Chris Yates - The Record Fish

[MaggotDrowner]

I'm sure most of us have seen this before. In this clip Richard Walker talks about capturing his record and also mentions that Yates has bettered it and "in his opinion" Chris now holds the record. He also goes on to mention that the record committee refused to accept new fish as a new record.

Why did the committee refuse it? Was the record caught by Chris ever official? It must have been. People talk about it like it was.

[Shaun Harrison]

N.A.S.A. set up a separate record fish list and accepted it and most of the press then moved to their list. The B.R.F.C. were then pushed into altering their terms for record claims and the books were re-written.

The record lists have changed a fair bit over the years with fish removed, changed and added.

[The Old Buffer]

I hadn't heard that before. Very enjoyable, thank you.

[Snape]

Excellent to hear that. Many thanks.

I have never been really clear about why Ravioli was only quoted as being 44lb rather than 44lb 0oz. Do we know what the ounces were?

[CrayCane]

According to his account in Stillwater Angling, Walker asked for the fish to be accurately weighed when they received it at the Zoo and it was recorded as 44lbs exactly.
Pete

[Blunderer]

I might be wrong, but I seem to remember that Walker had to weigh the fish on two spring balances, and the weight he got was a lot less that 44lb. When the 44lb weight came back from the zoo, some suspected they'd weighed the sack too.

[DaceAce]

In 1968 the BRFC had a massive clearout of old records and in a nutshell removed all records where the body of the fish wasn't available for inspection (usually the dead body) by the committee. Some of the old records were widely recognised as ludicrous though others [that were removed] were probably valid. They didn't do much research into some of the old records either as Alymer Tryon's record barbel was eventually reinstated after some investigative work by Fred Buller who tracked down both Tryon and his cased fish. Other old [pre 1968] records have never been successfully investigated eg dace. At the time of capture Yates' carp failed on this rule but NASA decided to accept it and it was only when the BRFC changed its rules that Yates' record was retrospectively accepted. Of course many other potential records were not claimed due to this rule operating in the 1970s. Ironically the change to the rule has sometime led to invalid records being accepted in the 30 odd years since, some of which remain on the list.

[GarryProcter]

When the 44lb weight came back from the zoo, some suspected they'd weighed the sack too.

If I remember correctly, Walker himself initially thought this was the case, but checked with the zoo and they confirmed the sack was not included in the weight, and that the weight really was 44lb.