All the facts and figures from the year past
UK’s Biggest
The start of the year saw both Tarka and The Parrott grace the banks over the 60lb barrier. Spring saw Scott Lloyd bank the much sought after Burghfield Common at 62½lb with the Parrott making another appearance, this time to George Benos. Holme Fen’s Captain Jack would have taken the crown, if it weren’t for the Wingham Big Plated smashing the 80lb barrier. The giant fish appeared in issue 1202 at 83¼lb to become the first ever UK eighty.
World’s Biggest
The biggest carp appearing in Carp-Talk in 2017 was Marco Eisner’s world record of 108lb which appeared in issue 1198.
UK FORTIES
APPEARING IN THE MAG: 854
This number is slightly down on last year, but not by a significant margin. Could this be down to the significant number of fish deaths this year, who knows? That said, there were 48 UK forties in issue 1174 alone!
UK FIFTIES
APPEARING IN THE MAG: 153
TOTAL FIFTIES
APPEARING IN THE MAG: 436
Yet again this number is slightly down on last year for the UK. As was the peak, which was ten UK fifties which appeared in issue 1197. Total number of fifties actually increased, due to a larger number of foreign fish in our pages.
UK SIXTIES
APPEARING IN THE MAG: 10
TOTAL SIXTIES
APPEARING IN THE MAG: 156
The number of UK sixties dropped by one this year from 11 to 10. This could have been down to the absence of Strawberry Fields’ Lee Jackson and Black Spot from Deepings 1, as they contributed to last year’s stats. This year five different fish made up the list of UK sixties; The Parrot, Burghfield Common, Tarka, Captain Jack and an unnamed resident of Holme Fen Fishery.
TOTAL SEVENTIES
APPEARING IN THE MAG: 42
TOTAL EIGHTIES
APPEARING IN THE MAG: 22
TOTAL NINTIES
APPEARING IN THE MAG: 3
TOTAL HUNDREDS
APPEARING IN THE MAG: 1
On the larger end of the scale these numbers are very similar to last year, with one major exception; one of the eighties was from the UK. Carp-Talk now recognises the Wingham Big Plated as the British record.
COVERS OF 2017
BIGGEST UK COVER FISH:
Terry Hearn’s capture of The Parrott at 63lb appeared on the cover of issue 1164.
BIGGEST FOREIGN COVER FISH:
Lee Jackson appeared on the cover of issue 1193 with a 55lb 2oz mirror. This was just one of two foreign covers in 2017.
SMALLEST UK COVER FISH:
Marcus Howarth’s 21-pounder from Sandhurst Lake in issue 1159.
Please note: we have had larger fish appear on the cover, but we are talking about main cover photos here.
COVER STARS
Three different anglers all had two covers each this year; Dave Levy, Greg Ellis and Nicky Mills.
Features of 2017 Top five feature writers:
Iain Macmillan: 8 Simon Crow: 8 Greg Ellis: 7 Julian Cundiff: 6 Steve Briggs: 6
