Death of Shropshire giant carp attracts negativity

Big Rig caused controversy when it was caught in Shropshire, after it was grown from a weight of 3lbs, when it was imported from Israel, to 71lb 4oz when it was caught from a lake last year.

Now, it has died, which owner Rob Hales says is of natural causes, but it has attracted negative attention online from people who claim he fed the animal to death.

Big Rig was 3lb 3oz heavier than the official record holder, a 68lb 1oz carp caught in Berkshire in 2016.

She first came to Shropshire in 2009 and was caught by Tom Doherty in January 2014.

But after reeling in the carp, he received death threats and the fish divided the angling world, with some fishermen claiming the ‘hand-reared’ carp was already a record-breaker when it was placed in the fishery and should not be verified as a new record.

Mr Doherty, an investment banker from Basildon, Essex, landed the carp at The Avenue fishery in Shropshire

Now further people have spoken out on social media claiming they are glad the fish is dead, but Mr Hales has dismissed the comments.

Mr Hales, who runs RH Fisheries, with five across the county, has denied that the fish died because of its weight and said it was natural causes.

He said: "She was a female fish and she has attracted so much attention beause she was the biggest in Britain.

"Around this time of year, with the warm weather we have been having, the fishery has been shut, there is no closed season any more, it is down to the owner's discretion but we close for about 10 weeks to let them spawn and to give them a bit of a rest.

"She died from natural causes while spawning. It happens to fish all the time, it has just attracted attention because she is the biggest.

"Last year she spawned successfully, we put her in the fish farm and we've got about 5,000 fish of her blood line for the future which is a good thing.

"This year nature took its course, it is just one of those things."

One man wrote on the Facebook page of magazine Carp Talk: “Glad it's dead. It made a mockery out of our sport."

Mr Hales said: "They are called haters on social media, whether it is Ed Sheeran appearing on Game of Thrones, or a carp there is an element of jealousy.

"The reason is we took her from the fishery and let her live on her own in the peace and quiet. We fed her but she wasn't caught for a time.

"Some said there was an element of artificial feeding but there wasn't, like any animal it will only eat what it wants, when it wants.

"She ate more food because she wasn't in a fishery and no one was trying to put a hook in her every 10 minutes.

"It was because we cared for it basically."