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.”

Rob Hales: “I’m growing more records”

Big Rig’s origins

The record carp was bought at a weight between 30lb and 39lb in 2011 from Fenland Fisheries, Cambridgeshire, whose boss Mike Hawes says that it was legally imported from Israel in 2009.

The carp, and three others of the Dor-70 strain, was purchased by Rob Hales and transported to his Shropshire HQ. To find out more visit: www.rhfisheries.com

For more on Fenland Fisheries, call 01487 841858.

Record weight

Big Rig was weighed on two sets of scales. One gives it a weight of 69lb 13oz, but Rob will make the 69lb 3oz record claim on readings from a set of 120lb Reuben Heaton Specimen Hunter scales.

Rob Hales is without doubt the most talked about UK fishery boss in the UK after his Shropshire venue The Avenue produced the 69lb 3oz British record carp. 

The fish, Big Rig, was hand reared by the RH Fisheries owner and specifically grown to become Britain’s biggest-ever carp...dividing opinion within the sport.

As the dust settles on one of the most controversial captures of recent times, Angling Times caught up with Rob to gain an insight into the world of big carp.

You bought Big Rig at 39lb as one of a hand-selected group of fish. Do you have any other carp from this batch in your lakes? 

When I bought Big Rig she was one of a group of fish that were all bigger than she was, with amazing potential to grow huge.
I bought those too. 

All my lakes contain fish-of-a-lifetime and I just keep adding to them, giving more anglers a shot at the fish of their dreams.

How big do you think carp can get in a UK water? 

I think Big Rig has the potential to reach 75lb… possibly more. 

But there’s no doubt that a quality strain of carp in the right environment could break the 80lb barrier. 

In my opinion that’s great for carp fishing in the country and the fishing industry as a whole.

You use state-of-the-art feeders set on timers to optimise the growth of carp at some of your waters. What does this cost?

I can spend up to £15,000 on feed for just one lake during the course of a year. 

This includes pellets and medicated boilies just before the winter which keep the fish in top condition throughout the colder months. 

I’ve put 100 kilos of these boilies into one of our lakes in the last week alone. This is what it takes.

What is your message to those people who say that purposely growing carp to break records is wrong?

People must think that all I do is buy big fish and force-feed them bait until they reach massive weights. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The fish I buy and raise are from the highest quality strains. People don’t understand how much time, dedication and hard work it takes to grow so many huge carp. Anglers want to catch big fish and I meet this demand. 

Those who criticise this need to wake up, because it’s fisheries like mine that hold the future for the British carp record. 

Were you surprised by some of the negative reactions after the capture of Big Rig?

Not really. Sadly, it’s often the uneducated minority that tend to spout off and don’t realise the harm they can do. 

The national papers picked up on this and all the coverage did was to paint angling and anglers in a very bad light. 

Some of the comments that were aimed at the captor, Tom, were shocking and those responsible should be very ashamed of themselves. They should take up another sport.

Did you regret the way in which the record story played out?

The only thing I would have done differently was not to speak to the daily papers, because it ’s now clear that they didn’t want a good fishing story.

Instead they focused on all the negativity that came from small-minded and, in some cases, vicious individuals. 

At the end of the day a great guy caught the biggest carp in the country and it’s an achievement that should be celebrated, not denigrated.

Is the demand for catching big, commercially-stocked carp still on the rise?

The appetite among anglers for catching huge carp is just getting bigger and bigger. There’s no sign of this trend slowing down at all.

Have you and your team been inundated since the capture of Big Rig?

Put it this way, our website usually gets around 350 hits a day. Since Big Rig was caught we’ve had over 5,000 a day.

It’s crazy – the phone hasn’t stopped ringing and our email boxes have been filling up fast.

Now you’ve grown the biggest carp in the UK, what comes next for RH Fisheries?  

To continue to provide huge carp for UK anglers. It’s my passion. We now have thousands of Big Rig’s offspring that all have the potential to grow to massive proportions. 

Not only will I grow and nurture these fast-growing carp for my own waters, but I will sell them to other venues so they will have carp bearing the genes of this record-breaking carp.

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.