A group of keen fisherman have reeled in the biggest swordfish caught in the country’s history.
The whopping fish weighed in at 436 kilograms after the group of men pulled it in last week near Mallacoota, off the New South Wales and Victoria border.
George Lirantzis took his boat to chase swordfish and landed the mammoth catch with three other friends.
A group of keen fisherman have reeled in the biggest swordfish caught in the country’s history (pictured) where it was also the second biggest catch in the world
The whopping fish weighed in at 436 kilograms (pictured) after the group of men pulled it in last week near New South Wales and Victoria
The seasoned angler, who was with Mitch Ryan, Ken and Pete Rushton, said they knew it was ‘over 400kg’ and was ‘going to be the largest in Australia’ when they felt the bite, the Illawarra Mecury reported.
‘We didn’t realise it was going to be second biggest in the world,’ he said.
The men, who are part of the Ulladulla Game Fishing Club, almost took out the global record made in Chile in 1953 with a 536.1kg swordfish.
After a grueling one-hour-and-50-minute fight between the men and the swordfish, the sea creature finally made it on board the boat.
‘There are guys who have fought them for 23 hours and 50 minutes. We have been blessed with this one,’ Mr Lirantzis said.
The angler said the fish spent most of the time on the surface of the water, instead of deep diving like large fish usually do.
After a grueling one-hour-and-50-minute fight between the men and the swordfish, the sea creature finally made it on board the boat (pictured) almost beating the 1953 record
‘As we got closer to it, it kept doing jumps and it was like someone was dropping missiles around the boat,’ he told ABC News.
‘We had all these explosions with the fish coming up out of the water trying to obviously free itself.’
Despite the mind blowing catch, it will not be officially recorded because the fishermen did not use fishing gear recognised by the Game Fishing Association of Australia.