The heaviest of each species ever caught and certified by the International Game Fish Association — the number every serious angler measures a fish against.
An IGFA all-tackle world record is the single heaviest fish of a species ever caught on rod and reel and verified by the International Game Fish Association — the body that has kept game-fishing records since 1939. "All-tackle" means line weight doesn't matter; it's the outright biggest. (IGFA also keeps separate records for each line and tippet class, men's and women's — a whole ladder of records per species.)
Here's the bar for the species Australian anglers chase most — from the billfish and tuna of the blue water to the trout of the high country.
| Species | All-tackle record | Year | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black marlin Istiompax indica | 1,560 lb · 707.6 kg | 1953 | Cabo Blanco, Peru |
| Blue marlin Makaira nigricans | 1,402 lb · 635.9 kg | 1992 | Vitória, Brazil |
| Striped marlin Kajikia audax | 494 lb · 224.1 kg | 1986 | Tutukaka, New Zealand |
| Yellowfin tuna Thunnus albacares | 427 lb · 193.7 kg | 2012 | Cabo San Lucas, Mexico |
| Wahoo Acanthocybium solandri | 184 lb · 83.5 kg | 2005 | Cabo San Lucas, Mexico |
| Giant trevally Caranx ignobilis | 160 lb 7 oz · 72.8 kg | 2006 | Kagoshima, Japan |
| Cobia Rachycentron canadum | 135 lb · 61.2 kg | 1985 | Shark Bay, WA, Australia |
| Albacore Thunnus alalunga | 88 lb · 39.9 kg | 1977 | Canary Islands |
| Mahi mahi (dolphinfish) Coryphaena hippurus | 87 lb · 39.5 kg | 1976 | Papagayo Gulf, Costa Rica |
| Rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss | 48 lb · 21.8 kg | 2009 | Lake Diefenbaker, Canada |
| Brown trout Salmo trutta | 44 lb 5 oz · 20.1 kg | 2020 | Ohau Canal, New Zealand |
World-record data: International Game Fish Association (igfa.org). All-tackle records as listed; line-class records differ.
Alfred Glassell Jr's 1,560 lb black marlin off Cabo Blanco, Peru has stood since 1953 — over seventy years — and famously featured in the film of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. The cobia record is closer to home: 135 lb out of Shark Bay, Western Australia. And the trout records are a reminder that giants aren't only a blue-water story — a 44 lb brown trout came from New Zealand's Ohau Canal, a tailrace fishery just across the Tasman.
Records are made on the right day in the right place — bait, current, water temp and weather all lining up. That's exactly what Fishare reads for you: a clear GO / HOLD / WAIT call for any spot, bite windows, offshore heatmaps showing where the pelagics are holding, and BOM hazard warnings. Log your catch and the app shows you the species, your size, and — for these game fish — how it stacks up against the world record.