Angler reels in MONSTER 20st catfish as big as a shark in Italy after battling for 45 minutes to reel it in
The whopper was so huge angler Benjamin Grunder initially thought his hook had become stuck on the riverbed
YOU should have seen the one that got away...
Angler Benjamin Grunder struggles to hold on to the catch-of-a-lifetime after hooking a record-breaking catfish.
Benjamin, 37, thought his hook had snagged a submerged tree when the monster fish went for his bait, such was the colossal weight of it.
He quickly realised it was a big fish and spent a gruelling 45 minutes reeling it towards the banks of the River Po in Italy.
German Benjamin estimated the 8ft 8ins Wels catfish - the largest freshwater fish in Europe - at a whopping 286lbs or 20st.
Although the catch broke the existing record on the Po by 6ozs it is unofficial as it wasn't weighed on scales.
After posing for the obligatory photograph, the fish was returned to the water safe and well.
Benjamin, from Meiningen, near Frankfurt, said: "Initially, I thought it was obstacles on the bottom, like sunken trees, that produced such a signal.
"At a certain point, I realised it had to be a fish of monstrous proportions."