Flood waters deliver up the catch of the day

Visitors to the Carnie family farm will one day marvel at the size of the brown trout mounted on the wall. But there's something fishy about this catch.

No rod was used to hook this 12kg whopper. This fish of the day served itself up to the Carnie family.

Brian Carnie was surveying flood damage on his family's Mataura Island farm on Boxing Day with daughter Renee, 3, when he came across the monster in a paddock, about 20m from the Mataura River.

"I realised what it was because it was lying in a bit of a hollow and there were quite a few sticks around it.

"I thought 'that's a big bugger'. I got up beside it and it was a monster all right. It's the biggest fish I've ever seen. My father's been fishing all his life and he's never seen a fish that size. It's one out of the box."

His daughter simply said: "Wow."

The biggest fish his father, Wilson Carnie, had managed in years on the Mataura was a 3.6kg brown trout.

Because the fish had been out of the water so long, the Carnie family decided the only thing to do was have it mounted. It will likely grace Mr Wilson Carnie's home.

In January, Timaru man Gary Anderson landed a 16.72kg brown trout at the Tekapo canal in South Canterbury.