This giant fish had the scales shaking for a while before it could be weighed, weighing 118 pounds, 3 ounces (53 kg), almost equal to the weight of a 14-year-old boy.

A stunning lake in the central United States narrowly missed “catastrophe” after a huge fish was pulled from the water before unleashing hell on the local ecosystem.

A fisherman has caught an amazing “alien” fish that was about to cause devastation in the area.Bryan Baker had an extraordinary moment in Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees, Oklahoma, USA, when he pulled a bighead carp out of the water.

The species is invasive and inside there were 11 million eggs that would have caused a “catastrophe” if they had reached the lake ecosystem, destroying the food chain.

The huge fish tipped the scales, weighing 118 pounds, 3 ounces (53 kg), about the same weight as a 14-year-old human.

He said: “I knew straight away it was something like never before. It was the most powerful fish I’ve ever had on my line.

“It looked fake, but it’s not,” says Bryan, photographed with another of his captures (Image: Credit: Pen News/Bryan

“It was unreal; like tying fishing line to a four-wheeled ATV and letting it take off, and trying to slow it down, is almost impossible.”

He added: “It was about a seven-minute battle before I wore it down to the top of the water, where I was able to grab it and pull it into the boat.

“Once it surfaced, I couldn’t believe it.

“I was so relieved that I hit my knees and thanked God; He couldn’t believe she had messed up. He was overwhelmed and exhausted. This is an alien species; “It came from East Asia.”

The record was last broken in 2005 with a 90-pound catch, according to the International Game Fish Association (IGfA), meaning Bryan’s trap has surpassed the record.

Bryan fought for seven minutes to capture the monster fish (Image: Credit: Pen News/Bryan Baker)Missouri State University ichthyology professor Quinton Phelps said, “Based on all the research I’ve done, at least on a hook-and-line basis, this is the world record bighead carp.

“I have held tens of thousands of freshwater fish, and this is without a doubt the largest freshwater fish I have ever seen in person. It seemed fake, but it’s not.”

He estimated that the fish was around 40 years old and that the pregnancy would probably have led to the birth of around 11,000 new carp, and this, he said, was a conservative estimate.

“The really bad part about bighead carp, in particular, is that what they consume is plankton, which is the basic end of the aquatic food web,” he said.

“Every fish at some stage in its life depends on that resource.

“So you can imagine that as the biomass of this invasive planktivore increases, the amount of suitable food used by native fish will decrease.

“And when that happens, it’s catastrophic for the entire food web.”

His catch will not be recorded by the IGfA because he was hooked, not baited.