Overview
- Professional fisher Franz Blum hauled the giant wels near the Rhine mouth after roughly 20 minutes of struggle and later shared the catch on Facebook.
- The February haul came before the regional season begins in May, surprising Blum because wels are usually sluggish at current water temperatures.
- At 109 kilograms and 2.60 meters, it is the heaviest fish of Blum’s Bodensee career; he estimated the age at about 45 years and said the head alone topped 21 kilograms.
- The fish was processed and sold, with only about 30–35% usable meat remaining due to high fat content.
- Reports point to increasingly large wels across Europe, with an official 2.85-meter record from Italy’s Po River and an unconfirmed 2.92-meter claim in Poland, and no police response was needed in this case unlike a 2025 lake incident.