As a journalist, Mark Simmonds is used to landing the occasional scoop but the keen angler almost found himself in the record books after catching a huge Siamese carp while on holiday over Christmas.

The Southern Daily Echo’s freshwater angling reporter reeled in the 116lb specimen on Gillhams Fishing Resort at Krabi in Thailand.

Up to a few months ago, the fish would have been a world record but another British angler landed a massive 134lb fish in October.

However, Mark’s fish, which took around 30 minutes to land, is thought to be the second biggest of its type ever caught at the resort

Carp a load of this...Mark Simmonds, left, with the 116lb fish

He also caught arapaima, a fish native to South American, of 120lb and 280lb plus Amazon red tail catfish to 50lb and Amazon stingrays to 40lb during his trip.

Mark now has three freshwater bests over 100lb, adding his carp to a personal best arapaima of 380lb and a Mekong catfish of 180lb.

The reporter nearly made it four over 100lb when losing a battle with a freshwater stingray estimated at 150lb when it broke the hook link.