A massive catfish measuring more than 9 feet long was caught in Italy's River Po at the end of May, and later released. INSTAGRAM/MADCAT_FISHING

A professional fisherman in Italy has caught what may be a world record-breaking catfish in the country's largest river. Alessandro Biancardi's catch was more than 9 feet long — roughly the size of a U-Haul cargo van.

Biancardi was fishing alone in the Po River when the "water level was starting to drop" and he suddenly felt a "powerful bite."

"The fish stood still some seconds before starting a very complicated fight, between strong currents and a lot of submerged obstacles," Biancardi wrote on the website for his fishing team, MADCAT, on May 31.

The "prehistoric fish" put up a 40-minute fight, he said, and when it surfaced for the first time, Biancardi said he realized he had "hooked a monster."

"Adrenaline started pumping hard and the fear of losing it almost sent me into a panic, I was alone facing the biggest catfish I ever seen in 23 years," he said. "I tried gloving its mouth 2-3 times, but it was still too strong, I decided to go in shallow water trying to land it from shore and after few tries, I managed to land it!"

He finally was able to tie up the massive fish, but then he realized his boat wasn't anchored and had to swim to recover it. When it came time to measure the fish, Biancardi said he knew it was "special," but he wasn't prepared for the fish's true size.

It ended up measuring more than 9.3 feet - just a few inches shy of a U-Haul cargo van. At that length, he said the catch marks a world record. He said he didn't weigh the fish out of fear of stressing it too much, and he released it back into the river to hopefully "give another angler the same joy he gave to me."

The fish's length has been sent to the International Game Fish Association, but MADCAT says that the procedure to confirm the record "takes some time."

If its size is confirmed, it would surpass the IGFA's current all tackle world record for the wels catfish, which according to Field and Stream, was 40 centimeters shorter in length and weighed just under 298 pounds. However, it would be listed under the group's catch-and-release records, the outdoor recreation company said. The river in which it was caught is known for having massive wels catfish, a species that is found throughout central and Eastern Europe.

Biancardi's fish was caught in the River Po, which reached such low water levels last year that it started to expose long-lost artifacts that had disappeared nearly a century ago ago. At one point, a 164-foot-long barge that sank in World War II reappeared for "the first time." At another point last year, an unexploded 1,000-pound WWII bomb was also revealed.

Source