Plumber grabs huge cod with bare hands By Dan Goater <mailto:daniel.goater@dorsetecho.co.uk>
COD ALMIGHTY: Jayne Mitchell with her dogs Jessie and Portia and the huge cod they helped catch off Chesil
A PLUMBER caught a 20lb cod... with his bare hands.
Stephen Mitchell, 48, had taken two of his six pet golden retrievers, Jessie and Portia, on their usual 6am walk when he noticed them splashing around and going crazy' in shallow waters near Pirates' Cove, off Chesil Beach, in Weymouth He discovered the dogs were chasing around after a huge cod that was floundering in the shallows and pushing it closer and closer to the shore.
After a few attempts Mr Mitchell, of Hillbourne Road, Wyke Regis, managed to grab the fish with his bare hands and hurried home to show his wife the catch.
Mr Mitchell's wife Jayne, a teaching assistant at Wyke Regis Junior School, was woken by her husband telling her to come and have a look at the catch.
She said: "I was still in bed and Stephen came bursting in saying: "come and look at this", so I went downstairs and saw this absolutely huge fish."
Mrs Mitchell, 49, says she plans to cook the fish, which Mr Mitchell opened up to ensure it was not diseased, for the family and dogs. She said: "I expect we'll chop it up into steaks, but we'll have to freeze some of it down, it's that big.
"Our dogs like fish and so do our two sons but I doubt if I'll have any of it.
"I'm sure it will be delicious."
Mr Mitchell, an experienced fisherman, gutted the cod immediately after bringing it home, suspecting it may have been so close to shore because it was ill.
He said: "I opened it up and its organs are fine, so I know it's not diseased.
"The dogs always run into the water and splash around, but I could see from the way they were running up and down they had found something.
"I went over and saw this absolutely huge fish and, after a couple of tries, I managed to catch it."
Duncan Stewart, manager of Weymouth Angling Society, said the fish might have been caught in the shallows and unable to return to deeper waters.
He said: "It's a remarkable feat and I congratulate him.
"In fishing terms it's the equivalent of winning five lottery roll-overs in a row."
