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A 13-year-old New Hampshire boy hauled in the catch of a lifetime this week — a massive 177-pound Atlantic halibut that outweighed him and could set a new junior world record.
Jackson Denio, who stands 5-foot-9 and weighs 120 pounds, set out on an overnight deep-sea fishing trip with about 30 other people off Cashes Ledge, a fishing ground off the New England Coast. He caught the fish on Monday morning.
“I think I screamed, honestly,” Denio told The Associated Press. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but I was very excited.”
Catching a halibut in New England is rare, Denio said, as the fish are more commonly found in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.
“Halibut this size is like a once-in-a-lifetime fish catching in the Atlantic,” he added.
By Monday, those aboard Al Gauron’s Deep Sea Fishing and Whale Watching boat had caught plenty of pollock and other fish when Denio told them he wanted to catch a shark.
He dropped his hook, which was baited with pollock, and soon after, the line pulled straight down – a telltale sign of halibut.
“The line was pretty much straight up and down the whole fight, which usually means a halibut,” Denio recalled. “A shark kind of would run up and to the side a little bit, but it was straight up and down … that’s the way they swim, they move their head and their tail and whack it hard.”
Footage from the trip (see video at top) shows the crew cheering as Denio fought the fish for about 30 minutes before finally tiring it out.
“He did not let go once,” said Jim Walsh, the captain of the boat. “He never let anybody else touch the rod.”
“We looked and went, ‘Oh my God, look what it is,’” Walsh said.
“It was great,” he added. “We were all ecstatic.”
The fish was officially weighed, photographed and then carved up.
Denio’s family plans to file an application with the International Game Fish Association under the junior record for Atlantic halibut, and under another class that includes all fish.
His mother, Jill Denio, said the family, which is from Hampton, New Hampshire, didn’t know what to think when her son told them that he might have caught a record-breaking fish.
Then, they saw the “monstrosity” of it, she said. “For a kid his size to be able to bring in a 170-something-pound fish is, you know, pretty awesome.”
Atlantic halibut are the largest flatfish in the world and can reach weights of well over 600 pounds.
Denio believes his catch is 20 pounds larger than the existing record, and now he’s aiming to beat his personal best.
“It makes me want to keep fishing even more and try and beat the record if I can,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
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