Anglers catch 6ft 4 ‘monster’ catfish, breaking the weighing scales

A pair of anglers caught a 6’4 suspected-90lb (40kg) monster catfish in White Waltham during a thrilling haul which broke the scales.

Dave Barrett, from Maidenhead, and his friend Adam Oliver, from Cookham, were camping out on a 48-hour fishing session at the carp and catfish lake in New Farm Fisheries, when they encountered a ‘beast.’

Dave and Adam tend to do 24-hour sessions on their trips but, hoping for a big bite, they decided to camp out for a longer period, spanning August 1-3.

They set up on the Friday night and got started. But things were ‘very quiet’ with only a few small taps on the line. By the 24-hour mark, the pair had only caught a ‘kitten’ (small catfish) and a small carp.

But at 11.30pm on the Saturday night, the line twitched and suddenly there was a full-blown bite from what was clearly a very large fish.

“It felt like I had snagged the bottom of the lake, it was so heavy,” said Dave.

The fish swam away fast and hard, stripping the line from the reel ‘with no sign of stopping’.

After that, the pair had a battle on their hands. The fish pulled slowly and steadily, putting up quite a fight. Only after 20 minutes did it begin to tire, allowing the anglers to get their first glimpse of their catch – a whopping Wels catfish.

From there it was a game of cat and mouse, with the catfish giving the pair the runaround for quite some time.

As the fish approached the net ‘it took off again’ and it took another 10 minutes to get the fish back in the net, wielded by Adam. It took multiple attempts to get the creature inside.

“Adam struggled desperately to get the fish to fit into the net,” said Dave. “He miraculously managed to land it with great difficulty.”

It was a 55-inch net – usually more than large enough – but this time, it struggled to contain the bulk of the gigantic fish.

“We had to literally curl it round itself just to get it in,” said Dave. “It took both of us to bring the fish over to the mat to weigh it.”

However, the anglers will never know exactly much it weighed. Such was the sheer size of the fish, it managed to tear the weighing sling and break the scales.

Before breaking the scales did record 80lbs – the maximum weight. This leads the anglers to believe this catfish was closer to 90lbs.

That size is ‘pretty rare’ in the lake, said Dave – there have been a few 70-plus-pound fish hooked up over the years ‘but nothing that big.’

Laying at a length of 6 feet and 4 inches, this was a record for Dave, an experienced angler who has been fishing since he was 12 years old.

Closer inspection of the fish left the pair feeling ‘very fortunate’ to have landed this catch with their rods, lines and reels still intact.

This was catch-and-release fishing, so the pair released the creature carefully back to the depths of the lake.

When releasing it, they had to hold it in the water for about five minutes, waiting for it to regain strength enough to swim away. Dave said the whole experience was ‘very surreal’ and the pair were ‘watching in awe’ as this rare giant swam away.

“Needless to say, this is a new PB [personal best] for me and one I will likely never break again,” he said.