Engineers working on a stoppage to repair Watford Locks on the Leicester Line got a surprise when they found a monster 8lb 2oz eel lurking at the bottom of the drained canal.

Engineers working on a stoppage to repair Watford Locks on the Leicester Line got a surprise when they found a monster 8lb 2oz eel lurking at the bottom of the drained canal.

Canal & River Trust fisheries boss Becca Dent described the discovery as “amazing” and said it within 3lb of the biggest eel ever caught on a line in the UK. It’s probably around 50 years since it hatched in the Sargasso Sea and made its way across 4000 miles of the Atlantic to Britain.

With help from specialists MEM Fisheries the giant eel was caught and safely transferred to another length of canal.

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