The One That Got Away … Really!

HOPES that a massive salmon could enter the record books were dashed last night when officials ruled it out because it s weight could not be verified.

The angling community hoped the fish would break Britains rod catch record.

Witnesses to the weekend catch said the salmon, caught in the River Ness near Inverness, was 56 inches long and 50 inches around the girth.

It was released back into the water after being photographed and measured.

But there was no way of confirming its weight because the scales the group had could weigh up to only 30lb.

Ghillie Grant Sutherland, who witnessed the catch, said: I have never come across a fish like that before. It was the biggest fish Ive ever seen by a mile.

The anglers sent photographs of the fish to marine experts in the hope they may be able to estimate its weight.

But the British Fish Record Committee, which holds the angling records for the UK, said i t did not qualif y because the weight could not be confirmed.

The record is still held by Georgina Ballantyne, who caught a 64lb salmon in 1922 in the River Tay, Perthshire.

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