92lb French monster passes away.
The aptly named French mirror, known as ‘The Giant’ has been found dead, in the snaggy margins of its French home. It is assumed that the stress of its recent capture at 92 pounds has proved to much for it to recover from.

There were no obvious marks in its mouth or on its body to suggest it had been tethered, though it was estimated that the fish had been dead for two or three days. Gigantica – which is owned by carp fishing legend Danny Fairbrass is regarded as one of the best big carp fisheries in the world.
Fishery manager, Danny Turtle made the following statement on the fishery website: “The fish had not been caught for 18 months prior to the last capture in late November and I am guessing this extended absence from the bank has contributed to its demise. The fact that it had put on 12 pounds in this 18 month period does not alarm me as it was definitely not spawn bound. The fish was a male and had made huge gains, before jumping from 60lb to 72lb between 2007 and 2008.

With such a huge weight gain and no visits to the bank I can only speculate this convergence of circumstance has contributed to the death of the fish. To be clear, I do not blame the last captor in any way, the photo's were done at night straight after capture and in minimal time, and the fish went away strongly.

Dealing with fish above 90lbs is not an exact science, and no one knows how it should be done, we all just do our best. I will be speaking to Simon Scott and other fishery owners to see if we can do more to protect the massive number of monsters that still swim in Gigantica.
I am far more gutted as an angler than I am as a fishery owner. Even though I have caught the fish before I dearly wanted it again because it was in such an amazing condition. As a fishery owner I knew this day would come, nothing lives forever but thank god we have so many other massive fish in the lake. At the current time, we still boast two 80lb + specimens, six 70lb plus fish, 11 fish between 60-70lb, and 24 fish that weigh between 50lb and 60lb.   

On top of this, there are all the uncaught fish. Take the monster known as Rapunsel for example, I had it in May 2011, its first ever time on the bank, at 53lbs! And this year a mid 50 nicknamed 'Fista' was seen during spawning, its got one massive scale on one side and has never been caught!”
For more information on Gigantica, check out the venues website: www.gigantica-carp.com