AN angler had the shock of his life when he hooked a monster stingray while fishing off Walton.

Chris Gillett set off alone on his boat Catch Maker from Titchmarsh Marine on Sunday.

He was hoping to catch the odd sea bass, but suddenly got more than he bargained for.

"I was expecting bass, dogfish and eels. That's what I had been catching but this was completely out of the blue," said Chris, 46.

"It was a very gentle bite - a mere quivering at the end of the rod

"I thought the line had snagged and then it took off.

"It went like the clappers. It went at a great rate of knots – it really did."

It took almost half an hour for the courier firm ops manager to land the whopper.

"Once it broke the surface I was petrified because you hear stories about them," said Chris.

"It took 20 minutes to get it to the side of the boat and then probably another five minutes to get it in the net because the net wasn't big enough.

"I had to fold it into the net and lift it using the mesh because the metal handle started to bend under the weight."

The trembling fisherman quickly snapped photos of his mammoth catch before releasing it safely back into the water.

"I had no way of weighing it," admitted Chris.

"It must have been over 65lb – it was a huge fish. I play rugby and I could barely lift it over the side of the boat.

"The British record is 72lb.

"The photos don't do it justice. It was 15 inches deep in the middle and about 3ft from wing-tip to wing-tip.

"I didn't measure the length because I didn't want to go near that tail!"

Chris has been angling since he was a "wee lad" and fishing off the Walton coast for two and a half years.

Gazette angling correspondent John Popplewell says his stingray is the heaviest fish caught off the coastline this year.

Chris added: "This is the biggest fish I've caught without a shadow of a doubt.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime fish.

"They are very hard to catch and you can't go fishing for them because there aren't many around.

"I would never kill anything like that. Beautiful is probably the wrong word, but it was impressive."