Luncheon meat lands monster cat fish

He was fishing for carp at Shatterford Lakes Fishery in Bridgnorth using a 12lb mono rod and a small piece of luncheon meat as bait.

But when he felt a hefty tug on the line he knew he had caught something big.

It took him an hour to patiently reel in the slippery giant and heave it up onto the bank where it bottomed out the 65lbs scales.

Craig, from Shaftesbury Street, West Bromwich, said: "I'd been fishing for carp all day and I still had my mono rod. I was just about to swap it for a bigger rod when I felt it. I knew it was going to be something big."

He added: "I had to shout for help, I wasn't sure what I had caught at first.

"When I realised I was in a bit of shock, it's definitely a personal best, before this I had only landed a 21lb fish.

"I'm sure I will never get another catch like that in my lifetime. When I was holding it for the picture I had to rest it on my leg because it was so heavy." Craig, aged 35, who is a carer, put the fish back into the lake at Birch Bank ready for someone else to have a shot at catching it.

It was his first trip to the fishery for a year when he caught it on September 30.

Christine Summers, from Shatterford Lakes, said: "It is a shame that we didn't have high enough scales to weigh it, I'm sure it would have been a record.

"Our scales stop at 65lb but it went down so quickly it was clearly well over that.

"It's funny really, he was only using a little piece of luncheon meat, it's obviously got a taste for it."