Angler who received death and rape threats after catching ‘Britain’s biggest carp’ to be stripped of record
Officials expected to strip Tom Doherty of his record as the 70lb fish - dubbed 'Big Rig' - was 'farmed'
THE 70lbs ‘death threat’ carp set to become the biggest in Britain was declared null and void last night by the nation’s record fish committee.
The Sun revealed yesterday how investment bank worker Tom Doherty, 33, landed the monster on Monday at The Avenue fishery in Shifnal, Shropshire.
But sick rival anglers warned him his life was in danger - and his girlfriend and child would be raped - after learning it was a ‘stocked’ fish.
The carp dubbed ‘Big Rig', had been reared on a fish farm, and owner Rob Hales has admitted it was already a record when he introduced it to his lake two months earlier.
Last night Mike Heylin, chairman of the Angling Trust’s British Record Fish Committee, heeded the concerns of carp-hunters.
He said: “The committee has not yet discussed it, but I have emailed our 13 members. We are awaiting the claim to be submitted.
“It was grown in a pond to a record level and then stocked out. It is likely we would ask Rob Hales for an affidavit about the weight it was stocked into the water.
“If it was stocked above the weight, I am assuming the committee will reject it and it will go on to a notable fish list...there are a lot of question marks, it will be rejected.
“We have had a similar situation regarding trout where they have been grown to enormous weight in stock ponds, transferred and then caught on press days.
“We created a separate list for effectively farmed trout, but I don’t think that will happen with carp.
“Carp are quite regularly stocked out to 30-40lbs. If they then grow to a record that will take 5-6 years and they are a natural fish.
“Our lists is not about angling skill, but of what a species can reach in British waters under normal circumstances.
“It is an amazing fish and I feel for the angler who caught it.”
Greengrocer Dean Fletcher, 53, of Wokingham, Surrey, who will continue to hold the carp record with a 68lbs 1oz fish caught in January, said when told the news: “I’m pleased about that!
“It is like Christmas all over again knowing that the record is still mine.”