BOAT ANGLER
For some historic records Mike Millman asks if it’s now time for a review and retirement
It is now 67 years since the British Record (Rod-Caught) Fish Committee came into being under the banner of the National Anglers’ Council. Its offshoot in sea angling was the National Federation of Sea Anglers. Over nearly seven decades many new records have been set, broken and held since before the official list came into being.
1STTUNNY
Heading the longevity list is the bluefin tuna of 851lb caught off Scarborough in 1933 by Lorenzo Mitchell-Henry who fished from a dinghy launched from a mothership called a cobble, with only a rower who doubled as a ‘gaffer’ for company. It was men of steel that indulged in this hard game. The fish was brought back to Scarborough where the British Tunny Club had their headquarters in a former Inn near the harbour where it was weighed before officials and a crowd of spectators. Fishing for tunny had to stop in 1939 and resumed again in 1947. Between the start up date and 1954 the most successful angler was Hubert Wetherley who caught 32 with an average weight of 600lb.
With costs being high, and the herring that attracted the tunny much fewer in number, the Tunny Club eventually handed over its memorabilia to the Scarborough Museum and its silver trophies to the care of a bank. The museum ultimately devoted several rooms to the Tunny Club display. Currently it has been packed away while the refurbishment of the building takes place when, I am told, they will once again be proudly displayed.
Two years after the Tunny Club closed its books the Record Fish Committee opened theirs and immediately accepted Mitchell-Henry’s tunny as its oldest entry. It has endless provenance and has turned out to be its longest standing record.
3RDTUR-BRILL?
Th ird on the UK List is the brill taken off the Isle of Man in 1950 for which there is no provenance. Without data or a picture the chances are it is a turbot; the two were often confused. I recall being on the Plymouth Fish Quay waiting for the evening arrival of charter boats when one of the skippers told me a boat was bringing in a record brill. When the fish-box with the prize in it was dragged onto the fish-quay it was clearly not a brill but a turbot. Although somewhat narrower than a normal turbot it was confirmed the next morning by two fishing biologists, Tony Mattacola and Roger Swimfen, at the Marine Laboratory on Plymouth Hoe. They did say, however, there may have
