Did the mafia kill Britain's largest carp?

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Angling world in mourning for Benson the celebrity carp

She was, in her own way, one of the great celebrities of her age, a creature of such grace and physical perfection that admirers would come from hundreds of miles away just to catch a glimpse of her. Elusive, mysterious, no one ever knew when they would see her next, or how much she would weigh.

Now she is dead, and — just as with Diana, Princess of Wales, and Marilyn Monroe — a mythology has already started to build up around her passing. How did she die? Was she a victim of her own admirers? And just how old was she, Benson, the giant carp? We do know that Benson was big, in every sense. She was, at 64lb 2oz (29kg), the biggest common carp in Britain, although mirror carp do come larger. She was also very popular: in 2005 readers of Angler’s Mail voted her Britain’s Favourite Carp.

Anglers would come from all over the country to her home lake in Cambridgeshire to catch her, weigh her, take her photograph and put her back again. Once a fishing party flew over from Germany just to try their luck. During her all-too-short life — she was said to be about 25, although carp can easily live twice as long — she was caught more than 60 times. But no more. Today she is sitting in a deep freeze waiting to be mounted, and the angling world is in mourning.

“We are all rocked by Benson’s death. She was an iconic carp,” Tony Bridgefoot, the owner of the Bluebell Lakes complex near Peterborough, said. “We are all still trying to come to terms with her death. Money could not have bought Benson. She had that celebrity status. I can’t stress how famous she was in the angling world. All fisherman wanted to catch her. It was the size of the fish, but also the fact that she was scale perfect. It looked as if the scales had been painted on.”

But in their keenness to land the queen of the people’s carps, did some anglers go too far? Mr Bridgefoot said that a quantity of nuts — which can be used as bait, but can be fatal if not processed properly before use — was found on the banks of the old gravel pit that was home to Benson. “This looks like the work of some irresponsible anglers,” he said. “Large quantities of nuts have been found on the bank and in the margins; empty bags have also been found in the skips. It seems her demise was caused by the introduction of foods that are harmful to fish.”

The Angler’s Mail columnist Gary Newman said: “Whenever anything dies there are rumours. People have to find a reason why. If it was something to do with the bait it would have been more than one fish that turned up.” Not necessarily so, according to Mr Bridgefoot. “If there were nuts, she would have eaten the lot. She was a greedy fish.”

Her age was also a cause of debate. Mr Bridgefoot said that he got Benson — who was named after a hole the shape of a cigarette burn in her dorsal fin — as a 24-pounder when he stocked the lake in 1995, and that she would have been about five years old. She arrived with a companion called Hedges, who disappeared down the River Nene in the flood of 1998. Mr Newman said that he thought she was older than 20. “It would be quite unusual to have something that young that size. It probably died of old age as much as anything. There have been cases of them living to 65 or 70, but 45 years is more normal,” he said.

At least anglers will have their memories. Mark Pitchers, of Middlesbrough, landed her on his third attempt at 11pm one night in October 2003. “I lifted the rod and knew that it could not be anything other than Benson,” he said. “The feeling was unbelievable. I had two or three nights afterwards when I could not sleep.” One angler wrote on the Bluebells Lakes online forum: “I have followed the capture of this great fish for years & years, from carp magazines to this website & the forum! A true great fish from a true great fishery!!!!!! RIP Benson!!!!”

Did she suffer from being caught so often? Research by scientists in Edinburgh in 2003 suggested that fish felt pain, although others have reached different conclusions. “It makes you wonder,” Mr Bridgefoot said. “She seemed happy on it. I think she liked having her picture taken.” Some anglers, however, suggested that she had not been looking her best recently. There will be no inquest and, no doubt, the controversy will soon die down. After that, immortality awaits. “She is in my deep freeze at the moment,” Mr Bridgefoot said. “She will be mounted and put in the lodge. We will have guided tours and they will be full, I’m sure.”

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Seems more like a mossad assasination than anything to me...