Editor’s preface.
It is, perhaps, to my and Eddie Benham’s discredit that our determination to exonerate the late Martin Gay from the Carp Society’s ill-judged decree on his unprecedented carp captures has led us a little too far into Paul Selman’s fantasy world…we have indulged him for too long and at a time when the truth about Martin’s 50lb common carp (and half a ton of other big specimens) must surely be dawning on the angling world. Paul Selman knows his game is up; he knows his story is utterly ridiculous and now seeks only to muddy the water further by tossing the occasional nugget of sheer nonsense into the mix. It is nothing less than infantile.
So let’s let Eddie wrap things up with his direct request to those who lay claim to irrefutable evidence of the fish’s provenance…
One of the criticisms levelled at Martin is that he did not mention dates in his first series of articles in 1989, so when he wrote-up his 1990 carp catches he made a point of putting in the dates, one of which was Tuesday 14th of August. I have a copy of the minutes of the Moor Hall & Belhus A.S. and he is recorded as being present at that meeting, so not in Canada. That’s a FACT and this alone stymies Selman’s ‘explanation’.
The same Committee previously saw the untouched photos of the 50lb common and saw nothing unusual in them. Robin Monday, however (who started all this off) stated, “As far as I can remember, there was a notice board in the background which may have given something away, but the general scenery was not that of an English lake”. Well the rest of us all agree about the notice board but we all thought that the background looked exactly like that of an ordinary English lake! This too is a FACT.
Then Selman comes onto the scene with this statement of ‘fact’.
He says “It is a FACT that when Martin caught those fish he was on holiday in British Colombia, Canada” He goes on. “It is my UNDERSTANDING that the part of the picture blocked out did indeed show a Canadian mountain landscape. These CONCLUSIONS were also accepted as FACT by the Carp Society leadership of the time”.
Unbelievable! They destroyed Martin’s good name and reputation, NOT on any proof but on an UNDERSTANDING.
He was challenged by Geoff Maynard who said, “Interesting Paul. However, BC is not really a known big carp area to my knowledge”.
Selman responded with “Geoff, there is fantastic big carp fishing in B.C., one of my friends is a guide there”.
Then 25 years later when his story was roundly rubbished, Selman came up with a brand new set of ‘FACTS’. In a complete turnaround he told us “The fish were caught from a warm water outlet from Lennox Power Station on Lake Ontario, bits of the power station are missed off so as not to reveal the location” and continues with this little gem: “Martins relatives have always lived in Ontario and not BC and Ontario is a noted carp area, British Columbia isn’t”. What was that he told Geoff Maynard? Didn’t he previously assure us it was a ‘fantastic’ carp-fishing area?
No one who saw the photos, including Robin Monday, saw either of those contrived scenarios – and that is a FACT.
Selman has recently claimed that his mates are fishing the actual swim at Lennox power station and “…are doing quite well”.
Really?
Here’s a photo of the warm water outlet at Lennox which was sent to me by Terry Brady, the Environmental Advisor at Lennox and whose office actually overlooks the outlet. Terry told me that fishing is strictly banned there and that security-patrols would eject anyone on site without authority. Has everyone got that?
So Martin was supposed to have free-lined sweetcorn here and Selman’s mates are fishing here and ‘doing well’ apparently. Their camouflage gear must be pretty damn good then!
Selman also said that Martin should have blocked out the plants in the photos as they were not a species native to the UK. However, I was informed by a biologist at Queen’s University that one plant was “…a common introduced weed in rough soils across Britain” and that the grass was “..a common introduced upland grass across the British Isles”.
I also consulted four geologists, independently, including a Professor, regarding the pebbles in the photos. They all agreed that the pebbles found at Lennox are of a completely different type to those in the photos. Dr Peter Allen wrote “The Kame Shelf photo has flat rounded disc shaped pebbles – good for my boyhood delight of skimming pebbles on water, whereas the fish photo has angular/ sub angular equant pebbles – useless for skimming. I can say that the beach pebbles on the fish photo are not the same place as those on the Kames photo and that they are different places”.
Pretty obvious really, but it’s good to get it confirmed by an expert geologist.
So much for Selmans ‘FACTS’.
Now, I understand, that Peter Gibbinson has stated he has PROOF that the fish were caught in Canada. According to Tim Paisley in Carpworld, April 1990, Jim Gibbinson wrote a letter to both Coarse Angler and Anglers Mail SUGGESTING the fish had been caught in Canada.
Further to that, in Cyprinews, June 1990, Jim wrote “In view of the fact that both Rick and I BELIEVE the fish to have been caught in Canada…”
How is it then that Peter Gibbinson says he can provide PROOF when his father, Jim, and his brother, Rick, cannot?
Robin Monday has also stated that he can provide PROOF but, to date, he hasn’t done so: Well, why not!
It’s because he can’t. He doesn’t have any proof. It appears that he is a weak individual who has got caught up with the fabrications regarding Canada which, incidentally, he never even mentioned.
So come on then Peter Gibbinson and Robin Monday – let us all see your proof, and how about you, Mr Selman? Benny and the rest of us would love to see it.
But we WON’T because you have none, zilch, nothing at all.
Eddie Benham.
To comment on this article, go to….https://www.fishingmagic.com/forums/fm-news-feature-comments/367030-50lber-leta-s-see-doubtersa-proofa.html#post1504393
