ANGLERS are often known to exaggerate the size of their catch but when Whitstable’s Kirby Dyson-Dowling said he helped land a whopper he wasn’t joking.

His friend Steve Lyons, from Faversham, caught a monster 100-year-old sturgeon thought to weigh at least 1,000lb during a fishing trip to Canada last week.

But the trip was organised by Mr Dyson-Dowling, a director of Ashford Tackle in St Mary’s Road, Faversham, who also went along and was one of seven friends who helped land the giant catch.

Mr Lyons is now hoping the monster fish, which was more than 11ft, may earn him a place in the record books as the biggest freshwater fish ever to be landed.

The group were fishing the Fraser River, known across the world for its vast numbers of salmon and giant white sturgeon. When there was a hefty tug on Mr Lyons’ 150lb line he knew he was onto something big.

He played the fish for four hours until he was exhausted and his fishing buddies stepped in to help. At one point the prehistoric-looking fish leapt out of the river.

He said: "It came out of the water like a dolphin and when I saw how big it was I was just gobsmacked."

The sturgeon, which was released back into the Fraser River, measured 11ft 1in and its girth 55 inches. The expert Canadian guides estimated its weight at a whopping 1,000lbs - more than 71 stone - and its age, because of its immense size, at more than 100-years-old.

The rest of the group included Ray Harris from Faversham, Terry Dale, Martin Heaton and Tony Cheeseman from Faversham, Richard Forsythe from Ashford and Robert Tilbury from Canterbury.