Record-breaking 8ft fish reeled in by husband and spouse so huge it ruined a Chinese meal

They say there’s plenty more fish in the sea – but they’re not always a very specific 150lbs (68 kg), eight-foot (2.4m) long catfish.

But that’s exactly what the husband-wife fishing team of Shaun and Chloe Ing successfully went after at Chigborough Fisheries, in Essex.

Yes, it wasn’t in the sea but the duo has likely set a new British record with their massive catch, which is 7lbs heavier than the current UK catfish record of 143 pounds, caught in Essex in April 2024.

It took Shaun and Chloe 90 minutes to reel in the whopper – and they needed the help of two more friends in order to lift it out of the water.

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Shaun, 34, and Chloe, 30, had only just ordered Chinese takeaway when the fish first took the bait and by the time they caught it and released it back into the water, their meal had been ruined.

Shaun, a roofer, said that the monster was “unstoppable” after it had taken his bait and swam off with it.

Shaun told The Telegraph: “We got the bite on the fish around 7.50pm just as the delivery driver for our Chinese arrived. The reel on the rod almost set on fire, it was going so fast. It was absolute panic stations.

“It was pitch black and from there it was an hour-and-a-half of absolute hell. I put the rod between my legs for support and by the time I was finished my legs were just black from bruises.”

Shaun claims that at one point in the scuffle, he gave the line to his wife Chloe, and she was “almost taken off her feet by the sheer force of it.”

Shaun said it felt like a “Jaws moment” when the couple saw the fish for the first time. He added: “The catfish was easily eight feet long, wider than me and when we put it on the scales it was bang on 150 pounds. It was so big it broke everything that it touched. It even broke the hook on the weighing tripod. It was just an absolute joke of a beast.”

By the time the couple had recovered from the scuffle and managed to settle down to eat the Chinese they had ordered earlier, it was “absolutely ruined”, but the fishing duo still ate it.

As the couple awaits the British Record Fish Committee’s ratification of their claim, Shaun added: “We would love to have the record, especially for a fish of that size.”

He feels that their record won’t be beaten for quite some time.