Teenager catches record-breaking 16-pound cod

Thursday, March 10, 2016, 2:51 PM - Landan Brochu of Thunder Bay, Ontario may have caught the province's biggest burbot on record.

While ice fishing with his father last Saturday on Jessie Lake near the township of Nipigon, it took several minutes for the 18-year-old to reel in his greatest hit.

"I had a huge hit on my rod so I set the hook," Brochu told CBC. "I thought it was a lake trout at first because it just started rippin' it. My rod was completely buckled over."

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The eager teenager said he knew it wasn't a lake trout as soon as the fish neared the top of the hole.

"It was just rolling, instead of trying to swim away even harder."

It was a challenge getting the burbot's giant head through the eight-inch ice hole, Brochu explained.

"It came up and I saw it and it opened it's mouth and I couldn't believe it. I started dancing around, I even forgot to grab it and pick it up out of the hole."

The fish was seconds away from escaping as it started slipping back down the hole when the teenager stuck his hand in and pulled it up.

"I just looked at it and started jumping again."

Brochu's father measured the fish at 37 inches in length and 22 inches around. They brought the burbot to a local meat shop in Thunder Bay to be weighed on a certified scale.

The 16.8-pound freshwater cod weighed nearly one pound larger than the present record burbot weight of 15.8 lbs, CBC reports. The last fish was also caught in Jessie Lake back in March 2013 by Ernie Arpin.

Meanwhile, the world-record burbot was caught in Lake Diefenbaker, Saskatchewan by Sean Konrad in March 2010 weighing at 25 lb 2 oz.

Brochu's fish is being entered for consideration in the OFAH/Ontario Record Fish Registry, CBC reports. Once verified it will become a record.

The teenager has plans to get his prize professionally mounted by a taxidermist.

SOURCE: CBC

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