The woman who got out of bed to catch a monster

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.



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.”