WHEN Lee Cartwright and his eight-year-old nephew set out for a day’s pike fishing on their local canal, the last thing they expected to catch was this huge mandarin catfish.
Lee, who lives on a barge in Stourbridge, has caught big barbel, carp and pike, but rates this beast, estimated to weigh 50lb, as the catch of his lifetime.
He was fishing a livebait when he struck into a powerful fish that he thought was a pike, but after a dour 40-minute battle it finally surfaced and left Lee lost for words.
“It’s the last thing you expect to catch down the cut!” he told us. “I had no idea it was in there, although I’ve heard of lads catching wels catfish around the 20lb-mark from the canal. It pulled my arms off! It’s a day I’ll never forget, and my nephew’s reaction was brilliant!”
