Reports in the latest issue of Angling Times suggest a new record crucian carp has been landed by Adam Brookbanks at a weight yet to be confirmed by scales checks but looks likely to be anywhere between 2oz and perhaps 6oz above the current official BRFC record of 4lb 12oz.
Details will be confirmed in due course and I for one offer my congratulations to the captor and potential new record holder. Sad then that some less generous folk on social media are already dismissing the fish and claiming it doesn’t count as a ‘proper’ record because it was landed by an angler they regard as not deliberately targeting the species.
How utterly petty. Or perhaps I should say jealous.
Do folk actually understand what a British Rod Caught Record Fish is in this digital age we live in? It is the heaviest fish of a given species caught by fair means on rod and line. That is it. End of. The fish is the record, not the captor.
Once confirmed, authenticated, scales checked and witness statements accepted by the Committee, it will duly enter the record list.
All the ah-buts and deniers can then crawl back where they came from. It is a fish we should celebrate not decry. It is the very fact that a record can one day be claimed from a water not previously recognised as having the potential, by an unknown angler or even a schoolkid that gives record fish captures their mystique, their magic. I never want to see a day when records are reserved for a select few anglers repeatedly catching the same known fish to put another notch on their rod butt.
A fish like this is part of the real magic of our glorious sport.
You can read the full story of Adam’s capture in this week’s issue of Angling Times.
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