4 | 9 JULY anglersmail.com
A
NGLER MAIL editor
Tim Knight has caught
one of the biggest river carp
reported, which came almost
by accident while on holiday
during a record heatwave.
Tim’s sparsely scaled mirror
bottomed his 66 lb digital
scales, which left him in the
dark as to its true weight, but
he now knows that the fi sh
weighed 74 lb 6 oz last year.
The near-leather leviathan
was caught from the
299-mile-long River Lot during
a getaway to France, stopping
over by several rivers.
He slid his net under the
giant during one of his
pre-breakfast sessions. Tim
takes up the preposterous
tale: “I cannot quite believe
what happened, nor how this
fi sh ranks in the world of carp
fi shing. I’m gobsmacked,
laughing and pinching myself
that it wasn’t a dream,” he said.
“I got up at dawn, as night
fi shing is not permitted on the
stretch where I was fi shing,
and I was on holiday with the
‘other half’, so catching fi sh
was not the be all and end all.
“It was red-hot, but early
morning was comfortable.
The day I caught the fi sh
turned into the hottest one
that France had ever seen, the
climax of a ‘canicule’, as they
call it. Temperatures reached
45.9 Celsius.
“This really solid fi sh, of70 lb-plus, really did catch me
by surprise. I was kitted out with
no-nonsense gear, a big cradle
and a sling, but I clearly got
caught out on the scales front.
“A few people might think:
‘Yeah, yeah. He works for afi shing mag, someone told him
where to fi sh, and probably
even primed the swim.’ These
thoughts couldn’t be further
from the truth, as it was a pretty
fl ukey catch.
“I prefer a touch of the
unknown when on holiday. I
knew there were probably some
carp in this area of the Middle
Lot, as there are fi ne fi sh in
most parts. When I returned
home, I found out that the fi sh
is reckoned to be the Lot’s
heaviest mirror, which blew
my mind. Having now sourced
pictures, I’ve matched its marks
to a fi sh that weighed 74 lb
6 oz last year, caught by a
Dutchman in a boat, and again
to a French angler four years
back, weighed at 72 lb.
“At about 6.30am, the fi sh
took my bait – two 20 mm
spicy-fl avoured, glugged boilies
on an 18 lb mono hair-rig, cast to
where I’d seen fi sh roll.
“We had used a boat
for a ‘romantic row’ during
the afternoons, taking theopportunity to scatter a few
kilos of mainly home-cooked
maize and some boilies.
“After bending into the fi sh,
I applied pressure, to steer it
from snags, and it came across
the river quite easily. When I got
my fi rst glimpse of it, I could
see it was a big ’un, but I had
no idea how bulky. It actually
had a smaller mate alongside it,
possibly a 37-pounder that I’d
caught previously, which makes
me wonder whether the carp
were grouped for spawning.
“Disaster stuck when my
landing net handle slipped down
into the water, but luckily the
frame had net fl oats. To grab
the net, I had to drop myself
down onto a marginal ledge,
and playing the fi sh became a
bit hairy, due to marginal snags.
I told myself to imagine it’s just
another ‘pastie’ on match gear,
and this kept me calm enough
to steer it over the mesh.
“Then came the hard bit.
After putting the fi sh in a
retainer sling, I had to wake theNews GOT A STORY?^ Email news editor Thomas Petch: [email protected] Or call 01252 555051.
70 lb+ river carp for Mail e ditor
● Holiday shocker ● ID matches 74 lb 6 oz river mirror record ● France’s hottest day
Whole Lot of carp! Mail editor
Tim Knight supports the bulk
of his colossal river carp,
which he’s matched up with
a fi sh caught at 74 lb 6 oz
last year. He believes its ‘stab
mark’ was probably caused by
a heron or cormorant.This 37 lb river carp was half the size of the giant that Tim was
about to encounter. He caught it two mornings before the super
‘70-plus’ heavyweight, and is seen here with his partner, Marion.