11-Year-Old Angler Catches Massive Carp Fish Almost As Heavy As Him

A British schoolboy has set a new world record after he reeled in the biggest-ever carp to have been caught by a junior angler.

Callum Pettit, 11, pulled a huge common carp that weighed a whopping 96 pounds 10 ounces, just 4 pounds lighter than his own weight in Reim, France, under his father's supervision, Outdoorlife reported.

Common carp, scientifically known as Cyprinus carpio, belongs to the Cyprinidae family, a species of freshwater fish native to Europe and Asia. The fish, Callum's 7th catch, is almost twice the size of his father Stuart's personal best catch in his 30 years of angling experience, according to Field and Stream.

A video taken on Stuart's GoPro camera showed Callum's reaction when he first realized his momentous achievement. Take a look below:

In the video, a visibly surprised Callum is seen repeatedly saying "that's massive, dad."

The fish, now fondly called "Big Girl" gave in to a banoffee-flavored bait laid by Callum. The catch stands at just 7 pounds lighter than the adult world record of 101 pounds and 6 ounces snared by another British man Terry Harbert in 2019.

Neither Stuart nor Callum realized the fish was as huge due to the murky waters. It was only when Stuart went to lift the fish into a landing net by the site of the bank that it dawned on him that his son's catch is fit for a world record. "We didn’t have any idea of the size of it until we got it into the net and even then we thought it could have been a 60-pound or 70-pound fish," Stuart told Outdoorlife.

"I couldn’t believe how big it was and my arms were really aching afterwards," Callum said. However, the owner of the fishery had knowledge about the carp's presence in the waters. The video shows the father-son duo releasing Big Girl back into the waters.

A picture shared on the fishery's Facebook page showed the final moment the anglers spent with Big Girl before it was released into the pond.

Carp fishing is far more popular in Europe than in the U.S. The internet is flooded with success stories of anglers catching huge carps in some of Europe's best canals in other countries including Romania, Croatia, and Belgium.