Monster Catfish Landed in Spain - 8 ft. 226 lbs.

A British angler is celebrating after landing one of the biggest freshwater fishes ever caught in Europe.

Alan Melhuish spent just half an hour reeling in a catfish weighing more than 16 stone on the River Ebro near Barcelona.

The 61-year-old was nearing the end of a week-long fishing trip when he hooked the 8-foot monster.

Mr Melhuish, a coroners assistant from Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, said: 'I was standing on a pontoon and I could tell it was big.

'It ripped the line and must have raced 40 metres up the river. It took me half-an-hour to to get it in and I could tell it was a decent size.

'I had to use all my strength to stop myself from being pulled off the pontoon into the river.

"It was gone 11pm and dark so we secured it for the night on a 100 metre length of rope and came back first thing in the morning.

'There are three weights of catfish that get anglers excited, 100lbs, 150lbs, and then the magical 200lbs mark.

'When the scales went past the 200 mark and up to 226lbs I knew it was the fish of a lifetime.

'Apparently there was another fish caught in Spain that weighed exactly the same, but I'm not sure if it was recorded properly.'

The biggest freshwater fish ever caught in Europe was a catfish that tipped the scales at 17 stone in Italy

'When I got it into the shallows my son-in-law went down to have a look and he told me it was massive.

________________________________________________

Would you like to find out more on this posting? Go to Phantoms and Monsters Wiki and become a member of this unique network. Start a page on this subject or add your input to an existing page.

Monster Catfish Landed in Spain
Monster Catfish Landed in Spain

Search

Have you had a close encounter or witnessed something unusual? Send us an email