What could be the biggest crucian carp ever caught in the British Isles has been landed by Adam Broodbanks at a weight of 4lb 14oz**.**
The fish would be 2oz over Julian Barnes’ current record if Adam’s scales check out, as well as the fourth British Record fish landed this year, after the pike (47lb 5oz), eel (11lb 3oz) and roach (4lb 4oz), all of which have already been officially ratified.
It was caught from the Barham Syndicate in Suffolk, where Adam was fishing for carp. It’s not a venue known for crucians, with most fans of the species betting on Surrey’s Johnsons Lake to produce the next record – it’s where the current British best came from. But, the capture proves that there’s still some mystery left in specimen angling, even in the current era where targeting ‘known’ fish is popular.
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Aware that ‘true’ crucians are tricky to identify, due to issues of hybridisation, Adam contacted experts at the British Record Fish Committee before reporting the capture to AT. The body has already given a positive initial verdict on the fish’s identification, with its lateral line count, scale count, ray count on the fins, as well as the fish’s general colour and shape, being as expected for a genuine Carassius carassius.
“The fish was weighed on three sets of scales, registering 4lb 14oz, 4lb 15oz, and 5lb 2oz,” Adam told us.
“I’m confident it’s over the record, as I’m going with the lowest weight, which was incidentally recorded on my scales. It was caught while I was carp fishing, and took a 12mm pop-up."
“I’d landed a different fish of 4lb 9oz in August on a 15mm pop-up, after which I decided to step down to a 12mm bait. I was still targeting carp, but the smaller bait gave me a better chance of picking up a crucian. There must be smaller ones in here, but they can’t get the big baits used by the carp anglers into their mouths, so they don’t generally get caught.”
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After landing that fish of 4lb 9oz, Adam discovered how the species came to be present in the lake.
“There are three pools on the syndicate, one of which was a match water that had been stocked with 100 crucians,” he explained.
“This flooded, and the fish spread out across the complex. As the venue is a carp syndicate, those crucians spent the following years gorging themselves on pellets and boilies, which is what I was fishing over when I caught this fish. It’d been a real red-letter session, in which I’d landed seven carp, including a couple of ‘thirties’."
“It would have been a good trip, even without the potential British Record!”
Adam is currently in the process of submitting an official claim, with the authentication of his scales proving time-consuming. However, we will provide an update on the case as soon as it becomes available.
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