British Angler Catches World Record Cod

BRITISH NEWS EXPRESS REPORTED 1ST: Tom Ascott, 32, said it felt like he had hooked a London bus after he cast off from the snow-covered shore and the colossal cod bit on his herring bait. He spent 30 minutes struggling to reel in the whopper which at one point swam off with 600ft of his fishing line. 

Mr Ascott’s fisherman friend Stuart Andrew then helped heave the enormous fish out of the icy water. 

The fish was weighed 66lb 8oz – a staggering 22lb heavier than the existing record for a shore-caught cod which had stood for nearly 50 years.

But the epic trip might end up leaving the father-of-two out of pocket as he promised to buy his wife Katie a new Mini car if he caught a big fish.

Mr Ascott, a builder from Sturminster Newton, Dorset, said: “The fish was so big it felt like I was trying to reel in a London bus. I could have squeezed my head inside its mouth.

“I didn’t know how big it was at first, just that it was going to be a big fish.

“Sadly the fish was too weak to put back and so we donated it the locals, who are probably going to dry it out and split it between them.” 

Mr Ascott said immediately afterwards he felt like he had bit hit by the hand of cod as storm clouds cleared and the Northern Lights appeared in the Arctic sky.

The previous record shore-caught cod of 44lb 8oz was caught off south Wales in 1966.

Mr Ascott added: “I’m still on a bit of an adrenaline buzz and it is still sinking in that I caught a record fish. Some people have told me they don’t think it will ever be beaten because this cod was just so big.