A team of Polish anglers claims to have caught the new world-record Wels catfish, according to Polskie Radio. The fish measured 292 centimeters, or roughly 9.6-feet long, and it stands to replace the previous unofficial length record, a 285-centimeter Wels that was caught from the River Po in Italy in 2023.
Details behind the Polish fish are slim, but according to TVP World, a news outlet based in Warsaw, the giant catfish was caught Sunday during a fishing tournament. The team of anglers, representing the Polish Angling Academy, were competing alongside other teams on Rybnik reservoir in the southern Silesia province.
“The haul took over an hour and a half,” one of the anglers, Krzysztof Pyra, told reporters in Poland. “When we finally saw it, we couldn’t believe our eyes.”
The other fisherman credited with the world-record catch is Adrian Gontarz. Both men were featured in a series of social media posts on the Polish Angling Academy’s Facebook profile.
“It’s official,” reads one of the posts shared Sunday. “The New WORLD record for length sum is: 292 cm!!! Well done Krzysztof and Adrian.”
A pair of video clips included in other recent posts show Pyra and Gontarz measuring and releasing the huge catfish. Although the posts don’t include any information about how the fish was caught, there is a spinning rod in the background of one of the photos, and TVP World reports that it’s the largest catfish ever caught with a rod and reel in Poland. (The previous Polish record was 261 cm, according to Polskie Radio.) It also stands to replace the unofficial length world record for Wels catfish.
At 292 cm, or roughly 9.58-feet-long, the Polish team’s catfish is 7 cm (or 2.5 inches) longer than the 285-centimeter-long Wels catfish that Italian angler Alessandro Biancardi caught from the River Po in 2023. At the time, Biancardi’s fish was considered the longest Wels catfish ever caught. Because Biancardi released his fish before weighing it, however, his massive Wels did not qualify for an all-tackle world record with the International Game Fish Association.
The Polish fish that Pyra and Gontarz are calling a new world record could be in a similar boat, as they likewise released their catch before getting an official weight measurement. It’s also unclear how much the two anglers worked together to land the catfish. They are both credited with catching it, and IGFA regulations dictate that only one angler can touch the rod during the fight.
Read Next: Italian Angler Catches Pending World-Record Wels Catfish Over 9 Feet Long
There are currently no length records for Wels catfish listed in the IGFA book of fishing world records. Nor are there any world records attributed to Biancardi for his 2023 catch.
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