This is the mack-nificent moment an angler snared the biggest mackerel caught in 30 years in British waters.

The huge cannibal fish measured almost 2ft long and weighed 4lbs - four times the size and weight of the average Atlantic mackerel.

The specimen was caught by Luke Biddiscombe who was hoping to catch bream using a fillet of mackerel as bait.

He was stunned when he reeled the seizable catch in and spotted the distinctive silver scales and black stripes of a mackerel.

Experienced boat skipper Josh Simmonds said it was the biggest mackerel he has seen in 30 years of angling.

It was caught about half-a-mile off Portland, Dorset.

Luke, a 28-year-old plumbing and heating engineer from Gillingham, Dorset, said: "I felt like something was on my hook as soon as I dropped it in so I started reeling in and then the rod began to bend.

"We were actually fishing for black bream so I thought I had one of those so I was amazed when this giant mackerel came out instead.

"When I saw it I thought 'what the hell is that? I'd never seen anything like it."

Lucky Luke still has the fish in his freezer at home but is looking forward to putting it on the barbecue soon.

He said: "I still have the fish. I took it home, gutted it out and now it's sitting in my freezer.

"I'm looking forward to eating it but I think I'll wait a little while because at the moment everyone who comes over wants to take a look.

"When the time comes there should be enough meat on it for four people to enjoy a good-sized fillet."

Luke landed the catch on board a Weymouth charter boat called Fish-On!

Skipper Josh, 43, said: "I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Luke pull the monster mackerel out of the water.

"It's the biggest I have ever seen in 30 years of fishing - it's weirdly large.

"It was so big that I had to put it into a net to get it on board, which I've never had to do for a mackerel before.

"We were beside ourselves dancing round the deck with excitement."

The Atlantic mackerel - Scomber scombrus in Latin - is common in the English Channel, northern Atlantic and Mediterranean.

The record for an Atlantic mackerel was set in 1984 when one weighing 6lbs 2oz was caught off Cornwall.