Giant 8ft 9in catfish weighing 19 stone caught in Italy is thought to be the biggest

A fisherman has caught a giant 8ft 9in long catfish weighing 19 stone - and it could be the biggest ever caught with the humble rod and line.  

Dino Ferrari hooked the huge wels catfish, which was 2.67m in length, last week in the Po Delta in Italy.

The cannibalistic wels catfish, also known as the sheatfish, is native to Europe and can grow as long as 13ft and up to 62st - but it is exceedingly rare to catch one that is over two metres long.

But while Mr Ferrari's fish might set a new record for the biggest ever caught on a line, it is not the heaviest ever hooked - that award goes to catfish which weighed 22st and was 9ft long, and was caught in the Po Delta, reports The Mirror.

In December schoolboy Sam Lee, 14, caught an 8ft 14 stone catfish while on a fishing holiday in Spain with his father Peter.