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The woman who got out of bed to catch a monster
Simon de
Bruxelles
An angling record that had stood for 85 years was broken when a housewife
hooked a giant catfish.
At 66lb (29.9kg), Bev Street’s catch was two pounds heavier than the
salmon which had held the record for the heaviest freshwater fish landed
by a woman in Britain.
The 64lb salmon caught by Georgina Ballantine in the River Tay in 1922
inspired thousands of women to take up angling.
Mrs Street, 45, was on a fishing trip to Bluebell Lakes in Tansor,
Cambridgeshire, with her husband, Chris, when she caught the catfish. The
couple had just gone to bed in their tent on the bank when an alarm
sounded on the rod belonging to Mrs Street. She spent 30 minutes reeling
in the fish before Mr Street and an angler on a neighbouring pitch waded
into the shallows to heave it out. It weighed exactly 66lb, verified by
the bailiff of the lake.
Mrs Street, from Skegness, Lincolnshire, said: “I knew it was going to be
big but it didn’t cross my mind that it was going to be a record. Even now
I can’t believe I have broken the Ballantine record. I couldn’t sleep for
two days afterwards because I was so excited.”
Mrs Street took up angling three years ago, encouraged by her husband, and
the couple regularly go on fishing holidays together. Her previous biggest
catch was a 29lb carp.
Michael Heylin, of the British Record (Rod-Caught) Fish Committee, said:
“This new record is brilliant news, it is a massive achievement. Hopefully
it will encourage more women to take up the sport, just like Ballantine
did.”
The current record for the biggest freshwater fish caught in Britain is
held by Dan Roberts, 26, with a 821b catfish caught in a lake in his home
town of Billericay, Essex, this year. |
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