A Carlisle man was part of a team that hauled in the ‘catch of a lifetime’ on a fishing trip in North Spain.

Carlisle roofer, Daniel Storey, 31, went on a fishing holiday with friends to Spain where they caught a wels catfish which weighed almost 250lb.

The catfish, which was caught in a river near the town of Mequinenza in north east Spain, weighed 246lb and measured more than 8 feet long which is more than double to average weight and size of a wels catfish.

Daniel said that he would ‘never catch anything like it again’.

“That’s definitely the catch of my lifetime – I’ll never catch anything like it again,” said Daniel.

“I went there specifically for the catfish, but I didn't expect to get one that size – it was just huge.

"I've never caught anything close to that big so I didn't know what it would feel like, and I only realised it was quite special because of the reaction of my friends.

"I didn't even realise how amazing it was until people from the village were patting me on the back the next day.

“I was proper knackered when taking the fish. I didn't realize how hard it was going to be either, just even the smaller ones that I caught whilst I was out there took a lot of effort to reel in.

The ‘monster’ catfish took 4 men 40 minutes to haul in before the group posed for photos with the fish and released it back into the river.

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The wels catfish is a mainly river dwelling fish which eats a diet of fish and birds.

Peter Irwin of ‘Monster Catfish Tours said: "It's a brilliant catch, and extremely rare - it's a once-in-a-lifetime event.

"This is the biggest I've ever handled.

"I've seen people come fishing here for 20 years and not catch anything like that.

"It really was their lucky day. I don't usually take people out fishing on day one but they insisted."