The British Record Carp

By Alex Clayton · Updated 23 October 2026

The British record carp is a 68lb 8oz (31.1kg) common carp caught by Mike Nixon at Waterside Fishery, Chesham, Buckinghamshire. The British Record (Rod Caught) Fish Committee (BRFC) ratified it at the claimed weight, and the Angling Trust announced the new UK carp record on 11 June 2026. It beat a record that had stood for ten years by just 7oz.

Heavier carp have been landed in British waters, one of them by almost 15lb, yet none of them holds the British carp record. This page covers the official details, how the fish was caught, how the record has climbed since 1952, why the bigger fish were turned down, and how a claim works.

The Current UK Carp Record: 68lb 8oz Waterside Common

Everything official about the current record fits in one table.

Detail	Official record
Weight	68lb 8oz (31.1kg)
Species	Common carp (Cyprinus carpio)
Fish name	The Waterside Common
Captor	Mike Nixon
Venue	Waterside Fishery, Chesham, Buckinghamshire
Capture date	1 May 2026
Ratified	By the BRFC at the claimed weight, announced 11 June 2026
Previous record	The Parrot, 68lb 1oz (2016)

Sources: the Angling Trust record announcement and Angling Times.

The BRFC ratified the fish after reviewing witness statements and certification that the scale used had been tested. Reports written before the ruling called it a contender. It is now the official UK carp record.

Two details still cause confusion online. Some sources give the capture date as 24 April 2026, but the Angling Trust announcement gives 1 May 2026, and that is the date used here. The Angling Trust names only the fishery, while Angling Times reporting on this fish places it in Kingfisher Lake on the Waterside complex.

Tickets and booking rules are not covered here, so check with the fishery before you travel.

The fish is a common carp, and it sits alongside every other species on the full list of British fishing records. Any page that still lists another carp as the British record carp is out of date or unofficial.

How Mike Nixon Caught the British Record Carp

The angler who broke the record did not get first pick of the lake. On a four-night, lake-exclusive booking with friends, Mike Nixon drew fifth of six for swims, according to his account in Angling Times.

His previous personal best was 48lb 10oz, so the British record carp beat it by nearly 20lb. He saw carp feeding in the clear water and changed his approach to suit them, switching to single yellow hookbaits fished with small PVA bags.

The tackle he reported using was:

Single yellow Mainline Cell hookbaits
Size 4 J Precision Curve hooks
PB Products Jellywire hooklinks
2.5oz leads

Those brand names come from his reported account, not a recommendation from this site. The fish was weighed on the owner’s scales before the claim went in, and those scales then went through the BRFC checks covered in the ratification section below.

What carries over to your own fishing is the watercraft. Time spent looking at the water before you cast tells you whether fish are feeding on the bottom or just cruising, and in clear water you can often see it. That should decide how much bait goes in.

If you can see fish feeding, try a single bright hookbait with a small PVA bag before you put out a bed of bait.

The Waterside Common: A Carp That Kept Getting Closer

Two years before it became the record, the Waterside Common weighed 68lb 0oz. That was one ounce short of the British record carp at the time, as Angling Times reported in May 2024.

The fish was caught several times before Mike Nixon’s capture, and its weight crept upwards:

Date	Weight	Captor	Status
2023	63lb 12oz	Darren Zimmerman	Not a record
April 2024	66lb 8oz	Kieran Duff	Not a record
May 2024	68lb 0oz	Chris Lines	1oz short of the record
February 2026	68lb 0oz	George Benos	Reported by Carp Social
1 May 2026	68lb 8oz	Mike Nixon	Ratified British record

Chris Lines took his fish after spombing Essential Cell boilies over three nights, using a combi multi-rig with a size 6 wide gape hook and a pineapple wafter hookbait.

A carp’s weight rises and falls through the year with feeding and spawning, which is how one fish can sit within ounces of a record for two years. The Parrot, the fish it replaced, held the record from 2016 and died in 2017, according to Carpology.

How the British Carp Record Has Progressed Since 1952

Richard Walker’s 44lb carp of 1952 beat the previous record by nearly 13lb. The last two records were separated by just 7oz.

Year	Weight	Captor	Venue	Fish and source
1952	44lb	Richard Walker	Redmire Pool	Clarissa, 13 September 1952 (Environment Agency)
1980	51lb 8oz	Chris Yates	Redmire Pool	(Environment Agency)
2008	67lb 8oz	Oz Holness	Conningbrook, Kent	Two-Tone (Carpology)
2016	68lb 1oz	Dean Fletcher	Cranwells Lake, Wasing Estate, Berkshire	The Parrot, January 2016 (Angling Times)
2026	68lb 8oz	Mike Nixon	Waterside Fishery, Chesham	The Waterside Common (Angling Trust)

The table shows key milestones, not every record holder in between. Between Clarissa and the Waterside Common, the British carp record rose by 24lb 8oz.

Clarissa’s record stood for 28 years, from 1952 until 1980, and the Environment Agency has published its own history of the fish. When Chris Yates finally beat it from the same pool, his claim was initially rejected because the fish had not been killed for examination. That decision was overturned, and killing a fish so its body could be examined stopped being a requirement.

The Parrot beat Two-Tone by 9oz and was ratified about five months after capture, the first new carp record in eight years, according to Carpology.

Other species have their own record histories, such as the British record tench. For the wider picture of the species, see the carp species guide.

The last three records were separated by a combined 1lb, which is why the BRFC asks for certified scales and witnesses. That process is covered after the next section.

Why Bigger UK Carp Are Not the British Record

An 83lb 4oz carp has been caught in Kent. The British record carp is 68lb 8oz. Both facts are true, and the gap between them explains how the record works.

Several heavier fish have been banked, and Angling Times has reported what happened to each:

Fish	Weight	Venue	Outcome
Big Rig	69lb 3oz	The Avenue (Tom Doherty, 2016)	Rejected as artificially reared
Captain Jack	69lb 10oz	Holme Fen	Rejected
Marshall	73lb 8oz	Holme Fen (Jensen Price)	Rejected unanimously, 2021
Big Plated	83lb 4oz	Wingham, Kent	Heavily spawn-bound, no claim submitted

The BRFC’s reasoning is that carp, more than any other British coarse fish, are subject to farming and management aimed at producing ever-larger fish. It therefore judges claims on factors such as the weight at stocking, where the fish came from, what it has been fed, and whether that weight could be reached naturally. A fish grown to a weight the committee considers artificial will not be ratified, however heavy it is on the day.

The rulings are disputed. Jensen Price’s family called the 2021 decision a disgrace, and a fishery owner described the Big Rig refusal as snobbery. Chris Yates, a former record holder, backed the 2021 decision. The BRFC’s decisions are final and it is not obliged to explain them.

So the biggest carp in UK waters is not necessarily the record. For the heaviest fish ever landed, look at the unofficial lists. For the record, only BRFC-ratified fish count. Carp caught abroad are a separate list again, covered in the guide to the biggest carp ever caught.

How a British Record Carp Claim Is Ratified

A fish of a lifetime can still fail as a record if nobody watched it weighed and the scales cannot be checked afterwards.

The decision belongs to the BRFC, a voluntary committee whose record fish pages are hosted by the Angling Trust. If you think you have a British record carp:

Contact the BRFC Secretary without delay. The June 2026 announcement named Nick Simmonds as Secretary. Post holders change, so get current contact details from the Angling Trust record fish page.
Give the Secretary the details. The Secretary records the capture and advises you how to progress the claim.
Gather evidence like that used for the 2026 record. That means witness statements from people who saw the weighing, and certification that the scale has been tested.
Photograph the fish on the scale. This is sensible supporting evidence and general good practice rather than a stated BRFC rule.

Put the fish’s welfare first throughout. Keep it wet, use a sling or retention only as the fishery rules allow, and get it back in good condition. Since the Yates case covered in the progression section above, a record fish does not need to be killed.

If you think you have a record, weigh it in front of witnesses, keep the scale for testing, and contact the Secretary straight away.

Frequently asked questions

What is the British record carp?

The British carp record is a 68lb 8oz (31.1kg) common carp caught by Mike Nixon at Waterside Fishery, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, on 1 May 2026. The BRFC ratified it at the claimed weight, and the Angling Trust announced it on 11 June 2026. It beat the previous record by 7oz.

What was the UK carp record before 2026?

The previous record was The Parrot, a 68lb 1oz carp caught by Dean Fletcher in January 2016 at Cranwells Lake on the Wasing Estate, Berkshire. The Waterside Common beat it by 7oz in 2026. See How the British Carp Record Has Progressed Since 1952 above for the full timeline.

What is the biggest carp ever caught in the UK?

Heavier fish than the record exist. Big Plated weighed 83lb 4oz at Wingham, Kent, but no claim was submitted. Several fish from 69lb 3oz to 73lb 8oz were rejected by the BRFC, which judges whether a carp's weight was reached naturally. The official record is 68lb 8oz. See Why Bigger UK Carp Are Not the British Record above.

Is the British record carp the same as the world record?

No. The BRFC list covers fish caught in British waters, so the British record and the world record are separate lists with different fish. For the heaviest carp landed anywhere, see the guide to the biggest carp ever caught worldwide.