And then, as The Times angling column reported on Thursday, it was all over. Hedges, a 41lb 10oz common carp, vanished from the waters of the River Nene in Northamptonshire where anglers such as Mr Woolner had so avidly stalked her and, occasionally, reeled her in.

In the murky waters of the angling fraternity, dark rumours are circulating. “It doesn’t take much to put two and two together,” Mr Woolner told The Times yesterday. “That fish was stolen. I can’t believe they stole my fish.”

When Hedges, whose distinctive markings make her instantly recognisable, resurfaced a few months later, she did so several miles upstream at Thorpe Waterville, a former gravel pit-turned-fishery. To make the journey alone, the fish would have had had to vault ten lock gates. Unlike salmon, the carp is no gymnast.

Both Mr Woolner and Angling Times, suspect that Hedges must have been transported illegally, perhaps in a bucket of water or a wet towel. Such has been the outcry that the Environment Agency is investigating. This week it has emerged that four other giant carp have mysteriously disappeared from the Nene.

Introducing any fish into a river or lake without consent from the agency is a criminal offence and carries a fine of up to £2,500. But carp smuggling is notoriously difficult to prove. As one angler on the Nene pointed out yesterday: “Fish can’t speak. They can’t point the fin and somebody and say, ‘They’re the ones who did this’.”

The man, who did not want to be named, added: “The chances that Hedges made it alone are quite frankly nil. Somebody spent a considerable amount of time and effort trying to catch Hedges, probably putting protein-heavy bait out weeks or months beforehand. This was a premeditated act. That fish is a hot fish.”

A carp of Hedges’s prestige, one of the largest in the country, is such a draw to anglers that she is estimated to be worth around £10,000 for the amount of business she could generate for a fishery.

Coarse fisherman will travel all over the country, sometimes the world, to beat their personal best with a wily carp of Hedges’s size and reputation.

Hedges’s plight is not an isolated incident. In the most famous case of its kind, still unsolved, another carp — Dippy — disappeared from a lake in Ipswich.

Months later she was found in the River Gipping in Suffolk. Weeks later she was stolen again and found in an infinitely less genteel neighbourhood: a lake in Essex called The Snake Pit.

Thorpe Waterville is a fishery flanking the Northamptonshire villages of Achurch, Alwinkle and Titchmarsh. Villagers are up in arms about what they see as the creeping development of once-accessible meadowland. They blame Chris Berry, who took over the management of the water and its 70-man fishing syndicate in May this year, for restricting access. Ros Hill, who lives opposite the site, said: “The feeling is that he is establishing a commercial fishery and by doing this spoiling a beautiful area of meadowland.”

Mr Berry denies that he has big plans for the site. He also says he is unaware of how Hedges came to be in his lake.

Speaking to the The Times yesterday, Mr Berry alleged that the Angling Times had attempted to blacken his name after he was accidentally overpaid for a series of articles. “They dislike me for reasons which have nothing to do with this fish,” he said. “A while ago they overpaid me and it was tough s***.

“There are about ten such fish in Northamptonshire and they’re making a big deal of it. It was reported to the Environment Agency when it was first caught in my lake.

“Maybe Hedges was put in to the lake by someone, maybe the floods carried him.”

Mr Woolner said: “The carp fishing fraternity is a strange bunch. I hope that people with an inkling make sure whoever is responsible for Hedges is brought to book.”

IN THE SWIM

• British record carp (2002): 61lb 7oz
• Carp were first introduced to England around 1400
• Originally imported for food and traditionally kept in monastic or manorial lakes
• Varieties of carp found in Britain include common, mirror, leather, ghost, grass and koi
• All carp have teeth pharyngeal teeth at the start of the gullet
• Carp spawn in reed beds in May and June

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