Record perch taken?

Rumours have been doing the rounds that the British perch record has been smashed – with a breathtaking specimen estimated to weigh 6lb 8oz! 

The mammoth predator is thought to have been landed from a Milton Keynes AA-controlled water, but the captor didn’t weigh the fish and is refusing to go public with his historic catch.

Club official Mike Reveler has seen images of the predator, and he told reporters at the Milton Keynes Citizen: “The head of the fish was larger than the man’s hands – it was a huge perch in superb condition and brightly coloured.”

To add further fuel to the fire, the man’s friend is said to have taken another massive perch weighing 5lb 6oz 8dr during the same session.

Britain's biggest carp denied official record

Britain’s largest carp will not be ratified as an official record because it is a “cultivated fish”.

That is the ruling of the British Record Fish Committee after the mirror known as Big Rig was caught at 69lb 3oz by Tom Doherty at the Avenue in Shropshire.

“It’s a very uneducated decision”

— Rob Hales, Avenue boss

The committee decided the fish had been “grown under an artificial feeding regime close to a weight close to or exceeding the existing species record”. It has subsequently been caught at 71lb 4oz and that weight will not take the record either.

Avenue boss Rob Hales told Angling Times this morning it is a “very uneducated decision”.

He said: “It’s very predictable and I’m not at all surprised. I think that they (BRFC) don’t fully understand the carp-fishing/fishery/growing-fish business. It’s a very uneducated decision. All big carp in this country and elsewhere only get to those weights because they eat high-protein boilies.

“I gather they (BRFC) say it wouldn’t have reached this weight in the natural environment – but the fish is a fish, not a robot.”

BRFC chairman Mike Heylin told Angling Times the fish may still be able to break the record in future.

He said: “I don’t think it’s ruled out forever. If it came out at 85lb and had put on a significant weight in the fishery itself – assuming the fishery isn’t being regularly fed huge amounts of bait – I don’t see why we would be necessarily excluding it forever.”

Rob Hales said: “That’s very interesting. I actually think Big Rig will make 85lb, so it’s a challenge I’m willing to accept. I feed my fish to stop them getting hungry, you can’t force food down their throats.

“In my opinion, whilst it was a predictable decision, I think they’re only delaying the inevitable.”

Mike Heylin confirmed the carp record still exists and would not be split into cultivated and un-cultivated lists. He added: “I’m happy with the outcome, happy we did all we could to look at all the evidence to see if it could be accepted under our terms of reference.

“It’s an awesome piece of fishing, Tom must be over the moon to catch it – I know I would be.”

Britain’s first 70lb carp banked

This is the picture of the UK’s first 70lb carp.

The record-breaking specimen, known as Big Rig, tipped the scales at 71lb 4oz and was caught by Robby Harrison from The Avenue Fishery in Shropshire.

It’s the same fish that recently beat the current British best of 68lb 10oz at a weight of 69lb 3oz, meaning that it’s put on 2lb 1oz since it was caught by Tom Doherty just over six weeks ago.

It’s Robby’s first year on the syndicate and he made carp fishing history when he smashed his own personal best that stood at 41lb with Big Rig that took a balanced 16mm Mainline Hybrid boilie.

“This is like the angling version of winning the lottery,” said Robby, from Liverpool.

“One of my fellow anglers helped me net the fish, but he nudged it with the frame twice and it powered off on both occasions.” 

“I told him to sink the net, but neither of us knew which fish it was so it was the sheer depth of its body that was colliding with the net.

“I didn’t have a head torch, so I didn’t see it straight away, but when I did I was blown away…I’ve never seen anything like it.

It’s a specimen that has been hand-reared by Avenue owner and boss of RH Fisheries Rob Hales, whose intentions of growing record-breaking fish have caused controversy within the sport.

But Robby agrees with others who believe that what Rob does is provide ‘ordinary’ anglers with the chance of catching the carp of their dreams without going abroad.

“I’m just a normal angler who wants to catch the biggest fish that I can,” Robby added. 

“I don’t care what people say because I’ve caught a fish that filled me with emotions and excitement that made me feel like a boy again. Anyone who’s got a problem with that has to remember that it’s just fishing at the end of the day.”

New British carp record at 69lb 13oz

“How I grew the record carp”

From 39lb to 69lb 13oz in three years – here’s the story of how RH Fisheries boss Rob Hales created the UK’s biggest carp

Timeline of ‘Big Rig’ 

2013 Brought in at 39lb and introduced into one of Rob’s growing-on reservoirs, where carefully selected carp are fed a diet of pellets to maximise growth potential. A custom-made, floating feeder introduces these on a timer.
2014 Big Rig attains a weight of 42lb and remains in the reservoir fed on a diet of pellets.
2015 The fish remains in the reservoir for another year, reaching an unrecorded weight
2016 The fish is moved to Rob Hales’ own fish farm where it’s used in a spawning programme to provide future generations of fast-growing carp.
2016 March Following a daily diet of two kilos of boilies and two large scoops of pellets every morning, all hand-fed by Rob, Big Rig reaches a weight of 58lb... and that’s after spawning.
2016  September Big Rig sends shockwaves through the angling world when she sets a new British carp record at 69lb 13oz, caught from The Avenue.
Future Rob is adamant that Big Rig has plenty more growing potential, and her offspring are now being nurtured to provide thousands more fast-growing carp for Rob’s own and other waters. 

This is the picture of the colossal 69lb 13oz carp that smashes the current British record.

The fish, known as Big Rig, was banked by Essex rod Tom Doherty just a few hours after he’d cast out into the Avenue Fishery in Shropshire, and it succeeds the current British best that stands at 68lb 1oz, caught by Dean Fletcher in January this year.

Fishing a Mainline Baits prototype boilie from a swim called Pete’s Point, the 33-year-old not only smashed his personal best of 44lb, but came agonisingly close to breaking the 70lb barrier. 

He did it with a rig constructed from rig components made by PB Products.

“It was only my second time on the fishery and now I’ve caught this giant. It still hasn’t sunk in,” Tom told Angling Times.

“Rob was with me when I was playing the fish, and the fact that we knew it was Big Rig made the fight the most tense that I’ve ever experienced.

“The sight of those huge shoulders coming over the net is something I will never forget. It’s the biggest fish I’ve ever seen.”

The other side to the incredible story is that of Avenue owner and boss of RH Fisheries, Rob Hales.

Ever since he began making UK anglers’ big-fish dreams come true at venues that regularly produce fish over 50lb, he’s been adamant that he would ‘grow’ a British record carp.

And the fruits of his labours have come in the form of the incredible Big Rig – a fish that has benefited from being reared in a reservoir fitted with floating automatic feeding systems. Rob also hand-fed the giant with boilies and pellets at his state-of-the-art fish farm to make his record-breaking bid a reality.

“Myself and everyone at RH Fisheries would like to congratulate Tom on his amazing capture,” said Rob. 

“I always knew that it was possible to grow a British record carp, so it was never a case of ‘if’, but ‘when’.

“This fish was in the fish farm earlier this year, and I’d feed her two kilos of boilies and a couple of big scoops of pellets every morning – but I’m blown away by the fact that she weighed in at 58lb back in March and now she’s fast approaching 70lb.

“There are many out there who criticise what I do, but I don’t care because most of these people don’t know the time, dedication, commitment and passion it takes to rear these fish and grow them on to reach the weights they do.

“I challenge them to come to my facilities and see what it takes, and they might change their minds.

“Anglers used to have to pay lots of money and travel to France in order to catch fish like this, but now you can catch them here in the UK. 

“That’s great for our sport and the angling industry as a whole. More and more anglers want to catch carp, the bigger the better. That’s a fact.”

Rob is now nurturing thousands of Big Rig’s offspring, some of which he intends to grow on and stock into his own day-ticket fisheries. Others will be sold to carp fisheries across the UK.

“Growing big fish is very unpredictable, but to get stock from an incredible specimen like this is very exciting,” said Rob.

“Who knows how big she will grow in the future? The same goes for her offspring.”

• The fish was weighed on two sets of scales, and has been verified at 69lb 13oz. A record claim is being submitted.

River Trent match record shaken

"If I hadn’t broken around 20 hooklinks on the snags I would have smashed the river record out of sight,” said match fishing ace Paul Goulding, following an amazing contest on the Trent.

As it was, Paul still came agonisingly close to the five-hour target when he banked a catch weighing 177lb 7oz.

He was fishing a swim that he described as being ‘four feet deep with five feet of fish’ during a contest on the famous waterway at Holme Marsh.

The classic combination of a groundbait feeder teamed with a worm hookbait saw him hook a fish on his very first cast, and from the on the Daiwa Dons angler from Worksop never looked back.

“I knew I was on the right peg, especially when I netted 10 bream in as many casts. I was even getting bites before the feeder had a chance to hit the deck,” Paul told Angling Times.

“It was absolutely incredible. This guy carrying a deck chair came up and parked himself behind me. He told me he fishes the river all the time, and he said ‘you don’t mind if I sit behind you, do you?’ 

“I said ‘not at all, but can you do me a favour and go and borrow another net off of someone… and he kindly did just that.”

But it wasn’t all plain sailing for Paul, as an underwater snag cost the loss of what he estimates to be more than 20 fish

Had he landed those he would have smashed the current five-hour River Trent record that stands at 192lb 8oz and was taken by Mick Vials in August last year.

Despite the frustration,Paul stuck with his trusty feeder rig in throughout the match in order to keep the bites coming. 

It consisted of a 6lb Daiwa mainline, a 4lb hooklink and a size 14 Drennan Super Spade.

A feeder packed with groundbait and chopped worms with a single dendrobaena on the hook saw him land more than 50 bream in the incredible catch, which is his biggest ever from a river.

“There’s no doubt in my mind I would have had over 250lb if I hadn’t had to contend with that snag, but how can you complain about a day’s fishing like that?” Paul continued.

“The guy who sat behind me who I talked about earlier said he’d never seen anything like it before, and I speak for both of us when I say that neither of us probably ever will again.”

Dean Fletcher's 68lb 1oz carp is ratified as a record

The British Record Fish Committee has ratified the country’s first new carp record in eight years – and says it’s doing all it can to speed up future claims.
Dean Fletcher has been presented with a certificate to confirm his capture of the Parrot at 68lb 1oz, eclipsing Oz Holness’s 67lb 8oz record set in August 2008.
However, Dean told Angling Times the five-month wait between landing the fish and having it confirmed as the record was “absolute rubbish”.
The Berkshire greengrocer said: “The fish has been caught three times since I had it, and I was just lucky that I took it at its peak weight. If I’d caught it at a record weight in November rather than January I could be the official record-holder but someone might already have beaten it. It makes sense to verify the record as soon as possible, especially with carp, that can fluctuate in weight.”
Dean submitted his record claim within days of catching the Wasing Estate mirror and got his scales officially checked less than a fortnight later, but the British Record Fish Committee meets only twice a year to rubber stamp new records.   
He said: “I think it’s absolute rubbish. They said it was up to me to get the scales verified and they would get the stuff done as quickly as possible, but then said they wouldn’t be having a meeting until June.
“It doesn’t take too much to get a few people in a room one evening. I think the record should be confirmed as soon as the scales are verified.”
They said: Mike Heylin, chairman of the BRFC, said he sympathised with the frustrations but said that committee members come from all over Britain and cannot be brought together every time there is a new claim.
“We were really pleased to approve this record as it’s a new fish after Two Tone had bounced in and out of the records,” said Mike.
“In this instance, the freshwater sub-committee communicates electronically so there was a provisional record within a couple of weeks before the whole committee met to make it official. It used to be all done by post, and could take forever.”
Mike said scales checks caused most delays and cited the dwindling number of councils offering the service, the use of metric weights to test imperial scales and the frequent failure of officials to follow the BRFC’s strict procedures as key factors.
He added: “If I could find another way of doing it I’d bite the hand off the person who offered it. We are getting the claim process to where we want it to be, with a provisional record accepted within two or three weeks.”