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This giant stringray has smashed the world record for the biggest freshwater fish ever caught using a rod.

British angler Ian Welch tussled with the monster ray for 90 minutes to secure it and then 13 men had to be recruited to heave it out of the water.

The massive 55 stone (or 771 lbs) stingray is almost five times the weight of freshwater biologist Ian (11.5 stone). Its body was 7ft long and 7ft wide and its tail measured 10ft. Its lethal venomous barb had to be wrapped in cloth while it was out of the water.

The previous world record was held by a 646 lbs catfish caught in 2005.

Ian was helping with a stingray tagging programme in Thailand when he discovered the enormous specimen deep in the Maeklong River and used a Snakehead fish as bait to snare it.

“It dragged me across the boat and would have pulled me in had my colleague not grabbed my trousers - it was like the whole earth had just moved. I knew it was going to a big one," the 45-year-old said.

"It buried itself on the bottom and the main fight was trying to get it off the floor.

"I tried with every ounce of power but it just would not budge. After half an hour my arms began shaking and after an hour my legs went.

"Another 30 minutes went by and then I put a glove on and physically pulled the line with gritted teeth and somehow I found the reserves to shift the fish."

Once the stingray - which turned out to be female and pregnant - was off the bottom, Ian, from Aldershot, Hants, managed to lift it 30ft to the surface relatively easily.

"As soon as we saw it there was just silence because everyone was just in awe of this thing," he said.

"That line from the film Jaws came to mind about needing a bigger boat because we had to get it to the shore to tag it."

Afterwards Ian and the team released the stingray. The group managed to put a 12ft wide net under the fish and towed it to the bank.

Ian added: "It took 13 people to lift it into a large paddling pool we had set up in order to tag it and take DNA samples.

"I was absolutely exhausted afterwards and did very little for the rest of the day and just

had a cold beer.

"As a life-long angler and a biologist it is great that my two passions have come together and culminated in something I could only have dreamed of."

The giant freshwater stingray is listed as a vulnerable species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's red list.

Although its numbers are unknown, experts believe the population has dwindled by 20 per cent over the last 10 years, making the possibility of extinction extremely high.

See the world's largest snake and other oversized animals