio, it will take days for IFGA to confirm if he set a record.
