A war of words has broken out between Sky Sports' fishing expert and two Kiwi brothers who claim to have caught a huge trout in Putney.

A month ago we reported on the 10.2lb "monster" trout caught by brothers Dave and Ivan Shannon on Putney Embankment on January 24.

News of the haul reached Sky Sports' fishing expert Keith Arthurs, host of angling programme Tight Lines, who immediately poured scorn on the catch - claiming it had come straight out of a freezer.

But the brothers have hit back challenging the TV expert to a "good old fashioned" Kiwi fishing competition to prove their catch was genuine.

Mr Shannon said: "We have other photos, if you want proof I can send you one when we got the thing home.

"Tell old boy Arthur to grab his gear and I'll show him how to become a real fishing expert - I'd put money on it my 83-year-old granddad has caught bigger trout in the last week than Arthur's got in his life.

"It may have been an hour or so before the picture was taking but it did bring a camera down to Thames.

"But no, I didn't get it out of the freezer, grab my fishing gear and catch the tube to Putney bridge with a dead trout."

Responding to the brothers' suggestion, Mr Arthurs said: "If they caught the fish from the Thames - and I have caught several rainbow and brown trout from the tidal Thames, both up and downstream of Putney, so it isn't impossible, just highly unlikely - it had been dead for several days and wrapped in clingfilm in a fridge or freezer before they took its picture.

"There is no angler alive who has ever caught a rainbow trout who would suggest that fish is fresh."

However Phil D'Anvers, a professional trout and salmon fisherman, said: "Any trout that you catch that has been in the river for more than a few weeks gets that dirty look.

"Usually we call them resident fish, which means they live in the river. When you first pull them out of the river they are slightly darker then after an hour or so they go even a few shades darker."

and an independent witness, Mary Coppereti, who was walking her dog at the time, has come forward to back up the brothers' claim. She said: "I watched the young man and his friend pull the fish in. There was about six or seven of us standing around by the time he got it in."