A WHOPPING lobster with claws twice the size of a man's hand

has been caught in the city on a single fishing line.

Neil Ridley, aged 43, a self-employed plumber from Saltash,

caught the 'beast', which weighed in at 4.25 kilos,(9 1/2 lbs),

off West Hoe pier at around 6pm on Sunday.

The male lobster was caught on Neil's rod during a regular

fishing jaunt with friends. He is now enjoying the company of

other lobsters in a tank at the kitchen of the Waterfront

restaurant.

But the story does not end with the lobster going in the

chef's pot.

Neil, who had cast out his line about 100 metres, said: “It

wouldn't even fit in a cooking pot. I couldn't take it home

with me, my wife would freak!”

"embedded=true&config=http%3a%2f%2fmedia.thisisplymouth.co.uk%2fTSPlayer%2fJSON.aspx%3fid%3d4511%26embedded%3dtrue"

menu="false" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"

quality="high" bgcolor="#C1C9E0" src=

"http://media.thisisplymouth.co.uk/tsplayer/videoplayer.swf"

type="application/x-shockwave-flash">

Neil donated the lobster, which is said to be around

35-years-old, to the restaurant, who planned to auction it off

to raise funds for the RNLI.

But after being contacted by The Herald, Plymouth's National

Marine Aquarium stepped in and offered to match any bid, saying

they will release it back to the wild if their bid is

successful.

Paul Cox, head of science and learning at the aquarium,

said: “Big ones like this turn up every four to five years, but

it's unusual to catch one this big, this close to the sea wall,

and on a line.

“It would be great to get this old boy back out to the

sea.”

Neil described he battled for ten minutes to reel the

'monster' in. He added: “I've been fishing for years and I just

thought my rod was caught on some weed because the line was

tight.”

Steve Bowen, who co-owns the Waterfront restaurant with Nic

Barber, said: “We were pleasantly surprised at the size of him,

it's the largest lobster we have ever been offered.

“He would feed four people, and be worth about £170 to buy.

We are hoping to raise more than that for charity. We don't

want to bankrupt the aquarium, but it'll be great to see how

high the stakes can be raised.”

The auction is provisionally planned for a week today. Until

then the lobster's future is in the balance.