This involved some serious skate-lifting.
A fisherman became the envy of anglers everywhere after landing a monstrous 550-pound stingray while casting lines in Argentina.
“I’ve caught many large fish in my time, but this is without a doubt the biggest,” Andrés Wilchen, 42, told Jam Press of his landmark catch, which he landed during an evening excursion in the Paraná River on Feb. 8.
Wilchen, who resides in Oliveros in the province of Santa Fe, had been casting out a “shark hook” baited with a “large eel” on a stretch of river between the towns of Fray Luis Beltrán and San Lorenzo.
Despite fishing the waterway all his life, he never could have predicted what would happen next: All of a sudden, the Argentinian got a bite from a short-tailed river stingray — a massive fish that resides in fresh water throughout South America.
This ray is most recognizable for its short club-like tail, which is covered with spines with a poison stinger at the tip like a fleshy medieval mace. It was featured on the hit Animal Planet show “River Monsters,” in which the beast was implicated in a fatal attack on a young girl.
Needless to say, the angler was in for the fight of his life. “I was about to give up due to exhaustion,” exclaimed Wilchen. “It had tremendous strength and was thrashing about at the bottom of the river.”
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He added that the beast was so strong it could have dragged them away “if the boat was not moored.” To make matters more challenging, the stingray was hunkered down on the riverbed some 36 feet down.
Finally, after an epic two-hour tug-of-war, Wilchen finally managed to land the freshwater freak of nature. “The biggest battle was getting it on the boat!” exclaimed the former fishing guide, who subsequently snapped a photo of his humongous haul.
The pictures show the mottled pancake-like critter, which required three men to hoist it aloft using chains and a pulley system.
This marked the catch of a lifetime for Wilchen, who fishes the Paraná three times a week and has caught up to 70 different fish there in just a couple of hours. “I’ve caught lots of different species, including catfish and around 20 stingrays in the past, but nothing as big as this,” said Wilchen.
Not just a mere trophy angler, Wilchen often contributes his catches to charity.
“When we have a good day fishing, we donate the proceeds to two soup kitchens for homeless children,” he said. “Overall, we regularly help over 50 families in the area.”
He added, “And many of the fish we catch end up back in the river as well.”
This isn’t the first time a fisherman has landed a prize catch. In November, a UK fisherman made waves after reeling in a nearly 70-pound monster goldfish — potentially the world’s largest.