A giant carp once caught by an angler 14 years ago, has once again been lured in by the same fisherman.
Tim Cosens, a builder and fishing enthusiast from the UK, was practicing his sport at the one-and-a-half-acre Strawberry Fields Fishery in Tunbridge Wells, Kent when he felt the tug of a large fish on his line. The angler spent 40 minutes reeling in his catch before finally bringing the fish onshore. When Cosens finally wrestled the giant fish into his net, he was amazed to find that this latest catch had the same, unique bald spot on one side of its body that he had seen on the same fish 14 years earlier.
When Cosens first caught the carp, the fish weighed 26 pounds, but when it came in the second time, it weighed in at a hefty 54 pounds, 12 ounces. This makes this fish one of the largest carps ever caught in England. Just as he had the first time he reeled in the fish, the fisherman had a picture taken of himself showing off the fish's distinctive marking.
The return of the fish was not the only part of that day that was a bit of a reunion of sorts for the fisherman.
"I used to fish at the lake years ago but moved on to somewhere else after I had caught most of the carp in there. I decided to pop back recently and returned to the same swim where I first caught the carp...14 years ago," said Cosens.
What is believed to be the largest surviving fish in England was landed just a few weeks ago. On the afternoon of April 24, Chris Holland, a 23-year-old fisherman reeled in a giant carp weighing an astonishing 61 pounds, 8 ounces.
"We reduce the number of fish in the pools, which means those that remain can get larger," explained Rob Hales, who runs the fishery in Shropshire. "They are really hard to catch. In the UK there are only five or six that are more than 60 pounds, so it's quite a rare catch."
Cosens' fish is estimated to be around 20 years old, and both carp were returned to the water after their capture.
