AT 12-years-old, Kara Bridges is already hooked on fishing and now she has landed a catch that most anglers can only dream of. The schoolgirl netted a mirror carp weighing an incredible 62lb 10oz on a fishing trip with her father to France.

AT 12-years-old, Kara Bridges is already hooked on fishing and now she has landed a catch that most anglers can only dream of.

The schoolgirl netted a mirror carp weighing an incredible 62lb 10oz on a fishing trip with her father to France.

The huge fish, which took 20 minutes to land, would sell on the open market for up to £10,000.

Bacton Middle School pupil Kara, from Cotton, near Stowmarket, was all smiles after landing the fish in a valley lake surrounded by woodland 15 miles from Paris.

She posed for a picture to record the amazing catch before releasing the fish back into the waters.

“I was really excited, at first I thought it was a tiny fish, but when dad picked him up in the net he nearly collapsed,” she said.

“It was a whopper, I was really happy, I thought, what have I done? I had a huge smile on my face.

“I have told my best friends at school. I will try and get even bigger ones now - my dad is helping me learn about it all. It is not a long fish, but really deep. It was a really big one.”

Proud father Keith Bridges, an HGV driver who has been taking his daughter carp fishing for five years after his father introduced him to the sport, said: “It took Kara about 20 minutes to land, and she had a big smile on her face afterwards.

“Her fish was weighed and verified by the French, it is a very big fish, although not a world record.

“But because of her age, and because she is a girl, I would not have thought anyone else would have achieved this and I did not assist her at all playing the fish.”

He added: “I am amazed at her achievement and very proud of her. I have taken part in competitions but she has now caught a bigger fish than her dad now, which she keeps reminding me about.”

Mr Bridges said he hoped his daughter will take up the sport professionally later in life, making a living from her hobby.

Locally a carp was caught in the River Gipping in Ipswich a few years ago, weighing in at 46lb 4oz, and the same lake in France where Kara caught her fish has yielded a 70lb fish, said Mr Bridges.