I believe my goal has been achieved. Despite this, some posters continue to be sceptical. Fair enough that’s their choice, but I do like to think there’s a silent majority out there rooting for Martin.
I wish to make it quite clear to you all from the start, that what you will read on the following pages is not meant to be a personal attack on any individual. All I have tried to do is to take what information has been made available, together with my own researched material, in order to arrive at some sort of conclusion. All I originally sought was a debate, but unfortunately it didn’t transpire.
This will be my final piece on this subject because I believe it says it all.
I have no need to apologise for anything here; neither does the editor – we didn’t give this to the world:
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“…In his time he was an influential angler and writer of great note not only in pike circles but big tench, etc. But like George Michael who is a song writer and singer of world renowned, when all is done he will always be remembered for that ‘Toilet‘ incident – sadly Martin Gay in years to come may only be remember for the infamous picture of a 48lb common carp with the background cut out”
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One of the things that really struck me after the articles had been published were the posts by Paul Selman. Most of the other posts were opinions one way or the other, or wanted to see more evidence of some kind. His were not.
I thought at first that maybe he was a member of the Ostrich Tendency, as his manner was too bullish and dismissive. I found this behaviour very strange and difficult to understand, but what I was not aware of was his position on the panel that held Court and passed Judgement on Martin.
Pauls ripostes “One million per cent they were caught in Canada”… “Cliff, are you on LSD…?” and “Is that it?” in response to my painstakingly researched article were simply too brash and brief for someone sure of his cause. And then came this comment on the photo of the big carp, a derisory “The 48 is a low 30, tops. There were no scales just a tench angler’s guess”
(There were scales actually – a brand new set of 50lb scales specifically bought for the possibility of a whacker. The needle was pulled to the limit)
He then went on to pursue this ridiculous and insulting comment by saying “Personally I also have doubts about the claimed weights which I understand he just estimated”
Where did he get that from?
He goes on…”The biggest common looks a low 30lb fish to me and I have caught many of that size and witness them daily.” Why say such things Paul, it does you no favours, and wasn’t even part of the debate.
Among the weights Martin published are fish of 13.12, 18.4, 32.8 and 23.4. That’s pretty good guesswork isn’t it? To the nearest 4oz!
Paul even puts himself up as something of an authority on plants when referring to the photo. He says “He should have blanked out the plant too, a species not native to the UK”.
Talk about ‘clutching at straws’!
But that might not be the only ‘plant’. What about the story from Jamie in Toronto, Canada? Read that dubious story again and you’ll find they couldn’t even get this right. Jamie reports his Canadian neighbour as saying “…a short while afterwards his uncle put some pictures in the UK press and there was some furore about them”. Then, in complete contradiction of this in the very next paragraph, he writes “My neighbour said that he didn’t know about the pictures”!! These strike me as the ramblings of a fantasist. Quoting them here doesn’t make for exciting reading but are they not very revealing?
In the same story we are informed that (in referring to his uncle): “He immediately went to the local hardware store and bought some tackle”
But Robin had already told us (in 1990) that Martin “had borrowed tackle, which was obviously inadequate for the job”
Again, highly significant I think, for those with a critical eye and a half-decent bullshine detector:
The devil’s in the detail.
Paul had already questioned why “His (Martin’s) fishing equipment was rather basic and primitive” but when I asked him to explain the overwhelming discrepancy between the two versions he said that it wasn’t important and dismissed it by stating that I was ‘splitting hairs’.
There’s only one version of the truth…
Not satisfied with that he goes on to state (in reference to the water) that it “contained only common carp. I have fished 70 odd UK waters and all contained at least a few mirrors” In fact, as I had previously told him, there is quite clearly a photo of a mirror carp shown in the article.
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In June 2013 Geoff Maynard blogged “B.C. is not really a known big carp area to my knowledge”
In response Paul advised him in no uncertain terms “there is FANTASTIC BIG CARP fishing in B.C… one of my friends is a guide there”
Yet just last month Paul informed us all that “Martins relatives have always lived in Ontario and not B.C. and Ontario is a noted carp area, British Columbia isn’t” (My italics) For someone with such praise for BC’s ‘FANTASTIC BIG CARP FISHING’ (Pauls capitals) just two years before, he changed his mind a bit sharpish didn’t he? Why?
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Well, the reason for this change of direction might not be obvious at first, but please consider this:
It was not until AFTER Cliff Hatton revealed that at least six others had seen the photos that the Jamie story surfaced!!
No wonder Kevin Clifford and Derek Stritton were pleading on Paul’s facebook page ‘let it go, guys’! they could probably see where it was heading because………….
This is what Paul had to say in June 2013:
Quote: “I was General Secretary of the Carp Society at the time and it was discussed at a Steering Committee Meeting and my late friend Alan Smith had an insiders knowledge. It is a fact that when Martin caught those fish he was on holiday in British Columbia. 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”
He goes on to tell us that “Chris Ball deleted the fish from the Big Carp List because the evidence was completely overwhelming that the carp were caught in Canada”
There was no ‘insider knowledge’
Robin told Alan Smith and Alan King about the fish, that’s all, and this is confirmed in letters to Carpworld by both Robin and Alan Smith. Try reading it. It’s all there. So much for the ‘insider knowledge’ that contributed to the Carp Society’s rubbishing of Martin’s exemplary reputation and the dismissal of his fabulous common carp from the big-fish list!
The devil’s in the detail.
I don’t know who headed the Carp Society back then but I have seen the names of Jim Gibbinson, Derek Stritton, Tim Paisley, Chris Ball and Bob Morris mentioned. Have any of these men anything to say now?
As recently as last month Paul stated “Martin Gay’s carp were caught in Canada one million per cent. Ask Jim Gibbinson he will tell you they were caught in Canada one million per cent”
Will he? This is what I have on record from Tim Paisley in an Editorial: (the emboldening is mine)
“Jim Gibbinson wrote a long letter to Coarse Angler suggesting the fish had been caught in Canada.
And from Jim himself (Cyprinews June 1990): “In view of the fact that both Rick and I believe the fish to have been caught in Canada…”
This doesn’t strike me as being even 100% let alone ‘one million per cent’.
One might be entitled to ask if Paul is digging not a hole for himself but a large crater, because he now changes his story after Cliff’s revelation that at least six others saw the photos.
This is his latest statement:
“The fish were caught from a warm water outlet from Lennox Power Station, Lake Ontario. Bits of the Power Station are missed off the picture so as not to reveal the location”. This appears to me as a statement of fact.
Yet Robin , who has also changed his account now says, “Yes the photos were complete. I can’t remember exactly what was in each photo but the size of the rocks and the horizon that was so far away that it could never have been in this country” – another conflicting – and rather curious – ‘statement of fact’!
But Robin in a letter to Carpworld in March/April 1990 wrote “As far as I can remember, there was a notice board that may have given something away, but the general scenery was not that of an English lake”
So, we might ask both Paul and Robin – where is the Power Station?
What an absolute mess the Carp Society appear to have made of things. The leadership (none of whom saw the photos) were led to believe by the Steering Committee (none of whom had seen any photos other than Robin Monday) that the carp were caught in British Columbia, Canada based on the understanding of Paul that the picture blocked out a Canadian mountain landscape. These conclusions were also accepted as fact by the Carp Society leadership.
So the Carp Society leadership, wise men that they might be, appear to have been duped by their Steering Committee into condemning Martin and his catches.
Gentlemen, you should all be truly ashamed of yourselves if this is the case.
Chris Ball deleted the fish from the Big Carp List because (quote) “the evidence was completely overwhelming”
Well it wasn’t was it!
Paul never actually saw any of the photos (he said that it was his understanding that the part of the picture which was blocked-out did indeed show a Canadian mountain landscape) and neither did Jim Gibbinson see the photos, yet, according to Paul, they are apparently both one million percent sure that the carp were caught in Canada.
If Paul was led to understand that, then were not both he and Jim Gibbinson misled? Who, you might ask, provided them with this mis-information?
Why was Martin not invited along to give his side of things and maybe even bring along photographic evidence? Why was his letter to Tim Paisley’s Carp World magazine not published when it was quite clear in that letter that Martin was challenging what had been written against him? Of course, until recently, Tim Paisley would not have been aware that Martin had sent me a copy of that letter!
He and the rest of the Carp Society were unaware that at least six other people had seen the photos: NO Canadian scenery. NO power station.
Look at the list of people who saw the photos – and remember their testimonies:
John Reed
Gwynne Davies
Micky Tilbrook
Alan Blackford
Mac McCarthy
Eddie Benham
Cliff Hatton
Chris Yates
Barrie Rickards
as well as…….
Neville Fickling, who was told by Martin Gay that the water was located in the UK.
And for the Carp Society who showed such poor judgement?
Well, errr…….Robin Monday.
Do readers not think this unjust decision by the Carp Society should now be reviewed, overturned, and an apology issued?
Those crucial points so frustratingly and mysteriously ignored by the FM posters MUST now be taken into account: the fresh open sores on Martin’s knuckles on the night of 11th July 1989 which indicated that he caught his fish a few days earlier whilst still on holiday from work in the UK….the minutes of the meeting in August, 1990, which prove that Martin was in the UK that evening having fished for, caught and diarized a 34lb 4oz carp that very morning…the Alan Bramley commemorative built cane rod he’d never have put in an aeroplane hold…
This, together with the testimonies of the aforementioned trustworthy anglers is more than enough to challenge the ‘completely overwhelming evidence’ on which the Carp Society made their unfortunate and ill informed decision.
There’s no hoax here gentlemen – just bad judgement by the Carp Society which was only too keen to write off an exceptionally talented angler.
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You will never have absolute proof, but I can assure you that Martin caught his carp in an English water.
And do remember that Martin never claimed that his fish should be put on any Big Fish List anyway! (even though I and others think it should have taken its place there)
It is my belief that Robin made an assumption (as Martin said he did), and that things then went too far and he was in a position where he was, and still is, unable to retract his version. I can’t believe that he would deliberately lie.
Paul, as General Secretary of the Carp Society at the time, appears to have been misled or misinformed in helping to decree that Martin caught the carp in Canada.
So there it is. Make up your own minds from all that is written here, which side you think is most credible: the wildly differing versions we have seen from Robin, and Paul on behalf of the Carp Society, or the one that’s remained consistent throughout.
There is only one version of the truth – and the devil’s in the detail
And finally…Paul, if you are reading this: My recent application to join the Flat Earth Society was turned down.
Eddie Benham
