Alaska fishermen snag halibut measuring a whopping 8 feet

It wasn't a record breaker, but it was still a helluva halibut. 

Fishermen Brian Mattson and Doug Corl hauled in the catch of a lifetime Sunday with a 396-pound, 8-foot-long halibut in southeast Alaska, KFSK reported.

They used a winch to bring the fish up onto their vessel, the Day Spring. Mattson said it 'just kept coming and coming, and then we knew it was big.'

'Didn't even know it was on until we saw it from the surface,' Mattson told KFSK. 

'Put the shark hook on it, used the winch to bring it up and didn't even make a move whatsoever, it just came right in nice and easy.'

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Fisherman Brian Mattson takes a look at the the nearly 400-pound halibut he and Doug Corl caught in southeast Alaska

Fishermen Brian Mattson and Doug Corl work on the nearly 400-pound behemoth

The humongous halibut was caught by Brian Mattson and Doug Corl in Petersburg, Alaska

A large crowd came down to the dock to see the 396-pound fish when they delivered the halibut for processing at Petersburg Fisheries Inc.

Even Levy Boiter with the International Pacific Halibut Commission went to get a gander.

RECORD HALIBUT

The largest-recorded halibut was caught in 1996 by Jack Tragis in Dutch Harbos, Alaska. It was a whopping 459-pound.

Boiter says, 'This is definitely not the average fish.'

Mattson has fished since he was a teenager but never caught anything quite this large.

'I think in the low 300s we got — but this is definitely the biggest Doug and I has ever caught,' Mattson told KSFK.

Luckily, Mattson' boat was equipped to pull in such a large beast.

'A lot of guys go out in the smaller boats and don't have the winches and stuff to do it,' Mattson told KSFK.

'And that would be tough to get on board.' 

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 Locals watch as the two fishermen bring up the 8-foot halibut they caught in Alaska

The fishermen at first thought the halibut may be even larger.

'Last night it measured out to 92, 93 inches, and in the tide book it said it was like 435,' Mattson told the radio station. 

'The NOAA observer measured and looked it up, he thought it was 450, 470. But it all depends on how thick they are.'

The record catch came in 1996 when Jack Tragis brought in a 459-pound halibut in Dutch Harbor, Alaska.  

The record catch came in 1996 when Jack Tragis brought in a 459-pound halibut in Dutch Harbor, Alaska

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