WEIGHING 56 lbs and two oz and measuring five feet long, this catfish certainly gave angler Andy Ormrod a catch to remember.

It took the experienced fisherman 25 minutes to snare the giant fish.

But Mr Ormrod, from Harwood, released it back into the lake—just pausing to get a quick snap with his impressive catch as he celebrated with pal Gavin Southworth.

“I felt like a kid at Christmas after I’d landed it,” said Mr Ormrod, of Croft Gate.

“But it was a proper physical fight between me and the fish.

Even after five minutes, my arms and back were aching.”

Mr Ormrod, who teaches fishing techniques full-time through his company Improve Your Fishing, goes on regular fishing trips around the UK.

It was his first visit of the Richworth Linear Fisheries lake in Oxfordshire.

Mr Ormrod said: “We were fishing carp mainly and I caught nine fish during the trip, but nothing even half the size of this one.

“It was 3am on September 8 and lashing it down when I got a bite.

I knew straight away it was a big one.

“If you put fishing line around a 10-year-old lad’s belt and told him to run down the road, that’s how reeling it in would feel.

“It was such an amazing feeling to have brought it in.

“The thing was so heavy, we had to borrow another set of scales because ours weren’t big enough.”

Special equipment is used to remove the hook from the fish’s mouth before safely returning it to the water.

Mr Ormrod, aged 35, added: “I first caught a fish when I was six and this was the biggest thing I’ve ever caught.”

Terry Mckee, secretary of Bolton and District Angling Association, said: “That is a big fish — it is a real catch.

“Even landing a 5lb carp can tire you out, so something the size of this catfish would have required a lot of skill to land. He has done very well.”