ALL-TIME records for rainbow and brown trout have been smashed at Bewl Water at Lamberhurst. Angler Roger Price, on his first visit to the reservoir, hooked the largest fish ever caught at Bewl.

Price, from Reading, Berks, was fishing a size 12 Invicta on a floating line from a boat near the cages when he hooked into a fish he estimated at 6 lb.

The fish came off but his spirits were lifted when he went on to land a monster rainbow of 18lb 10oz, beating the existing rainbow record by more than three pounds.

Earlier in the day season ticket holder Norman Harle, from Staplecross, Sussex, cast a size 12 black buzzer on a floating line in the heat of the day and on his third cast a beautiful 14lb 10oz brown trout bit.

When netted the fish turned out to have beaten Bewl’s previous record by 26 ounces.

It also beat local rod Ron Davidson’s best-fish-of-the-season record by nearly 2lb only a day after it was set.

Davidson, from Ticehurst, Sussex had taken a 12lb 14oz rainbow with a gold-headed daddy from his boat in Bryants Bay.

At the time he was delighted to have broken the new season’s record by more than five pounds, not realising the record would be smashed.