Fish & Game is investigating reports of a 24.9kg brown trout being fished up in the Mackenzie Country.
A brown trout, believed to be almost 25kg in weight, was reportedly caught in the Pukaki-Ohau A canal in the Mackenzie district. Photo: Richard Cosgrove / Fish & Game New Zealand
They are calling for any information about the giant catch, which they say would be a new world record.
Fish & Game spokesperson Richard Cosgrove said witnesses saw the fish being caught in the Pukaki-Ohau A canal.
The witnesses said the fish was landed after a two-and-a-half-hour fight.
"Once he had the fish landed, the angler wrapped it in his shirt to keep it cool before getting ice from a nearby salmon farm and rushing it to a taxidermist," Mr Cosgrove said.
"He also got it weighed on certified scales to confirm that this was the fish of a lifetime. We have been told the whole story along with photos will emerge once the trout has been mounted."
He said the angler was thought to have weighed the fish and taken it to a taxidermist, but was staying quiet about the catch.
According to the International Game Fish Association website, the present record is a 19.1kg brown trout caught in the same canals in 2013.
Fish & Game field officer for the Central South Island, Rhys Adams, hopes the new record can be confirmed.
"The size of these trout just reinforces how good New Zealand's trout fishing is. If we can confirm this brown trout record, then the next thing is setting a new world record for rainbow trout," he said.
"The present record is 21.77kg for a rainbow trout caught in Canada in 2009.
"It would be nice to challenge that but even if we can't, anglers will enjoy trying."