British Record (Rod Caught) Fish Committee

The British Record (Rod Caught) Fish Committee -(BRFC) are the official organisation taking responsibility for all angling fish records within the United kingdom, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, collectively known as the "British Records". Since 2009 the BRFC have been part of the Angling Trust

The committee is composed of volunteers, including specialists in marine and specialist in freshwater fish, all with specialist knowledge of angling and the natural world and experience working with a background of various organisations, such as the scientific advisors to the Environment Agency and the Natural History Museum, angling organisations such as (SFSA)- Scottish Federation of Sea Anglers. The committee will inspect each claim and adjudicate on its credibility before publishing a list of British Record Fish at regular intervals.

Formed in 1968, one of the first and most noted decision was to purge the existing British Record list at the time, to virtually start from scratch, only allowing records that could be verified with photographic evidence, witnesses, tested weighing scales, correct species identification, and other evidential factors. Amongst the casualties were the barbel record of 14lb 6oz shared by Tryon, Wallis and Wheeler, the 10lb 8oz Chub of Dr.J.A Cameron, the 4lb 11oz Crucian carp of H.C. Hinson, the 1lb 8oz 5dr Dace caught by R.W.Humphrey in 1932, a 4lb 8oz Silver bream by C.R. Rhind, but most famously of all the 47lb 11oz Loch Lomond Pike caught by T.Morgan in 1945, due to not having a photograph of the fish. The second controversial event was when the BRFC refused to accept Chris Yates 51lb 8oz carp record in 1980 because at the time the fishes body needed to be provided as evidence, and Chris had returned the carp to the water alive and well. Following this controversial and monumental decision, the rule to provide dead fish as evidence was rescinded.

In December 2016, The Angling Times reported that the carp "Big Rig" had been rejected as a record on the basis that it had been cultivated, as in been fed to a record weight before being released into the venue where it was finally caught. This was the first time the BRFC had rejected a record course fish on the grounds of it being cultivated. The carp had been caught at 69lb 13oz by Tom Doherty on 26 Sept 2016 at The Avenue, RH Fisheries in Shropshire and was subsequently caught again later by Robby Harrison at the largest weight for a carp caught in British waters of 71lb 4oz on 23 Oct 2016, of which also was never to be confirmed as an official British record.

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