MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: A strange fish in Macclesfield Canal

It`s always pleasant to be able to report a cryptozoology or Fortean story from  my home town of Macclesfield. You may well quote the sceptics comment to Jesus “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” or “can anything of Fortean worth come out of Macclesfield?” Well,obviously,yes,as in the mystery black helicopters scare of the 1970s, and wallabies near by etc.

So the Macclesfield Express of June 22^nd 2016 contained a letter from R.W. Hughes of Congleton under the headline CANAL FIND WAS A GIANT (FISH – word missing )

Recently my wife and I were travelling along the Macclesfield canal on our narrowboat `Aurthora Celtic Prince.` At bridge 64 near Macclesfield I noticed a massive dead fish in the water which I managed to pull to the bank,and my wife Susan took a photograph which I enclose ( paper contains the photo which shows a brown fish with a hint of orange – R).

Not being an angler I don`t know what breed of fish this is, but I am sure some of your readers can enlighten me. The size of the fish was 24 inches by 8 inches wide, weight 26lb. This monster had been in the water for some time as it was beginning to decompose, I would be interested to also know what age a fish like this could reach. As an observation, from Bosley locks until Marple junction there is (sic) over 20 miles of canal without locks, a vast length of water capable of supporting a fish of this size*.

I thought this may be of interest to your readers.

RW Hughes

* I happen to know the Macclesfield Canal supports quite large crayfish. I asked for more information on the Macclesfield Express Facebook page but got no replies.