The heart of every angler would miss a beat if he hooked a specimen like this.
However, be careful, it might look like a dolphin and some of them were this size but the largest were well over 20 metres.
Some skulls that have been found in sediment layers dating from the Triassic period measured more than four metres in length.

These Canadian finds show that the Ichthyosaurus belonged to the biggest of its kind ever to have populated this planet.
That was 200-180 million years ago.
Some publications speak of a time span from 250-90 million years. That was from the Early Triassic to the Late Cretaceous period.
Skeletons were discovered all over the world.
In 1940, the Ichthyosaur from Salzgitter was found 100 metres underground in the George Mine near Salzgitter-Gitter.
Ichthyosaurs were live bearing and optimally adjusted to life in water.

A typical characteristic of them was their huge eyes that they needed for dives of up to 600 metres in depth.
Their eyeballs, which in a subspecies (Temnodontosaur, 9 metres long) reached a size of 26cm, were the largest ever recorded in the entire animal world.
After investigating the stomach contents of one of these creatures, it was concluded that their principal food was octopus.
They also ate fish and the young of other Ichthyosaurs.

Perhaps it is not such a good catch for anglers after all.