Czech man triumphs over 2.68m catfish after a 50-minute battle

A man in the Czech Republic rewrote his own national record after catching a 2.68m catfish in what he described as a 50-minute “intense battle”.

Mr Jakub Vagner, 43, caught the freshwater fish on Aug 2 in Vranov Reservoir, 200km south of Czech capital Prague.

Pictures on his social media accounts showed him with the massive catfish, which is slightly longer than the one he caught about 10 months ago.

Mr Vagner, host of National Geographic Channel’s Fish Warrior, spotted the fish in the early morning while he was on his boat.

He cast his custom-made rod towards the fish and waited.

“Ten minutes passed and nothing happened. Suddenly, it turned and went straight into my trap,” he told What’s The Jam website.

What followed was “the hardest battle I have ever had with a catfish in the Czech Republic”, he said.

At one point, the fish bit his hand and pulled him into the water as he tried to wrangle it.

“After almost 50 minutes, it was lying half-tired next to my boat. I was shaking, completely done,” he said.

With the help of his friend, Mr Vagner took a few pictures with the enormous fish, and released it back into the waters.

“A beautiful, almost flawless fish, which has potential to grow even further,” he wrote on his Instagram.

In October 2024, Mr Vagner set the national record when he caught a 2.64m catfish with a fishing rod at the same reservoir.