A British fishing journalist has landed the greatest scoop of his career after reeling in a stingray the size of a garden shed – the biggest freshwater fish ever caught by rod and line.

Angler’s Mail columnist Ian Welch said he was almost pulled overboard when the 350-kilogram (772 lbs) stingray took the bait while on a fishing trip on Thailand’s Maeklong river, according to a report in the Guardian.

“It dragged me across the boat and would have pulled me in had my colleague not grabbed my trousers – it was like the whole earth had just moved. I knew it was going to a big one,” he said.

Welch eventually hauled the stingray out of the water after 90 exhausting minutes and with the help of 12 other people.

“As soon as we saw it there was just silence because everyone was just in awe of this thing,” he said. “That line from the film Jaws came to mind about needing a bigger boat because we had to get it to the shore to tag it.”

Welch was in Thailand to report on efforts to tag the freshwater giants. The stingray was moved to a paddling pool to be tagged and photographed and for DNA samples to be taken. It was then released back into the river.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 7:12 pm and is filed under Fish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.