A giant catfish caught in St Albans Lake took the angler an hour to reel in.
Angler Roger Tooley faced a huge struggle to bring the 53lb mammoth fish to the bank during a fishing trip with his 16-year-old daughter Jessica.
The duo made their record catch during the second night of a three-day fishing trip. Jessica had already caught a 14lb carp and a 9lb tench.
Roger said: “I had only managed to catch a small bream. Then, at about 11.30pm, my bait alarm went off on my rod and I thought, ‘now it’s my turn’.
“The rod screamed off and started banging in the line; I thought it was a good tench. Then, after 60 yards of line, I thought it must be a nice carp.
“We could not believe our eyes. We did not know there were catfish in the lake. My daughter dropped the landing net as she thought it was a snake!”
Roger contacted the bailiff, Alan Moss, who turned up to weigh the fish.
Roger added: “Alan had an inkling there may be a couple of catfish in the lake and he was over the moon.
“It’s certainly the biggest fish I’ve ever caught. My daughter and I will remember this for the rest of our lives.”
Roger said he caught the fish using a large piece of luncheon meat. He added: “I’m still buzzing from the capture and it came as a massive surprise. I’ve never landed a catfish of any substantial size before so to land one this big is a big bonus.”