Historically Important Genuine Cased River Record Mirror Carp. 34lb 8oz.1965. Electricity Cut. River Nene.

Here is a fantastic opportunity to own a historically important and genuine cased record mirror carp, caught from the famous electricity cut, on the River Nene, Peterborough, in 1965.  This gorgeous mirror carp broke its own record on a number of occasions and on its last capture in 1965, it was the third largest carp ever to be caught in Britain (the other two both coming from redmire Pool - Richard Walker's Clarissa at 44lb and Eddie Price's 40lber in 1959). It remained the British river record for well over three decades!

The captor, William Beta caught the fish at 11.00pm and placed it in a large hessian sack, to be photographed the following morning by the Angling Times.  Unfortunately, the water levels dropped overnight and sadly the magnificent fish perished.  The Angling Times subsequently had the fish set up by taxidermist J E Shelbourne of Leicestershire and it spent many years proudly adorning the Angling Times' Editor's office wall. Ownership later went to the ACA (Angling Conservation Association), then to carp tackle mogul Kevin Nash.  It has then changed hands privately and has been expertly restored to a very high standard by A. Hall of Romford, Essex and is by far one of the best and biggest cased carp we have ever seen.  This is a huge and impressive item.  The bow-fronted glass display case measures 42" long, just over 12" width at the widest point and has a height of 23.5".

It is underestandly difficult to put a price on such a unique item, and this is the first time it has ever been offered on the open market.  Genuine taxidermy carp of this calibre rarely come up for sale, especially a long standing river carp record such as this.  So, we are going to take offers and see what happens.  Another historically important cased carp sold for over £16,000 at a specialist vintage fishing tackle auction back in 2012 (a 27lb 5oz fully scaled mirror, caught by Jack Opie, Redmire Pool, 1954).  

Apologies for the poor photography (they really don't do the piece any justice), but without the necessary filters and polarised lens etc, it's tricky to photograph bow-fronted glass cases! The last three pictures show the fish when it was caught by Stan Hill at 31lb 4oz, followed by its last capture by William Beta in june 1965 and lastly a picture of Angling Times editor Jack Torndike at the AT offices. Please contact us for any further information....and any offers of course!