Most of us, when we go out fishing, just hope to take a couple of blue gill or bass out of the water and call it a day.

We don't expect to catch, you know, literal dinosaurs, like this guy:

Fishing solo in a boat on Italy's River Po, known for its huge wels catfish, Alessandro Biancardi made "a dream come true" by landing the biggest wels catfish he's ever seen, and almost lost his boat doing so.

How on earth this guy didn't lose his boat — and maybe a limb or two — is a mystery. I mean, this thing is an absolute, jaw-dropping beast:

Alessandro was determined to land this cat. It took a "43-minute battle" to land "the biggest catfish [he'd] ever seen in 23 years." He "tried gloving its mouth two, three times, but it was still too strong," so eventually he pulled it into shallower waters and landed it there.

Like any good angler, Mr. Biancardi quickly called up his bros to help him measure this sucker. And what a delight they got:

With 10 witnesses looking on, the wels catfish stretched 9 feet, 4.4 inches long, qualifying it for the International Game Fish Association all-tackle world record for length by 1.6 inches.

You can just imagine the scene when these guys realized what they had on their hands.

On Instagram, meanwhile, Alessandro spoke plainly in his native tongue: "Ho avuto coraggio." I had courage.

Che fortuna, fratello!