Biggest catfish in uk ?

[geoffmaynard]

I wonder what their position is on Carp, after all, there is a thriving market in imports, legal and otherwise...

Quite Rob. It makes a bit of a mockery of it really IMO. And it's all just historical data these days anyway.

 

[Bob Hornegold]

So what are saying ?

Knowing that many Cats were stocked illegally, we should now reopen the doors to fish from abroad and reinstate the Wels Catfish Record !!

Joke Lodge was just the tip of the mountain and thats why it was done away with.

The Catfish record should never come back to this country, as too many Cats were introduce without permission, both from abroad and around this country.

Bob

 

[robhale]

As I said, if a stocking has been made illegally, then it should not be a record. However, does this mean a 70lb carp imported legally into this country would be a record?

What about catfish stocked legally?

How far do you want to go?

If you want to say indigenous species only then it would be Roach, Bream, Chub and whatever else Natural England state was around at the end of the last ice age.

What about Grass Carp?

 

[geoffmaynard]

Anyone can import a record fish of any species. That's not a reason to exclude it from the records list imo

 

[cg74]

So what are saying ?

Knowing that many Cats were stocked illegally, we should now reopen the doors to fish from abroad and reinstate the Wels Catfish Record !!

Joke Lodge was just the tip of the mountain and thats why it was done away with.

The Catfish record should never come back to this country, as too many Cats were introduce without permission, both from abroad and around this country.

Bob

On that basis then remove the carp too, some have a definite whiff of garlic about them...... Then we'll be finding all non indigenous species being dropped.

Then again are the indigenous species safe, I'm off to Norway this autumn, where I'll be doing a bit of grayling fishing, hopefully taking fish of this stamp:
Grayling Fly Fishing Finland - Arctic Grayling Finland - Big Grayling Finland - Grayling Fishing Norway - Grayling Sweden - Grayling Land® Fly Fishing Holidays & Arctic Winter Adventures
A new British record perhaps........


Nothing is safe, so no point playing like an Osterich, because there are a lot of perfectly legally stocked cats and grass carp being ruled out and I do wonder if it were carp (just for Ron: Cyprinus carpio) whether they'd be dropped in the same fashion, I suspect not!

And were zander legally stocked in any UK rivers, if not (as I'm thinking), why is it that you can claim a record with a river caught fish?


I think a fair description of the current records list would be a farcical joke.

 

[The bad one]

Anyone can import a record fish of any species. That's not a reason to exclude it from the records list imo

Goeff not quite correct that, they can only import it with the correct paperwork. And it must only go in a wholly enclosed water well away from a floodplain likely to be inundated by a river.

If memory serve me right there were 2 fish well over 100 lbs found dead and dumped in a ditch on the roadside from Dover. Obviously without any paperwork And that put the tin hat on it so speak for BRFC.

---------- Post added at 15:20 ---------- Previous post was at 15:10 ----------

And were zander legally stocked in any UK rivers, if not (as I'm thinking), why is it that you can claim a record with a river caught fish?

They were stocked legally into the Fen Drains. All interconnected to the rivers of that region Ouse, Nene, Delph, Wissey and others. So the answer is yes.

 

[geoffmaynard]

I didn't say legally imported. If a fish smuggler can bring in 100lb catfish he can bring in 6lb perch or 70lb carp or anything else.

 

[The bad one]

Quite Geoff and makes the point why cats were dropped from the list. And why the carp record is a joke. Perch? Nah no money in that, so it unlikely to happen.

 

[cg74]

Quite Geoff and makes the point why cats were dropped from the list. And why the carp record is a joke. Perch? Nah no money in that, so it unlikely to happen.

I disagree, there is money to be made from a record breaking fish of pretty much every species. Take my potential record breaking Scandinavian grayling; if stocked into a less well known southern river that did hold a natural head of grayling upto 2lbs. How much for a day ticket then £25, £30+ on a stretch of river that would've commanded say £5-£7, and purely on the basis that one or two 5lb+ grayling reside there.

 

[geoffmaynard]

He's right y'know

 

[The bad one]

Disagree all you want, they're minor species and the demand isn't there to command the mega bucks as the larger species, ie, carp, catfish and pike to a lesser degree.
I know of two waters that have fish over the present record weight. Neither owners, who know they have fish that size in their waters, have increased their costs because of it.

 

[cg74]

The bad one, I'm not saying "minor species" are the same money generating machines as carp and catfish but you only have to look and see the prices charged on 'known' southern rivers.
Go on, Google grayling fishing on river Test or Itchen. Then compare the prices to other southern rivers containing grayling.

Just because the two fishery owners you know haven't raised their prices due their waters containing record proportioned fish, you are very naive if you think others would not and anglers won't pay....... I can guarantee the fishery owner of a water containing 5lb+ grayling would have a couple of Angling Times reporters beating his door down.

 

[mol]

I didn't say legally imported. If a fish smuggler can bring in 100lb catfish he can bring in 6lb perch or 70lb carp or anything else.

Although I'd agree that technically you're right its just never going to happen. 6lb perch and 70lb carp just aren't that common anywhere, the chances of catching one is very slim and to buy one and try to smuggle it back into the UK is going to be an incredily expensive venture. Where as 100lb cats aren't really all that rare, it's the difference in weight between the average european sizes and the UK record size that potentially makes it easy to capture and import a record busting fish.

 

[geoffmaynard]

The business side of it just muddies the water. The principle is the thing. Anyone can bring in a record of any species and claim it as a new record. But if someone catches a genuine homegrown UK record catfish or grasscarp he can't even submit a claim. That's what's wrong and that's what needs addressing imo

 

[tortoise100]

The reason I started this post was to discount the BRFC altogether as they don't allow a record for cats .
Now thats out the way this post is about finding out the fish magic official biggest uk catfish or FMBC for short .
I think it's only a matter of a few years at most before the carp titles go or a new fish record body gets set up that recognises actual bigest fish and boat caught specimens etc.

 

[robhale]

Sorry for the thread hijack froggy.

I don't understand (and I'm tempted to send an email to them if I didn't know it would come back as boiler-plate responses) why the BRFC have taken this stance.

If a fish has been illegally stocked (ie the water does not have a section 30 consent granted), it is not a record, the incident is handed to the EA to deal with and hopefully prosecutions follow.

I'm not sure why there is one rule for one species and others for others.

 

[tortoise100]

Newsflash !!

Proberbly the biggest river cat and proberbly biggest fish from a river since sturgeon died out was caught on the ouse near Huntingdon the bloke's scales only whent up to 50lb and it could have been pushing 60lb .

Was caught on a roach live bait intended for zander .

 

[geoffmaynard]

I'm told there are plenty of photos of 60+ cats from the Thames Froggie, though I have yet to see one. Perhaps someone can oblige?

 

[schwendy2]

130lb from Witch lakes Norfolk is the biggest I know from about 4 years ago