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An angler in England reeled in a monster catfish in September that could be the biggest ever caught in the United Kingdom.
Shaun Ing — with the help of his wife Chloe — landed the 8-foot-long behemoth at Chigboro Fisheries’ Maywater Lake in Maldon after a 90-minute fight, which Ing described to the BBC as “absolute madness.”
“The fish was unstoppable. I just knew it had to be the big cat we were after and was fully expecting a long fight,” he said. “The battle was like nothing I have ever experienced, lasting over 90 minutes. Every time I gained line, the fish took it back.
“The fight lasted so long that the Chinese takeaway we had delivered just as I hooked it was completely ruined.”
There aren’t a lot of things I’d waste perfectly good Chinese takeout on, but this might be one of them.
“It was stripping line like you wouldn’t believe,” Ing said. “I used to have a German shepherd — it was like walking 12 of them at once.”
MORE FISHING: You Won’t Believe The Size Of This Blue Marlin Just Caught In Kona, Hawaii
Once the fight ended, the couple faced another dilemma: How do we even weigh this thing?
They had to get crafty. Because the cat was too big to fit in Shaun’s landing net, two of his friends waded into the lake to secure the fish with a sling. Then, they used a body bag (yes, a HUMAN body bag that they had as a prop for Halloween) in order to weigh the catfish.
After accounting for the weight of the bag and the slings, they determined their prized catch was a whopping 150 pounds! Now, Shaun and Chloe are just awaiting confirmation from the British Record Fish Committee to find out if they officially broke the UK record.
The current record belongs to Darren Reitz, who reeled in a 143-pound catfish (nicknamed “Scar”) in the exact same lake last April.
Shaun Ing’s catch has now been released into a specialist catfish lake at the fishery.
