A Hungarian angler was fishing in Egypt while on vacation, and he wound up hooking a roving coralgrouper that is now the pending world record as the catch awaits certification from the International Game Fish Association (IGFA).
According to Field & Stream, the 31-pound 7-ounce fish shattered the previous record caught in July of this year. That fish weighed just 16-pounds 12-ounces by comparison.
The pending record was caught by Tamás Trexler, who was fishing on the Red Sea back in August. He hooked the fish using a jig in open water and said the fish hit the lure hard and pulled on the line with elemental force.
About halfway through the 15-minute battle, the fish began losing strength, and Trexler said his joy was immense when the fish reached the top of the water, and he saw how big it was. He had no idea the fish was a potential world record, although his guide immediately knew the fish was special.
The fact that the fish more than doubled the previous record does come with a caveat, though, as there have simply not been very many roving coral groupers submitted to the record book. In fact, the fish submitted earlier this year was the first of the species to be registered in the record books.
Trexler released the big fish after measuring it, and later that same day, he also caught a 24-pound roving coralgrouper that also would have been a new world record had he not caught the 31-pounder earlier in the day.
The lack of record submissions for the species is due partly to the fact that roving coralgroupers are a relatively rare species of fish.
Zach Bellapigna, an Angler Recognition Coordinator with the IGFA, helped put the pending record-breaking fish in perspective.
“To put it in perspective, it would be like if there was no record for largemouth bass and someone submitted a 5-pound fish. That fish would qualify but someone could easily catch a 10-pound fish as they are fairly common.”
