'Monster' 9ft 4¼in catfish caught during 43-minute struggle could break a world record

There's monsters. There's giants. And then there is this.

An Italian fisherman has managed to reel in what could be the largest catfish ever caught, with the gargantuan beast measuring a huge 9 foot 4 1/4 inches, or just over 2.8 metres long.

That's longer than any adult person in history.

For perspective, the world's tallest ever man measured a huge 8 feet 11.1 inches.

Now that fish really is one big, big boi.

The herculean catfish was caught by Italian angler Alessandro Biancardi in the river Po in northern Italy.

He battled with the river bottom-dwelling beast for an exhausting 43 minutes before eventually reeling the big boy in.

"When it surfaced for the first time, I really realised that I had hooked a monster, adrenaline started pumping hard and the fear of losing it almost sent me into a panic," he said, as per the Daily Mail.

"I was alone facing the biggest catfish I had ever seen in 23 years."

Biancardi revealed that the hulking catfish seemed stunned at being caught on his reel.

"The fish stood still some seconds before starting a very complicated fight," Biancardi said.

"I tried gloving its mouth two-three times, but it was still too strong.

"[So] I decided to go in shallow water trying to land it from shore."

After an impressive struggle that no doubt saw him down a hard-earned beer at the end of the day, Biancardi revealed his attempts to reel the big fish in were not in vain.

"After a few tries, I managed to land it," he said.

How heavy the titanic-sized fish was will remain a mystery, as the Italian angler feared the stress of weighing the ginormous beast may prove too much for the fish.

"I was very curious about the weight but I feared [it would] stress the rare specimen too much, so I decided to safely release it," he said.

"[I was] hoping it could give another angler the same joy he gave to me."

Biancardi is a professional fisherman who competes with the MADCAT fishing team.

MADCAT says that the massive fish will break the International Game Fish Association all-tackle world record for length.

It massively outstrips the current record, which was for another fish that was also pulled from the river Po in 2010, by a whopping 40 centimetres.

But, as Biancardi released the monster back into the Po, the amazing catch won't actually count as far as that record goes.

Boo.

But, it does qualify for the International Game Fish Association's catch-and-release length record.

It beats the previous record-holder by four centimetres.

That fish was also caught in the Po, so there's clearly something in the water.