Ian Welch, a biologist from Aldershot, has been helping with a stingray tagging programme in Thailand. Deciding to go fishing, he ended up landing the biggest ever freshwater fish caught with a rod, a stingray no less.
It took him ninety minutes to haul the monster from the water, about 10 metres deep at that point, and it required the help of thirteen people to get it on board the boat.
The stingray was over two metres long with a three metre tail and weighed 249 kilos. After tagging it and taking a DNA sample, the fish was returned to the water.