HAS THE UK CARP RECORD BEEN BROKEN AGAIN?
A BORN-and-bred British mirror has reportedly been landed at 68lb 10oz, making it a contender for a new national record.
Just as Angling Times was going to press, rumours surfaced that the fish had been landed from Chertsey Lake in Surrey. If verified, it would beat the existing record by 9oz.
It is thought that the fish is the same one as landed by Terry Hearn at 51lb 4oz in 20011.
The potential new record was bred by Mark Simmonds, who revealed that he stocked the fish into the 15-acre venue 22 years ago.
He told Angling Times: “I got a text message this morning saying ‘congratulations, a Chertsey fish just did the British record’. I said ‘wow!’ and made a number of inquiries and the weight I got was 68lb 10oz.”
The current official British record remains Dean Fletcher’s 68lb 1oz capture of the Parrot from Wasing, after a claim for the 69lb 10oz mirror known as Captain Jack (from Holme Fen) was officially denied this week.
Mark Simmonds added: “I just hope it’s correct. It would be fantastic for the record to be a born-and-bred fish from the UK. Even the parents were born in the UK. To show that English fish in an English lake can do 70lb - that would be phenomenal.”
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“I hope it’s correct. It would be fantastic for the record to be a born-and-bred fish from the UK.”