Norwich carp angler Kevin Bennett is celebrating the biggest catch of his life - a giant 54lb 4oz common that could be the biggest of its kind to have been caught in Norfolk.

Norwich carp angler Kevin Bennett is celebrating the biggest catch of his life - a giant 54lb 4oz common that could be the biggest of its kind to have been caught in Norfolk. The 43-year-old landed the specimen in the pouring rain, just 24 hours after breaking personal best with a 30:02 common. It was taken from a Norfolk syndicate lake, the exact location of which is not being revealed, on homemade boilie. “It looks like it's an unknown fish, one that has never been caught before,” said Bennett, a self-employed glazier.

The carp came on the second night of a session that began on Friday and ended on Sunday morning. “The alarm gave me two little drop-backs and I thought I had one of the big catfish on,” he said. “It wasn't long before I realised it was a common. It took me five or 10 minutes to land but it didn't thrash around like some of the smaller ones do, it was just sheer strength.”

His previous best had been a 28lb common, a mark that he broke on the Friday, but it was an 18lb 3oz mirror that might just have led him on to bigger things.

“I hadn't had a fish from seven o'clock on Friday night to about five o'clock on the Saturday when I landed the mirror,” he said. “That persuaded me to stay on because it was around five o'clock the previous day that they'd started getting interested. The big one came at about 11.15pm.

“It's the first time I have ever caught anything of this size - and I have carp fished for a long, long time, probably the best part of 20 years.”

The British record for a common carp is 64lb 5oz.