maybe biggest freshwater fish caught in britain?

[distracted]

10-stone catfish caught by Essex chef

Angler James Jones, 31, of Southminster James Jones said he "had to shout for help" when he realised what had taken his bait

A chef and keen angler from Essex has caught what is thought to be the largest freshwater fish - weighing more than 10 stone - to be landed in the UK.

James Jones, 31, of Southminster, caught the 144lb (65.3kg) wels catfish at the Oak Lakes Fishery, Essex.

In Britain, before records were suspended in 2000, the largest catfish caught weighed just 62lb (28kg).

Mr Jones said anglers knew there was a huge fish in the lake but nobody had caught it. It took two hours to land.

'Longer than me'

After weighing the fish it was returned to the lake.

Mr Jones, a chef at the White Hart in Burnham on Crouch, said when he realised what had taken his bait he "had to shout for help".

Angler James Jones, 31, of Southminster and his wels Catfish Mr Jones has been fishing for about 20 years

"Other anglers ran over to try and help me land it," he said.

"It was quite obviously massive. Nearly seven inches longer than me. Everyone was quite impressed.

"Normally I don't catch anything, so this was quite nice," said Mr Jones, who has been fishing for more than 20 years.

The current world record for a wels catfish is 250lb 3oz (113.5kg).

A Mekong giant catfish, caught in Thailand in 2005, is the biggest catfish ever caught in the world and weighed 646lb (293kg).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-19052209

[Comrade Stoker]

I've used bigger fish for bait

Fair play to him, I bet he shat himself when he clocked on how big it was.

[Guest]

Jesus wept some size.

TS

[mush19]

Fooking lovely catch

[DaChunky1]

Its a real shame that no one fishes for them in our river systems. Im sure there are a few beasts in them.

Ive got friends who have lost what they think to be cats in our river. Using 15lb mainline and 25lb hooklinks for carp. Its a suprise when summut can snap that kit

DC1

[glazedgardener]

thats a coincidence, ive only really been fishing the once with friends and it happened to be right there - dont know what i would have done

[Arnold Layne]

I used to do a fair bit of fishing; but these days, I hardly recognise it.

Bet his arm was aching afterwards I once hooked and landed a Barracuda of about 6 foot (it was never weighed, just gutted, cooked and eaten!) which took a long time to land ~ my arm was almost unusable for a few days afterwards, it was so stiff!

[Hashishin]

A German man introduced this species of catfish into the Ebro river in Spain in the mid 70's, this one looks more like one taken from the Ebro simply because of the size and weight. They do tend to grow much bigger over in the Ebro, as you might expect because of the environment.