This is probably the biggest barbel caught in UK waters. The record fish , weighing 19 lb 9 oz - 8.7 kg was caught by angler Thomas Finney from an undisclosed stretch of Southern river.
The young angler just four days earlier registered his previous personal best with a 16 lb 6 oz - 7.35 kg specimen.
Tom visited the river late in the afternoon and decide to fish a snaggy swim what he called "a tackle graveyard" which was littered with submerged tree branches and weed.
To combat the snags he tied his garlic spam hook-bait to his lead with PVA string before casting tight to a raft of debris.
Within minutes his tipped bent over and he was wrestling with the huge fish, falling over three times in an attempt to follow the monster specimen down river.
