WHEN Mick Phillips set off for a session last month, he had no idea he’d land what is possibly Britain’s biggest-ever crucian carp – a fish weighing 5lb 2oz.
Targeting a small, undisclosed club lake in Hampshire, the 72-year-old retired HGV driver was floatfishing next to some lilies with a whole dendrobaena worm when he latched into the fish.
Mick told us:
“The Environment Agency did a netting operation on the lake back in 2019 and it told us that we had one exceptionally large crucian – a fish weighing 5lb exactly. Until now, no member had landed it. It’s the biggest crucian I’ve ever seen. The fish of a lifetime.”
Fellow club member, Derek Wood, revealed that while they don’t hold out much hope of it being accepted by the BRFC, they’re planning for such a scenario if it’s caught again.
“With only one picture, no measurements or scale samples, we can’t really expect the fish to be accepted as a record,” he said.
“But we’ve had a club meeting and, if it’s caught again, we have a procedure in place.”
Mick’s catch comes in the same week that the BRFC said they had accepted the claim for a new crucian carp record made by Julian Barnes, who landed a 4lb 12oz ‘cru’ from a Surrey stillwater back in April. It beat the previous best for the species by 2oz.
