The world carp record has been broken during the freezing cold opening days of 2010! Martin Locke, a fishing tackle representative for Kent based Solar, has caught a 94 pound mirror carp from Rainbow Lake in France, Bordeaux. The fish was known as “Briggs Fish” and had been caught by Martin in September 2008 when it weighed in at a mere 84 pounds. It had apparently put on 10 pounds in little over a year.
The fish was attracted by pre baiting swim number 12 on the 110 acre lake for four days before getting the bite. A bed of crushed hemp and boilies together with mixed seeds was used. To catch the fish three Solar Club Mix boilies on a long hair mounted on a size 1 hook were used. Martin’s bank of carp fishing rods were monitored with permanent bite alarms during the four days and supported pretty hefty line and end tackle with the monster carp in mind. The hook length was a hefty 85 pound length of Kryston “Ton Up”.
The 94 pound fish beat the previous world record of 91 pound also caught in France at a different site Les Graviers by Andre Komornicki in 2008. The monster 94 pound Briggs Fish was well known to visiting UK anglers. Rob Hales a UK fishery manager caught the fish weighing 90 pound in May 2009.
There is no doubt that catching such a big carp on dedicated carp tackle is a challenging task. Anglers will camp for weeks on end without a bite sometimes. Getting the carp fishing rods set up properly, the right ground bait mixture and the best end rig and bait usually tied to a well presented hair rig is not a simple matter and the difference between using a stiff hair and a hinged rig could possible mean the difference of that important single bite or nothing at all.
However, there is always a slight bad taste at the back of ones mouth when fishing for what amount to stew pond fish. These are carp that have been selectively reared and then introduced to lakes and ponds where the optimum conditions are known to exist. Yes they may have been introduced at a young age and allowed to grow naturally to their large size (with a little help from anglers bait!). The fact is that these fish are caught often enough to be named – and are not much different from pets.
My skills as a carp angler fa;ll well short of those of Martin, but I would personally prefer to catch a truly wild 10 pound carp from a never before fished and overgrown pond or lake that has taken me half a day to walk to from my car!