A fisherman who wished to remain anonymous landed a massive German brown trout that was certified as a world record by the International Game Fish Association.
The angler, who asked to be known only as Seamus from Turgani, caught the 44-pound, 5-ounce brown trout last fall from a fishery known to produce large trout and salmon, and it recently became an official world record, as reported by Field and Stream.
Jack Vitek of the IGFA confirmed with USA Today/For The Win Outdoors that the catch was recently approved as a record and that the angler asked not to make a big media spectacle of this catch.
“He is an older gentleman that lives in a remote location and really didn’t want a bunch of media attention,” Vitek told For The Win Outdoors. “So we have respected that, but we still have our job of tracking and displaying the most current world records, which we have done.”
So on the IGFA page for the all-tackle world record for German brown trout, the angler’s name is listed as Seumas Petrie.
Of more intrigue is the location of the catch, listed as the Ohau Canal in Twizel, New Zealand, the same place as the previous record catch, a 42-pound, 1-ounce brown trout caught by Otwin Kandolf in 2013.
“The popularity of the canal fishery has increased dramatically since 2008 and is currently the most popular freshwater fishery in New Zealand,” Fish and Game, Central South Island states.
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“The hydro canals provide anglers with the chance to catch a fish of a lifetime – trout in excess of 4.5kg [10 pounds] are common, trout between 10-13kg [22 to 28 pounds] get caught occasionally and in recent years a few have tipped the scales at over 15kg! [33 pounds]…
“As well as large trout, the canals also offer the opportunity to catch size-able salmon that were released or escaped from the various salmon farms. These fish are perfect for the table and make up the majority of the anglers catch and harvest. The canals and power stations they supply source their water from the pristine headwater lakes: Tekapo, Pukaki and Ohau and take their name from them. The salmon farms present in each section of canals provide a unique fishery dynamic whereby the trout and salmon in the canals benefit greatly from the additional food sources they provide. For this reason, the size and condition of the canal fish is unmatched by any other New Zealand freshwater sports fishery.”
Petrie donated his fish to the Razza Bar and Bistro, where a pair of 38-pound trout hang on the wall. The record catch will be mounted and join those two trophies.
Sean Colenso, an employee of Razza, told the Timaru Herald that the fisherman was staying in a campervan and got up early to fish the Ohau canal when he had trouble sleeping.
“He did not stipulate whether it was Ohau [canal] A, B or C—he did not want to give too much away,” Colenso told the Timaru Herald, adding that “it was the biggest brown trout I have ever seen.”
Colenso explained that the bigger fish sit at the bottom of the canal, eating food from the nets at the salmon farm.
“They don’t move, they just stay in one spot and eat and eat,” he said.