IT IS the fishy equivalent of Steve McQueen's motorbike leap to freedom in movie classic The Great Escape.
Brown trout have been jumping more than 3ft into the air to break out of their Hampshire pond.
They have been using a water pipe as a makeshift tunnel to gain their liberty in the River Itchen.
The brown trout are bred in large numbers at the fish farm near Alresford, but in a bid to find a bit more room in which to grow, some of the fish have been leaping into the mouth of the 8in wide pipes.
From there they battle the current up the pipe before emerging into watercress beds.
The pipe feeds four ponds at the farm with fresh water from a stream 30ft away, helping to aerate the pond water.
David Riley, owner of Hampshire Trout Farms, said he would be extremely surprised if more than one or two fish were making it through.
He said: "I have been a farmer here for about 30 years and I've never seen a fish make it to the other side."
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