A man who hoped to land in the record book for netting what was thought to be the biggest salmon caught off British waters went home disappointed, because there was no scale to weigh his catch.

According to a local paper, the giant fish measured 56 inches long, 50 inches round and could have been more than 64 lbs enough to break the 85-year old record set by Georgina Ballantyne in 1922 with a fish she hooked in Perthshire.

However, the only available weighing scale in the area could only weigh up to 30 lbs.

"I have never come across a fish like that before," said Ghillie Grant Sutherland who witnessed the catch in the River Ness near Inverness. "We couldn't weigh it because we didn't have scales big enough."

"All I can say is it was the biggest fish I've seen, by a mile.

Sutherland said the man who caught the giant fish took about 45 minutes to land his catch

While the anglers sent photos of the monster catch to marine experts in the hope they may be able to estimate the weight, David Rowe, secretary of the British Fish Record Committee, immediately doused cold water on their dream record saying the fish has to be weighed on certified scales.

"You cannot estimate the British record," said Rowe.