August 8, 2013 — A Virginia man has caught the largest northern snakehead on record with a rod and reel, landing a 17-pound, 6-ounce specimen of the fish often called "Frankenfish" for their monster-like appearance and tenacious survival skills.
Caleb Newton, a plumber who lives in Spotsylvania County, Va., caught the fish in June during a tournament on Aquia Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River that's near the Quantico Marine Corps Base, according to the Fredericksburg, Va., Free Lance-Star.
Newton tells the newspaper that it took about a minute to get the fish in his boat. And measuring three feet, it was a tight fit to get the record catch into his cooler, he says.
But, he adds, it didn't give him a whale of a fight. "I caught one 13 pounds on Saturday, and that one fought harder," he tells the Free Lance-Star.
Newton's fish bests the previous record catch of a 17-pound, 4-ounce northern snakehead in 2004 in Japan, according to the International Game Fish Association.
According to the IGFA website, the group awards world records for seven varieties of the snakehead, with only the giant snakehead being larger. The record-setter for that fish was hauled in earlier this year in Thailand — and weighed in at 26 pounds.