Asgeir Alvestad’s got a whale of a fish tale, which is a good thing because trying to serve up his record-size catch as anything more than showcase would set off howls of protest.
Alvestad, 49, a Lillesand resident described in media reports as one of Norway’s most famous anglers, caught a 16.3-kilogram northern wolffish in Isforden last week, more than twice the weight of the previous record for the species in Norway. He said he used a rod to catch the fish from a depth of about 300 meters.
“Northern wolffish is a real dream come true for all of us who participated in this trip, and when the measuring tape showed 110 centimeters and the weight was 16.3 kilograms it did not take long before the champagne was popped,” Alvestad told the website hooked.no.
Alvestad, who said he’s been fishing since the age of six, claims he’s now caught 134 different species. Among his most notable catches was an 1,100-kilogram Greenland shark, also using a rod, in 2012.
But while he shared champagne with the eight others on his most recent boat trip, nobody thought about using it wash down some of the fresh catch. The northern wolffish, described as “charmingly ugly” by Wikipedia, “are not retained by fishermen for food because of their watery and jelly-like flesh.”