Shropshire mum catches fish 'the size of a settee' off Australian coast
A Shropshire woman had the catch of her life when she landed a whopper of a fish which was bigger than she is.
Sue Elcock, from Lilleshall, went on a fishing trip in Western Australia earlier this week to keep her son company — and was shocked to hook a 62kg monster fish.
On a trip Down Under to see son Simon and his wife Michelle, the 68-year-old didn’t expect to catch more than a tiddler when she joined him on a charter boat.
On previous trips the largest fish she had caught was a foot-long snapper.
WATCH Sue reel in the bass groper:
But when she felt a tug on her line during the 5am excursion off the coast of Lancelin, 120km north of Perth, she thought she had caught a “fair-sized fish”.
Forty minutes later, Sue, Simon and others on the boat helped haul in the monster fish — a record-breaking giant bass groper which measured in at 162cm.
Sue said: “Simon is an experienced sea angler and I have been out with him before when I have been visiting he and Michelle.
“The biggest fish I’ve caught before was a snapper about a foot long and when this one took the bait on the bottom, the tug on the line didn’t seem much.
However, once reeled in the enormous fish was “the size of a sofa”.
"I was using one of Simon's electric reels but it still took nearly an hour to get him on board.
"I just couldn’t believe the size of it when it reared its head out the water. It was the size of a settee,” said Sue, who is staying with aluminium mine worker Simon until the end of the month.
“Someone said you would need an awful lot of chips to go with a fish like that.
“But I’ve helped cut him up and get all that fish into the freezer.
"Simon and Michelle will be enjoying fish barbies for months when I’m long back in the UK.”
Simon, aged 49, said: “Mum caught a giant fish and I was thrilled for her. The photo of her holding the fish is one to treasure.”
Most bass groper encountered in Australia average around 25-45kg in weight.
