Britain's biggest tiddler! Angler catches the largest stickleback in Britain for the second year (and it's three grams heavier than the one he caught last year)



Craig Birchall caught the stickleback fish in a lake by his Scunthorpe home



The fish weighed in at a hefty 12 grams and measured 2.9 inches in length



It breaks the British record which Mr Birchall set himself in April last year

Fish - which weighs same as £2 coin - is three grams heavier than record



It may not look like a big catch, but this tiny fish has broken the record for being the largest tiddler ever caught in British waters.



The huge stickleback was hooked by keen angler Craig Birchall, 25, who is celebrating after breaking the record – which he set himself last year.



Mr Birchall, a warehouse worker from Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, caught the three-spined stickleback - which weighs the same as a £2 coin - in a lake near his home using a tiny piece of worm as bait and the smallest hook he could get his hands on.



Big catch: Craig Birchall, 25, is celebrating after breaking the record for catching the biggest tiddler in Britain for the second year running which he caught using a worm as bait

The stickleback fish weighed in at a 12 grams, or just under half an ounce, and measured 2.9 inches in length, breaking the British record set by Mr Birchall in 2013

He had been fishing for about an hour and reeled in hundreds of miniscule fish before he pulled up the record-breaking specimen.



Weighing in at 12 grams, or just under half an ounce, and measuring 2.9 inches in length, the fish smashes the record Mr Birchall set in April 2013.

The specimen is three grams heavier than one he caught last year, which was heavy enough to set an official record at 8.8 grams but was never verified.

The previous record for a three-spined stickleback was set in 1998 by Dennis Flack in Cambridgeshire.

Mr Birchall said he had set out to catch a three-spined stickleback - Gasterosteus aculeatus in Latin - because he feels some of the smaller species are overlooked by anglers.



He said: ‘There is a lake in a wooded area near where I live so I went down there to spend an hour or so fishing.



‘Not many people fish for the small species and I think they are underrated, so I decided that I would try and go for them.



‘I set up a small float and a really small, size 26 hook, and I used a tiny piece of worm as bait.



The recent catch is three grams heavier than one he caught in April last year (pictured), which was heavy enough to set an official record at 8.8 grams but was never verified

Mr Birchall said he had set out to catch a three-spined stickleback - Gasterosteus aculeatus in Latin - because he feels some of the smaller species are overlooked by anglers. Pictured: His previous record-breaking catch