Fishy Records

Fishermen are a competitive bunch. You only have to spend a few minutes in the company of enthusiastic anglers before the conversation turns to the best sort of fishing tackle to use to catch a whopper, whose technique is best for fly fishing, and the results of the latest fishing competition. As with everything else, the organisation which collects and verifies records in the fishy world is Guinness World Records, and the types of things people achieve range from the strange to the downright bizarre.

Largest Fishing Tournament

A fishing tournament is defined as any sort of competition which is open to anglers of varying abilities and which takes place in a given time and location. Some fishing tournaments are on lakes or rivers, but the world’s largest ever fishing tournament took place off the coast of Alabama in the United States in summer 2011. 2,220 anglers took part over the three days of competition, and the biggest fish caught was a shark weighing 172 pounds.

Biggest Fish Stew

Once you’ve caught your fish, what else would you do with it except make the world’s biggest fish stew? If you fancy breaking the record, you’d have to beat the 3,020 kg fish stew made by the catering department at the University of Massachusetts in September 2011. The pan used to cook the stew measured 14 feet across, and the recipe used mussels, cod and clams.

Fish Gutting

Catching the fish and cooking it is the fun bit, but preparing the fish after catching isn’t so great. Gutting the catch is something most of us dread doing, but this isn’t the case for Julian Pryke, who broke the record for the number of fish gutted in one hour with 362 fish, or approximately one every 10 seconds. He broke the record for a television show, and during the attempt sat in a bath, which gradually filled up with the bits of gutted fish.

Longest Fishing Rod

The world’s longest fishing rod was made in 2011 as a publicity stunt by a prominent Swiss fishing tackle and rod manufacturer. It measured 73 feet 7 inches and was made in exactly the same way as a more conventionally sized fishing rod, using carbon fibre, silk and bamboo. Although the rod was the same in every way to a standard one, it would be almost impossible to use it to catch anything

Most Expensive Fish

Anglers generally aren’t in it for the money, but there is serious money to be made in fish if you catch the right sort of thing. Top money is paid in Japan for fish suitable for sushi, especially the prized blue fin tuna. A single tuna holds the record for the most expensive fish sold at market when it reached a price of £270,000. A single piece of a similar sort of tuna would cost upwards of £15 in a smart Tokyo restaurant, and prices are increasing because of quotas introduced to protect stocks and limit the number of fish caught.