AN ANGLER reeled in a massive 9ft catfish after a gruelling 50-minute battle.

Jakub Vagner, 43, hauled in the epic catch just south of Prague, in the Czech Republic – setting a new national record.

The celebrity angler was drifting past a rocky overhang in the Vranov Reservoir, on August 4, when he spotted the giant fish gliding below in the early morning light.

He cast his custom-made rod towards it and waited.

“Ten minutes passed and nothing happened. Suddenly, it turned and went straight into my trap,” Jakub said.

What followed was “the hardest battle I have ever had with a catfish in the Czech Republic”, he continued.

The fish put up such a fight that Jakub had to call in a friend to help him hold onto the rod.

“After almost 50 minutes, it was lying half-tired next to my boat. I was shaking, completely done,” the angler said.

He released the record-breaking fish back into the water after posing with it for photographs.

Jakub explained: “At 2.68 metres (8.8ft) in length, it’s four centimetres (1.6in) longer than the one I caught last year.

“This is one of the biggest catfish I’ve ever seen in Europe.”

Pictures show the Fish Warrior TV host, aired on the National Geographic Channel, standing in the shallows with the enormous catfish.

The 8.8ft whopper was “not only long, but also brutally tall and broad… a beautiful, almost flawless fish with the potential to grow even bigger”, Jakub said.

He added that catching big fish is all about “morale, dedication and determination” – and stressed he never kills his catches, releasing them so they can keep growing.

It comes after another angler landed a monster 20-stone catfish in Italy following a 45-minute fight to reel it in.

Dramatic images show Benjamin Grunder, 37, wrestling with the catch of a lifetime on the banks of the River Po.

At first, he thought his hook had snagged a submerged tree, but the sheer weight revealed it was a huge fish.

The German angler finally hauled in the 8ft 8in Wels catfish – the largest freshwater species in Europe – estimating its weight at 20 stone.

That fish was also released back into the water safe and sound.