TALL tales told over a beer about the fish that got away are commonplace between fishermen but for this angler who caught a monster, he’s got proof to back it up.

When Brisbane fisherman Steve Morgan set out at 2am last Wednesday to fish the Brisbane River he had no idea he would catch a “once in a lifetime” fish.

He said the 110cm barramundi he caught that morning was the biggest one he has ever heard of coming out of the river.

“A mate of mine caught a 92cm barra earlier this year and as far as I know, the one I caught is the biggest one to have been caught in the river,” Mr Morgan said.

“We drifted past a structure that had some light on the water and I threw my threadfin lure into the light and this barramundi was sitting up underneath the light.

“I fed some line out to sink it down towards the bottom and it never sank, so I wound my line in tight and yanked on the fish and it jumped out of the water.”

And thus began the five-minute battle to haul in the fish. Once he got it on the boat, Mr Morgan couldn’t believe it was a barramundi.

“It was pretty exciting,” he said. “It put up a really good fight, we were really pumped when we landed it.

media_camera Steve Morgan said his catch was the biggest he’d seen in the Brisbane River.

“There aren’t many barra in there, so to catch one that size is pretty great, I don’t expect to catch another one like that in the Brisbane River in my lifetime.”

Mr Morgan said he measured the fish, tagged it and sent it on its way, for the big barramundi to be caught another day.