SPECIMAN hunter Phil Scriven thanked his long-suffering wife Hayley after banking Todber Manor’s colossal catfish.

Scriven, 34, from Corfe Mullen, snared the Paddock lake ‘Big ‘Un’ at 77llb 8 on a pellet – his first ever catfish from a life laden with big carp.

And with eight-week old son Louie and one-year-old Harry at home with the missus, Scriven dedicated the catch to Hayley’s “understanding.”

Scriven, who works for Poole-based Sunseeker, told the Echo: “I’m a new dad and my two boys are only a year apart.

“I really want to thank the wife for letting me go fishing still. I’m really lucky that she is so understanding.

“As soon as I hit it, it was solid so I knew it was a cat straight away.

“I was on a barbless hook as well and when I had it in the net the hook fell out so I was lucky. It took about half-an-hour to land and it was in some reeds for about 15 minutes so I thought I was going to lose it.

“When it came out of the reeds it’s head came up and I thought ‘Blimey, this is big’!

“One of the guys who was with me said he thought it was the big one and one of the other lads who was fishing there had to get a bigger net because the one I had wasn’t big enough for it!”

Scriven’s joy was tainted somewhat, however, after he learned that six-times Drennan Cup winner Terry Lampard had bagged the beast at just over 80llb three weeks earlier on a popped-up live Rudd.

Scriven, a regular carper at Todber, near Sturminster Newton, added: “I knew Terry had it at 80llb so when we weighed it my adrenaline was steaming because I was hoping I had topped him.

“Unfortunately it was a little under, but it’s still an amazing fish.”

  • Banked a freshwater monster recently from a Dorset river or fishery? Give Neil Meldrum a shout on 01202 411287, or via email on neil.meldrum@bournemouthecho.co.uk, and we’ll put your catch on display in the Daily Echo.

For sea angling submissions, contact our correspondent Chris Clark via email on ClarkBohio@aol.com.