ANGLER Sean Kinnear has the proof when he tells the tale about the huge fish that didn t get away. Mr Kinnear, 27, of Burford Way, Hitchin, was fishing on the River Ebro in Spain last week when there was a fierce tug on his line as the sun was setting.

ANGLER Sean Kinnear has the proof when he tells the tale about the huge fish that didn't get away.

Mr Kinnear, 27, of Burford Way, Hitchin, was fishing on the River Ebro in Spain last week when there was a fierce tug on his line as the sun was setting.

Fifteen minutes later he was weighed down by the size of the huge catfish that was staring him in the face - all 133lbs 6ozs of the beast and he has the picture to prove it.

In fact it is the third largest catfish ever caught anywhere in the world and it is still growing after he put the giant back into the river near the town of Mequinenza where he had been on a fishing holiday with his father and cousin.

"It was around 8pm and put up a fight but I managed to land it within 15 minutes. When I saw the size of it, it looked pretty awesome," said Mr Kinnear who works with fish at the Japanese Koi Company in Henlow and was a former member of Letchworth Angling Club.

"I was using a line with 200lbs breaking strain and the rod was really bending but once it was on the shore it never struggled. But it took five of us to get it there."

The mighty fish was loaded on to a sling and then weighed before Mr Kinnear and his friends retired for the night to a nearby bar and celebrated with a few cold beers.

"This was a fishing holiday I will never forget," added Mr Kinnear.

But his fish was a tiddler compared to the world record catfish that was landed in the Mekong River, Thailand, in 2005 - that scaled a whopping 645.96lbs.