The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

I have been trawling through the internet looking for British record carp pre 1980 and have gone back from Chris Yates record carp in 1980 to 1902.

Do any of you chaps have any information pre 1902.

1902, 26th Sep - Otto Overbeck, Common 17.8lbs from Croxby pond.
1916, 6th Sept - John Andrews, Mirror 20.3lb from Cheshunt Reservoir.
1926, 14th Aug - E.Wyatt, Mirror 21lb 10oz from Warren Pond.
1930, 24th Jul - Albert Buckley, Mirror 26lb from Mapperley Reservoir.
1951, 3rd Oct - Bob Richards, Mirror 31.4lbs from Redmire Pool.
1952, 13th Sep - Richard Walker, Common 44lb from Redmire Pool.
1980, 16th Jun - Chris Yates, Mirror 51.8lb from Redmire Pool.

Kevin Clifford's A History of Carp Fishing contains a list of 'early references to big carp' on pages 30 & 31.
This goes back to 1739, and prior to Otto Overbeck's 1902 17lber there are numerous larger fish over 20lbs, although some were 'netted' and some have incomplete descriptions.
Others include:
1779 - 15 1/2lbs - 'John Batten's Master'.
1872 - 22lbs - Weston Park, Shropshire.
1883 - 20lbs - River Thames at Wallingford.
1894 - 18lbs 1oz - W. Eady, Private lake at Winsdor.
1895 - 16lbs - HB Bowden-Smith, Milford Lake, Highdene.
1899 - 23lbs 1oz - J Holden, Broadwater Pond, Surrey.

I recall reading somewhere, and hopefully Chris Ball can confirm, of a story that I'm sure he penned about a large set-up/cased carp that he was offered that mysteriously came from Herefordshire or even Ross-on-Wye. If I remember rightly if that fish had come from Redmire, as Chris suspected it might, it would throw the known records out a little. I always wanted to know more as I liked the idea of the unknown record carp and that it may well have been a Redmire fish. Perhaps this is detailed in the carp history books – it's years since I've read them.

Edit,
I think apologies may be in order to Chris Ball as it might actually be Chris Stanford (spelling) who was offered this cased fish. To confirm, if this fish had been as large as the weight recorded on the casing suggests and the date of capture was accurate then it would have been the British Record.

It might have been Chris Sandford, as he's a known collector of antique gear and cased fish...

Yes, that's the chap.

Wasn't there a story about Norman or Martin Symonds catching a record carp from their lake at Homersfield and not claiming it? I'm sure I read that somewhere. No idea of the weight or when it was though.

GregF wrote:Wasn't there a story about Norman or Martin Symonds catching a record carp from their lake at Homersfield and not claiming it? I'm sure I read that somewhere. No idea of the weight or when it was though.

Having done a bit of searching, It appears I got this slightly wrong. The carp (a mirror) was caught from their Fisher's Green lake not the one at Homersfield. It was 1976, Martin Symonds was the captor and the fish weighed 45lb 12ozs. The story and photograph appeared in the Anglers Mail and the Angling Times, and both reported the weight as 42lb 12ozs (the weight was deliberately understated by the captor). So it appears that this was the fish which broke Dick Walker's long-standing record. It's not entirely clear but it does seem that Martin went on to catch others from this venue which were even bigger.

I'll have something interesting to add to this next week.

Otto Overbeck ? What a great name ! Can he be an Honorary Member ?

I find all the intrigue about 'record' fish caught but not claimed a tad frustrating. I like to look at a series of figures and think 'Yep, that's how the record progressed', but then somebody throws a spanner in the works and says 'Ah, but so and so caught this fish and shat fish and they al beat the record..." It does mu head in.

The grapevine has reported a possible record barbel (sorry, can't say any more just yet), but it won't be claimed as the guy that caught it didn't have a license - the blaggard. If the fish was genuine (and we've heard tales like this so many times), it would be a significant fish and should be recorded for the benefit of angling history.

Either that or do away with records all together.