They Don't Make 'Em Like That Anymore!

When Spencer Ramsey caught an incredible 43lb linear mirror from the beautiful middle Thames in 2014, little could he have imagined the interest that it would spark, or how big the fish would eventually get. At that time it was the biggest carp ever reported from the main body of the Thames and as such the de facto Thames Record, a position that it would hold twice more before its death in the summer of 2019.

Spencer, better known to the carp scene as Katch Bullet, was a Thames obsessive well before it became quite as popular as it is now and tended to target quiet stretches close to his home in Buckinghamshire. 

“That season I’d spent three months baiting a spot, only to find that a chain ferry ran across the spot, ruining my chances on my short overnighters. As a Plan B, I relocated to the Hurley stretch of the river and dropped into a shallow, beach swim. Usually, I like to fish close in on the river, but targeting that spot meant I’d have to fish at 80yds—relatively long-range for the Thames.” 

Despite getting to the river at 21:20 p.m., Katch managed to get his rods out effectively because he managed to land and lose a carp during the night. It wasn’t until 07:15 a.m. that his double bottom-bait presentation was picked up by the huge mirror, though.

“I don’t usually weigh my fish,” Katch told us, “because I feel like I’d just end up chasing weights and fishing isn’t about that to me. However, this was clearly a huge mirror, so I lifted it onto the scales, which went round to 43lb. I had to photograph the fish quickly because the towpath can be so busy and I didn’t want to be caught with this huge mirror on the bank. You’re free to be a fisherman on the river—there’s nobody telling you what to do or how to fish, and the fishing itself is such a lottery—you just don’t know what might turn up.” 

It seems to us that Katch won the river-fishing lottery that day, that’s for sure, and the great fish itself? It wasn’t to be seen for three years and when it was, it was on a different stretch! 

The largely unknown big linear quickly caused a stir on the river scene, but a few anglers had been quietly tracking its progress for years. Its final captor, Nick Helleur, was one such angler, along with his close friend Terry Hearn. 

“As far as we can make out, it came from a little lake close to the river at about 28lb and had been in the river for a fairly long time,” Nick told us, “We were aware of a capture to a pike angler at 36lb or 39lb from the campsite island on the Hurley stretch, and then obviously Katch Bullet’s capture sometime later. I’ve heard it said that it looks like a Dinton fish, and I’d agree, but we just don’t know. When they began work to extend the marina at Hurley, the disturbance likely proved a bit much for the fish and several seem to have moved stretches downstream, through Temple Lock and onto the Marlow town stretch.”

“I knew a lad fishing the area for the ‘Linear’ so I opted to give him some space and concentrate on the Hurley stretch for the first year that I was afloat,” Nick continued. “I thought I’d give him until the following summer, before venturing down onto the Temple stretch. That’s not to say that there wasn’t skullduggery going on early in my campaign—I was being told that the fish was up on Hurley, not Marlow at all; obviously that turned out to be a blind. They say that, in fishing, timing is everything and I finally started my fishing on the Marlow stretch in August 2018.”

By the time Nick made his move, the great fish had been caught twice in its new home by respected angler, Steve Shenfield, both times recording a new Thames Record weight of 48lb 7oz. 

“When that fish got caught by Steve, that was the first time I knew for sure which stretch it was on,” Nick said. The game was now afoot. 

“I thought I’d give it all the way until the autumn,” Nick remembers, and it was during one of those autumn sessions that he finally met the fish of his dreams. As storm Callum rolled down the Thames valley, Nick was tucked up out of the wind, between bankside trees, hoping his anchors would last the night. He’d taken the decision to move his baited spot downstream because the pressure from other anglers had become detrimental, and established a new area by introducing super-hot chilli peanuts and salted Krill boilies. Following bream activity early in the night, Nick’s rod was away in the dark hours, shortly before the October dawn. 

“It was short but fast—like a tuna!” He remembers, “it wasn’t until it rolled near to the net that I saw the linear scaling and I nearly blacked out!” With the fish weighed of 50lb 12oz, Nick retained the fish for pictures and the Sticky Baits camera crew, as well as his friend Oli Davies, headed to the river to record history being made.

“People always say things are, ‘beyond their wildest dreams,’” Nick said, “I was the same with this. I had the boat, the bait and the motivation, and I was the right man, at the right time that year.” 

It’s fair to say that the carp world was abuzz with talk of the new Thames record and the Instagram post announcing the capture on the Sticky account is still their second most-liked ever with well over 5,000 likes. 

Sadly, Nick’s capture turned out to be the last of that great mirror, and it was found dead the following summer. 

“It was seen by a kayaker looking enormous, but in distress,” Nick told us, “It was clearly struggling and we think that it most likely fell prey to an otter shortly afterwards. Terry [Hearn] had heard otters from his mooring nearby and being so full, the fish wouldn’t have stood much chance of escape. It was a sad end for that stretch really because I’ve since been sent pictures of many of the other fish that I knew, dead in the pads on the stretch, after sustaining otter attacks.”