Brothers Tom and Sam Farwell from Muscliff were surprised when they caught a sea bass while out crab fishing with their Granddad at Mudeford Quay.
The two boys, aged eight and five, had only been fishing once before but knew they were in for a special surprise when they saw a large fish circling their line.
Their grandfather Geoff Thomas said: “I’d just made up a couple of very simple lines with a few scraps of cod.
“We dropped the lines down and then all of a sudden one of the boys shouted that there was a big fish in the water.
“It looked pretty enormous from where we were standing. Anyway the third time it came back, it snapped on the cod and I managed to pick it up and brought it back on the shore.
“I couldn’t believe it was a 7lb sea bass. It’s so unusual for fish to be so far inshore at this time of year.”
This unseasonal catch is not as unusual as it seems as angler Eddy Widdup also caught a huge sea bass recently on the River Avon on the outskirts of Christchurch.
The amazing catch weighed 11lbs 14ozs, and Eddy photographed it before he threw it back into the river.
Eddy was fishing at the Royalty Fishery and said: “It looked big but when the scales said 11 pounds 14 ounces I knew it was something special. I was about a mile away from the nearest angler so I decided to set my camera to timer and took a few photos of me holding it before putting her back in the water. After a few seconds she went off like a rocket and gave me a good soaking. Most bass should be 20 miles out to sea at this time of the year.”