Giant catch a fair pay-off | Ipswich News | Local News in Ipswich

LOCKYER Valley man Steven Kutija thinks the 130kg cod he caught during a deep-sea fishing trip could be a record.

Mr Kutija was with his wife Jaclyn and three sons when he hooked the scaly beast about 25km off the coast of Bundaberg at 12.30pm on Wednesday.

Using an overhead rig with 25kg line, it took more than two hours of hard yakka to bring the deep sea monster up to the surface.

“It was by far the hardest pulling fish I have ever encountered,” Mr Kutija said.

“It was that bad that I had to kneel down on the floor of my boat and rest the rod against the rail because I simply couldn't hold on anymore.”

It was about 2.45pm by the time Mr Kutija finally wound the fish somewhere near the boat.

Amazingly, the fish remained on the hook throughout the epic battle despite being caught only through a small section of flesh in its lip.

With no energy left and only his wife, who is five months pregnant, and young children on board their 6m aluminium vessel, getting the big cod out of the water was starting to look like mission impossible.

“I couldn't even lift its head up, let alone the rest of his body,” Mr Kutija said.

Eventually, Mr Kutija and his wife fashioned a winch out of some ropes they had on the boat.

Somehow, they eventually got the prize catch into the boat.

“My back is still sore,” Mr Kutija said.

When the fish was taken home and cleaned, its guts and gills alone weighed 20kg.

The rest of the fish was too heavy to be measured on a set of scales with a 100kg limit, leading Mr Kutija to estimate the whole fish must have weighed a minimum of 130kg, if not more.

He kept the fish in a cold room at his Summerholm residence for the remainder of last week to satisfy the sceptics.

“It is a once in a lifetime fish - I don't think we'll ever see anything like this again,” Mr Kutija said.

“Heaps of people have been dropping by to see it before we start eating it.”

'It is a once in a lifetime fish - I don't think we'll ever see anything like this again.' - Steven Kutija