What a whopper, twice over!

Wigan angler Jon Neafcy is celebrating after catching the world’s biggest carp and a fairly hefty catfish as well.

The Siamese carp, which is well over the current official world record, lives in Palm Tree lagoon, in Thailand, owned by British man Tim Webb and his wife Benny.

The carp was caught at 222lb (100kg) by Tim Webb, from another nearby fishery, bought and transferred to his lagoon last year but had not been caught since - until the arrival of 44-year-old Jon.

He told the Observer: "I had booked a trip to Palm Tree lagoon last year, but had to postpone due to the birth of my son Shawn Joseph, so I made the trip this year instead.

"This is the fifth fishing trip I have had to Thailand, a country which gives the average person the chance to catch some amazing big fish."

Armed with his own gear, the intrepid dad, who lives in Abram and works as an auditor, embarked on his mission to catch a whopper.

Jon, who runs local region of the pike anglers club of GB, said: "Fishing is 8am to 8pm in Thailand it goes dark about 7pm so that gives an hour’s fishing into dark.

"On the day at dusk the carp rod went, almost instantaneously the Mekong catfish float rod went too. I hit both runs and hooked both fish, Benny’s sister was on hand and kindly took the Mekong rod whilst I played the carp.

"I knew from experience that the Mekong are always very long hard dogged fights, so hopefully I thought could land the carp and then land the Mekong.

"The Siamese carp are a big hard fighting species, long hard runs are the normal during the fight, however this one felt something special.

"After 30 minutes the carp popped up and was ready to net, I was amazed with the sheer size of it. Lifting such a fish requires a three man lift, photos are taken in the water as taking them on the bank would be too much of a risk to the fish."

After the carp was returned Jon took on the Mekong and after about 40 minutes it was ready to land, weighing around 374lb (170kg). So not only had he caught the biggest known carp in the world, with the Mekong catfish this makes the capture possibly among the biggest brace of freshwater fish, if not the biggest.

Unfortunately the IGFA (International Game Fishing Association) no longer permit world records from man-made stocked lakes, so this fish does not qualify for a world record.