The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Tonight I was looking for my pike book by Martin Gay and decided to google his name to see what other books he had written when I stumbled across this article.

https://www.fishingmagic.com/martin-gay ... p-closure/

This is the first time I had ever heard of this but from what I have read in the link I think it was and English carp.

We will never know for sure!

At the time very very strange!!

Oh my word did this cause furore at the time!

It's precisely such antics of the modern carp scene that put me right off

I remember that saga all too well.... it was like Groundhog Day....the controversy went on and on and on....that’s the trouble with the carp scene, much jealousy and skullduggery! I believe Martin caught those fish but wanted to protect them from being overfished....

I remember that....but I also remember as a kid someone giving me a dacron carp rig saying that the guy that had tied it had caught a 40lb plus carp in the region. This was in the Derbyshire/Yorkshire region and 33 years ago, so undreamt of. It was a poor rig really but he wouldn`t say where this fish was. Quite a few years later I was walking around a National Trust property I knew nothing about when I saw two fish around the 45lb mark....so you never know..

Just looked at the photos again. They`re a little small to see clearly. Apart from his dress the one thing I would question is the terrain. Some of the conifer like grass in the black and white photo looks a bit unusual.

Martin was a lovely man and along with John Reed, one of my pike fishing heroes.

A sad event which would have been even worse now with " social media"

A commons only water in the UK? one that`s not private but has limited access? lol.....controversial....I have my secrets too..

25 years ago I fished a farm pond that the old Jackanory of a farmer was adamant contained a common of 38lbs. I fished it through horrendous weather. Winter nights where the net froze solid. It was an exposed water this...horrible. Never once saw that fish, but practically emptied the place. It`s very hard to hide big fish..

RBTraditional wrote: ↑Mon Oct 26, 2020 5:23 am I believe Martin caught those fish but wanted to protect them from being overfished....

I believe that too.

Ian.R.McDonald wrote: A sad event which would have been even worse now with " social media"

Yes, the flak he received must've been bad enough for him as it was. Facebook would have been intolerable.