Angler catches 9lb cod in the Thames and has it for his tea

Angler Rick Hodson hooked the biggest fish of his life when he landed a 9lb cod during a competition to check the size and variety of species in the Thames.

He caught the giant fish - which he took home for dinner - during an annual experiment to determine the health of the river.

Mr Hodson, who was declared the winner of the City of London Corporation’s competition, said it was the biggest fish he had ever caught in the 38 years he has been fishing on the foreshore at Denton, near Gravesend.

Saturday’s event saw anglers land two pouting, three dab, 24 flounder and 520 whiting. Organisers say the survey is “inexact” because of the varying number of anglers year to year but the indications are that the health of the Thames is continuing to improve.

The Thames Fishery Research Experiment is now in its 40th consecutive year and catalogues the number and size of fish caught each year.

The experiment was first in 1966 by the Thames Angling Preservation Society, when more than 500 participants caught 578 fish.

The experiment was repeated in 1970 and the City of London became interested in 1971, with the first experiment arranged jointly in 1973.

Over the last 25 years, more than 100 different species of fish have been recorded or spotted in the river, including roach, perch, pike and carp. Last year’s haul included dogfish and eel.

Organisers say the water is a vast improvement on conditions in the 1950s and 1960s, when anybody falling into the Thames would be placed in quarantine.

Mr Hodson, 67, a retired insurance broker from Benfleet in Essex, said: “It was just a lucky fish. I wasn’t fishing for it - I was after whiting.

“I got it third cast. It was about 10am. I brought it into the side and the guy ran over to get it. He held the line and as he pulled it, the fish came off the hook. He had to jump on it. It was slipping back into the water. I wouldn’t have been too happy if I’d lost it.”

He caught the fish with a lugworm on his hook. “Ever since I have been fishing in that competition, I have not heard of any fish any bigger than a 9lb cod.”

He brought it home and managed to get four fillets out of the fish. He will have it for tea later this week with his wife Shirley. But he won’t have it with chips.

“We will have it with boiled potatoes and some peas,” he said. “We have fish and chips at the fish shop.”