BEN Midgley doesn't have to tell tall stories about the one that got away - he has the picture to prove that he netted a 40 pound carp in the Sea of Galilee, the sea of miracles.

The 33-year-old from Suffolk Road, Andover, a member of the Elim Church, runs a travel company specialising in Christian pilgrimages and tours. On this occasion, with the Rev Stephen Sizer of Guildford, he was leading a tour of 25 theological students to the Holy Land. Standing at the place of the miracle of the fishes at Lake Galilee he remembers he prayed for God to send a little fish as a visual aid.

"I shot up a prayer saying 'Lord, give us a fish that I can show my students and a few minutes later a colleague called that a huge fish had been swept onto the beach by overnight storms.

"It was over 40 pounds and I had to use all my strength to hold it up."