British (Rod-Caught) Record Fish Committee history

Hi guys. I am putting the finishing touches to Volume II of my pike-fishing history, and a small issue (which I don't want to go all the way to the Britiish Library newspaper section to look for) concerns the date at which the BRFC originally threw out all those long-established records (all three 14lb 6oz barbel for example - and of course the Scottish and English record pike)

Anyone have any information on this? Thanks in advance.

The year was 1968.

jack sprat said:

The year was 1968.

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thanks for that. The point I shall make concerns Hancock's 40lb Horsey fish of 1967, and the way in which the BRFC later set the minimum application weight for pike at 41lbs once they had thrown the Warwick and Morgan fish out: a cynical attempt to absolve them from getting tied up in knots with their own rules.

Graham. Slightly off topic but only a bit. For most of my childhood the record pike was 37lb something which came from the river Wye near Hay on Wye. Do you have any any details of the exact stretch it came from?

Wasn't it the diving board swim Geoff?

I thought the old English record was one of 37-8-0 by C Warwick in 1944 from the Hants. Avon at Fordingbridge?

geoffmaynard said:

Graham. Slightly off topic but only a bit. For most of my childhood the record pike was 37lb something which came from the river Wye near Hay on Wye. Do you have any any details of the exact stretch it came from?

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Major W H Booth equalled Alfred Jardine's 37-pound record in 1910, while spinning for salmon on the Wye. Dilip Sarker has just got the Hereford Museum to re-instate the trophy into its glass-case. It was caught on Mr Herbert Graystone's water near Hay, the pool being known locally as the Men's Ducklings, a diving-pool on the Warren beat.

jack sprat said:

I thought the old English record was one of 37-8-0 by C Warwick in 1944 from the Hants. Avon at Fordingbridge?

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Yes that is the fish. I gave a brief account of its capture in Volume I (on page 328 if you have a copy). It was caught on 2nd October 1944 at Burgate Manor, when Clifford Warwick and his chum from Brum Colonel Martin Baker were out in their host Mr F A Mitchell-Hedges' boat. All three, including Mitchell-Hedges, who was a famous big-game angker, occupied the boat that day. Col. Baker got the first four pike, including one of 22lbs, and Warwick was becoming 'rather netted' at this. He put on their biggest roach live-bait, a specimen of fully 1lb 8oz, and soon hooked the record pike. They had put in at the top of Mitchell-Hedges two miles of water, and by the time the big fish was hooked they had got down as far as the big overhanging tree on the large bend.

The story was told by Clifford Warwick to Angling Times in April 1954, and Norman Weatherall also gave the story in his 1961 work Pike Fishing. The first of the three accounts was corroborative, in that it was not from Warwick, but from Mitchell-Hedges, who gave the story to The Fishing Gazette less than two weeks after the capture.

Interesting. I walked the dog down the Warren stretch today

Hope you took a bag.

graham booth said:

Hi guys. I am putting the finishing touches to Volume II of my pike-fishing history, and a small issue (which I don't want to go all the way to the Britiish Library newspaper section to look for) concerns the date at which the BRFC originally threw out all those long-established records (all three 14lb 6oz barbel for example - and of course the Scottish and English record pike)

Anyone have any information on this? Thanks in advance.

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Could I suggest you drop the Monk (Nick Melling) a PM. Nick knows more about the History of Angling and Specialist Angling than anyone I know. He's also supplied one K Clifford with lots of info in the past as well.

You may or may not be aware that there was a spilt in the record keeping for record fish. NASA as it was then set up its own list because of the balls up BRFC were making of some claims. Can't remember the dates but the Monk will.

Good point Phil....i had forgotten that.

The bad one said:

Could I suggest you drop the Monk (Nick Melling) a PM. Nick knows more about the History of Angling and Specialist Angling than anyone I know. He's also supplied one K Clifford with lots of info in the past as well.

You may or may not be aware that there was a spilt in the record keeping for record fish. NASA as it was then set up its own list because of the balls up BRFC were making of some claims. Can't remember the dates but the Monk will.

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Thanks for that. Yes I knew about the split. In fact I've discovered some private correspondence between **** Walker and Alwyne Wheeler at the Natural History Museum (Alwyne was co-opted onto the BRFC committee) that gives interesting inssights into the 'breakaway' NASA body.

I'll PM 'the Monk'.

Graham, interesting that you mention Mitchell-Hedges. There was of course one Mitchell-Henry who was indeed an extremely well known big game angler.
It seems Mitchell-Hedges wrote a book "Battles with Giant Fish"

I found the following description of the man that's entitled "Badass of the week" it's well worth a read as you don't get many blokes like him nowadays! Badass of the Week: Frederick Albert Mitchell-Hedges

Mitchell-Henry wrote books on Tunny Fishing off Scarborough and once owned Kylemore Abbey in Co. Galway with several nice Salmon loughs and a river running through them.

I have said it before and I am usually lynched for some reason....but what I always found surprising was that in all the shakeups, splits and species removals the Salmon record just stays put ..90 years...no questions, no doubts, just totally accepted and no one apparently blinks an eye.

64 pounds absolutely slap bang on the dot...fancy that..

Philip said:

I have said it before and I am usually lynched for some reason....but what I always found surprising was that in all the shakeups, splits and species removals the Salmon record just stays put ..90 years...no questions, no doubts, just totally accepted and no one apparently blinks an eye.

64 pounds absolutely slap bang on the dot...fancy that..

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Never allow a shortage of facts to interfere with a good story!

It is an interesting thought. Now I don't know whether the fish was as heavy as was claimed, but what does strike me as curious is the fact that in all the reproduced accounts of it's capture and subsequent end disposal, there's no record of how and where it was weighed.

If you read Fred Bullers book, Domesday book of Mammoth Pike, the accounts from captures of pike around the same time, do state how and where the fish was weighed.
The stories go along the lines of "This gigantic Leviathan was taken to Alfred Heslop's butcher shop in Ekkythump, where it was hoisted on the scale and a weight of 43 lb was record by the assembled onlookers.

I think I recall reading an account somewhere that mentioned the weighing which went along the sort of lines you mention Phil but its a bit hazy. I would be interested if anyone has the details...the lady who caught it I think did an interview that went into print somewhere or other.

Its certainly a very big fish as pictures show..although Miss Ballantine could also be a midget I have no idea. It was then taken and eaten (...the fish, not Georgina..ha ha..) but I think there is a fibreglass model of it still around.

My own opinion is that it probably is the biggest rod caught Salmon in the uk although other fish around 60lbs where also recorded from a number of rivers...including the Wye. Its certainly an incredible capture, fish of a lifetime without doubt ...but I seriously doubt it weighed 64lb on the dot. Who knows, perhaps it weighed even more ! ...but thats the point..we just dont know...its too vague and for that reason I think it should be removed from the record lists (but still noted in Angling history) to be consistent and fair with all the other fish and anglers that have come under scrutiny.

However I doubt thats going to happen. The fish appears to have taken on an almost mystical aura and the fact it was also caught by a women means its become basically an immovable unquestioned rock on the record lists.

Truth be told I got a bit bored reading or hearing about it in news reports or angling programs and how Britain's biggest freshwater fish was caught by a lady & all the usual stuff that followed about female pheromones, lady luck and all that. For that reason I gave a bit of a half smile the day Two Tone whose weight had been creeping ever upwards finally eclipsed it in 2004.

Ironic thing is, if it had been a Carp and not a Salmon I have no doubt whatsoever it would have been stripped from the lists without a second thought years back.

Funny that.