Martin Gay's 50lb English Common Carp: Closure.

[Mark]

Tonight I was looking for my pike book by Martin Gay and decided to google his name to see what other books he had written when I stumbled across this article.

https://www.fishingmagic.com/martin-gay ... p-closure/

This is the first time I had ever heard of this but from what I have read in the link I think it was and English carp.

[Olly]

We will never know for sure!

At the time very very strange!!

[Tengisgol]

Oh my word did this cause furore at the time!

[Liphook]

It's precisely such antics of the modern carp scene that put me right off

[RBTraditional]

I remember that saga all too well.... it was like Groundhog Day....the controversy went on and on and on....that’s the trouble with the carp scene, much jealousy and skullduggery! I believe Martin caught those fish but wanted to protect them from being overfished....

[Marmelade]

I remember that....but I also remember as a kid someone giving me a dacron carp rig saying that the guy that had tied it had caught a 40lb plus carp in the region. This was in the Derbyshire/Yorkshire region and 33 years ago, so undreamt of. It was a poor rig really but he wouldn`t say where this fish was. Quite a few years later I was walking around a National Trust property I knew nothing about when I saw two fish around the 45lb mark....so you never know..

[Marmelade]

Just looked at the photos again. They`re a little small to see clearly. Apart from his dress the one thing I would question is the terrain. Some of the conifer like grass in the black and white photo looks a bit unusual.

[Ian.R.McDonald]

Martin was a lovely man and along with John Reed, one of my pike fishing heroes.

A sad event which would have been even worse now with " social media"

[Marmelade]

A commons only water in the UK? one that`s not private but has limited access? lol.....controversial....I have my secrets too..

25 years ago I fished a farm pond that the old Jackanory of a farmer was adamant contained a common of 38lbs. I fished it through horrendous weather. Winter nights where the net froze solid. It was an exposed water this...horrible. Never once saw that fish, but practically emptied the place. It`s very hard to hide big fish..

[GregF]

I believe Martin caught those fish but wanted to protect them from being overfished....

I believe that too.

A sad event which would have been even worse now with " social media"

Yes, the flak he received must've been bad enough for him as it was. Facebook would have been intolerable.