ROOFER Ambrose Smith was on top of the world after catching the biggest-ever carp fish.
The 40-year-old angler smashed the previous best by a clear 5lbs when he reeled in the monster mirror carp.
The giant fish tipped the scales at exactly 99lbs — agonisingly close to the 'holy grail' 100lbs that every carp angler dreams of catching.
Ambrose had already broken his personal best of 58lbs during his trip to France before he snared the big one that was 41lbs heavier.
He was on a week's fishing holiday to a lake in Dijon with wife Ruth and daughters Jasmine, 19, and Amber, 16, when the giant took his bait of a mix of fish and fruit.
After a 20 minute fight Ambrose managed to get the better of it and reeled it towards the bank.
And it was a real family effort as Ruth and the two girls helped him lift the record catch into his landing net and on to the scales.
The specimen, nicknamed 'Scarfish' due to a line that runs across his body, was thrown back in to the water in good health after being weighed.
Ambrose, from Denham, Bucks, said: "I was already chuffed to beat my personal best on the trip but what I caught after that just obliterated that.
"We were having dinner on the bank when I got a powerful take with the fish taking 40 yards of line and I realised it was quite a heavy fish.
"It was a really hard fight which is no surprise considering there was a 100lbs weight on the end of my line.
"After about 20 minutes I finally got the fish under the rod tip and my wife managed to slip the net under the fish on her first attempt.
"It wasn't until I opened the net that I saw a distinctive line down the fish that we realised that it was.
"With the help of Ruth and the girls we weighed it and the scales finally settled at 99lbs.
"After that I think the whole of France heard my shout out in glee. We put it back in the water quite quickly and opened a bottle of wine to celebrate."
Ambrose said he was very lucky to have landed the world record.
He said: "These fish take on a lot of water at this time of year because they are spawning, so it was probably carrying an extra ten per cent of its body weight. It was quite lucky really."
The previous world record was held by Brit Martin 'Lucky' Locke who caught a mirror carp in France in January weighing 94lbs.
The biggest carp caught in Britain stands at 65lbs 14ozs by Simon Bater at Conningbrooke Lake near Ashford, Kent, in 2005.
Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3020228/Holy-a-massive-fish.html#ixzz0raCPq1Uk
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