Britain's largest carp landed in Shropshire

The fish, who tantalises anglers at the Avenue Pool, has been caught – and weighed in at an incredible 61lbs 8oz, almost four stone.

Luckily for Jonah, he lived to swim another day after being carefully placed back into the pool.

But he has now won national fame after officially being named the largest fish currently living in British waters. The man who made Jonah bite is keen angler Chris Holland, 23.

Chris and his five friends had booked the RH Fisheries lake, in Badger, near Bridgnorth, for a week at the end of last month fishing day and night.

The young angler from Leigh, in Lancashire, is well known for catching huge carp, but Jonah was his largest so far.

He said: "I had become a little obsessed about him over recent weeks.

"At about 1.15pm, on April 24, I was fishing on the bottom of the pool and something took my bait.

"I knew it was big and I was playing him when I saw him roll. When I saw that his shoulders were lighter coloured that the rest of him I knew it was Jonah.

"The adrenaline was really going and I knew I had to be patient. It took about 10 minutes to land him."

The enormous carp weighed the same as a nine-year-old child and had to be landed in an extra large net.

Rob Hales, who runs the fishery, said although the carp was the biggest fish currently living Britain, it was still short of the British record, which stood at 67lbs 12oz.

He said: "We reduce the number of fish in the pools, which means those that remain can get larger.

"They are really hard to catch.

"In the UK there are only five or six that are more than 60lbs, so it's quite a rare catch."