One of the country's biggest ghost carp weighing in at more than 40 pounds has been caught in Watford.

For three years Aaron Foster, a gas engineer from Croxley Green, has been trying to catch a ghost carp, claiming the fish is a “one of a kind find” across the country.

Mr Foster, who goes fishing in his spare time, would find days to go after work to lakes around Colne Valley and book out times to fish at Cassiobury Farm and Fishery in Watford in a bid to try and catch the ghost carp.

He said he has spent several cold nights fishing with no luck, and there were times when he was snowed on or the lake would freeze over making it impossible to fish.

But in the early hours of Friday, January 17 Mr Foster said he felt a “large fish” grab onto his hook as he was out trying to catch the ghost carp in Cassiobury Farm.

The 34-year-old said: “Having been fishing for a while I could tell that I had just caught a big fish and its weight made it hard to get it out of the water.

“When I finally saw the fish, I knew straight away I had just managed to catch the ghost carp and thought ‘I have finally caught it’.”

The ghost carp weighed in at 48.03 pounds, making it one of the largest to be caught in Britain - the largest ghost carp caught in British waters has reached 53 pounds.

Mr Foster was overjoyed after catching the ghost carp, saying it was the "biggest thing" he has achieved during his time fishing.

He added: "I felt amazing after I had managed to catch the carp.

“It is such a huge fish in the lake and is such a rare thing to catch, I think it must have been the largest fish there.

“Anything near 50 pounds is hard and rare to catch, so fisherman and people out fishing may struggle to catch something like this.”

After catching the fish Mr Foster made sure to keep the ghost carp alive by keeping it in a net retainer - and the ghost carp was laid on a padded unhooking mat while it was out of the water.

Constant water was poured over the fish to keep it comfortable.

And after a quick photo with the carp Mr Foster put the fish back in the water and says it is still swimming around the lake.

Have you caught a bigger fish in the town? Let us know by emailing james.cowen@newsquest.co.uk