A FISHERMAN was towed nearly a mile out to sea as he battled with a monster fish.

But it was all worth it as Ryan Turner, 22, managed to drag the huge common skate to the surface, becoming only the tenth person to catch a 100lb-plus fish off from kayak.

Turner, an aeronautical engineer from Lyme Regis, made the 1,000-mile round trip to Oban in Scotland to go extreme fishing with seven other fishermen, with the common skate, a rare breed that can only be found off the west coast of Scotland, firmly in his sights.

Turner had been fishing off his 15-foot ocean kayak for eight days without having much luck, until he managed to snare his prize catch on the last session of his trip.

Turner said: “I’ve always wanted to catch bigger and bigger fish, and that’s why I got into extreme fishing in the first place.

“It was on the last day and the last cast off and I was feeling quite downhearted, so I couldn’t believe I’d caught it.

“It still hasn’t sunk in.”

Turner had to use a 50lb class rod, a hook the size of a human hand and a whole octopus as bait to catch the gigantic specimen.

The fish was estimated to have weighed between 120 and 140lbs, and was 2m long and 1.5m wide.

He had to battle with the fish just to get it to the surface and in doing so it towed him a mile out to sea.

Turner, who broke the Lyme Regis Sea Angling Club record for the biggest inshore catch in landing the skate, added: “After I caught it, because they are like a big ray they just dig in and hold the bottom of the bed.

“I spent about five or 10 minutes just trying to get it off the bottom.

“They live about 450 feet down and it took me about half an hour to get it to the surface.

“When I got it to the surface I had to use my feet to lift it up above the water because my arms were absolutely aching.”