Largest freshwater fish ever in Britain by Woman

Woman catches largest freshwater fish ever in Britain

Bev Street has entered the record books by catching the biggest freshwater fish ever hooked by a woman in Britain.



Last Updated: 12:49PM BST 19 Aug 2008

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph...sh_792769c.jpg Bev Street caught the 69lb 8oz catfish by using pig's liver bait Photo: BNPS.co.uk


Mrs Street took an hour to reel in the 69lb 8oz catfish - that weighed the same as a Rottweiler dog.
She had first claimed the title last year when she smashed an 85-year-old record, but then had it taken from her.
But using pig's liver placed next to heaps of halibut pellets at the Willow Bank Fisheries, Kirton Lindsey, North Lincolnshire, she regained her place in the record books.
Mrs Street, 46, from Skegness, said: "For me, it isn't about breaking other people's records. I'm not interested in the limelight.
"I just like catching fish and getting better at it. I like improving on my own achievements."


She added: "It might take me years, but I want to get something really big like 130lbs in my net. Mrs Street was on a nine day trip to the lake with her husband Chris, a 39 year old driver, when she struck lucky.


The couple were asleep in their 'bivvy' tent when the alarm on her rod sounded at 6am.
She said: "I shot out the bivvy and knew I'd caught something big straight away because of the way the rod was angled.
"I was half asleep and the fish was putting up a really big fight. It had swum into the reeds further down the lake.
"I just kept going and going at it, until I'd reeled it in. That took about 50 minutes alone.


"Then I had to wade out into deep water, put my hand in its mouth and pull it in. I was shouting, 'Let me do it' and I managed to scoop it into the net on my own.


"To get it on the bank, all in all, took about an hour."
Last August the mother-of-one, broke a long-standing record when she reeled in a 66lb catfish, the biggest fish since Georgina Ballantine caught a 64lbs salmon in 1922.