A woman was left dumbfounded after she caught a record-breaking 63lbs carp ‘over half her size’ while on a fishing trip with her husband.
Ria Bignell, 27, broke the record for catching the biggest carp fish by a female in Britain, after reeling in the whopping 63lbs 11ozs catch at Waterside Fishery in Chesham, Buckinghamshire.
Her monster common carp was only 4lbs short of the record for the biggest carp ever caught in Britain which stands at 68lb 1oz.
The avid fisherwoman, who was on a trip with her husband Lee, said she first thought she had caught a tiddler when she got a bite as the fish didn’t put up much of a fight.
It took her 30 minutes to reel in the catch and it was only when she saw it in her net that she realised just how big it was.
Lee, 35, helped Ria lift the fish so she could hold it for long enough to pose for photos. They then returned the fish back to the lake, safe and well.
Despite being two o’clock in the morning, an elated Ria decided to phone her family and friends with the big news.
She said it took her two days to fully recover from the physical battle of catching the fish which is known as the ‘Big Common’.
Ria, a wedding photographer from Amersham in Buckinghamshire, said: ‘I just thought it was a tiddler on the end of my line at first because it didn’t start to swim away.
‘I would have expected it to take a few hours to catch a really big fish but it only took 20 minutes for me to get it close enough to have a proper look.
‘It was humungous, I couldn’t believe the size of it. It was over half the size of me.’I had to have some help to lift it up so I could hold it for the photos.
‘It felt like I had a proper work out afterwards and my arms ached for two days.’
Ria, who has been fishing since she met Lee seven years ago, was on a week-long fishing trip.
The biggest ever carp caught in Britain, weighing 68Ibs and 1oz, was reeled in by Dean Fletcher in January 2016 at Wasing, Berkshire.
The greengrocer hooked the giant mirror carp known as The Parrot at Cranwells Lake. He had spent seven years on the waiting list to become a member of the fishery.
Waterside Fishery, where Ria caught her prize fish, offers two lakes in Buckinghamshire and is known to be home to specimen carps.
