The Arundell Arms Hotel in Lifton has seen its sea trout record of more than 40 years broken by Plymouth angler Rob Swan with a fish of 7lb 2oz.

On the final night of the Westcountry Sea Trout Festival, Rob hooked the fish in the River Lyd on a large black fly known as a WMD Stinger.

The sea trout season has been a tough one on the River Lyd with relentless floods and a lack of balmy summer nights. As a result, fishing has been extremely challenging and the fish scattered far and wide, but Rob's dogged persistence paid off on the last night of the festival

Rob said: 'My back aches, I squint continuously in daylight and my family think I'm mad – yeah, it was fantastic. 7lbs 2 oz later it's finally sunk in what a magnificent fish it was —a fish of a lifetime in fact.

'And yes, I did do a little jig up and down the banks of the Lyd which probably scared all other fish for a mile either side for the rest of the night!"'

Arundell Arms fishing instructor Tim Smith was delighted for Rob: 'Sea trout are arguably the hardest fighting fish in UK waters and to control one of this size in a narrow Westcountry river is no mean feat.'

'Our fishermen occasionally hook the big ones, but more often than not the fish wins. Not this time!"

The previous record at the Arundell Arms was a fish of 7lb, caught in the 1960s by the hotel owner at the time, Gerald Fox-Edwards.