Big Carp Legends - Ritchie McDonald

Ritchie McDonald There is no doubt that Ritchie McDonald is a carp fishing legend. He dominated the headlines in the eighties when he caught the Yateley North Lake Forty (later to be christened Bazil) at a weight two pounds above the official British record held by Richard Walker. By refusing to claim the record, as he believed Chris Yates was in fact the true record holder, he stamped his mark on the record fish committee and proved to everyone that he had great character and consequently earned the respect of the carp fishing world. Already in the headlines, his next assault was in France at the recently pioneered Lake Cassien. We all read about his exploits weekly in the Angling Times; Ritchie was on a roll, but in actual fact this roll had began ten years before the big Yateley fish. In the seventies, Ritchie was the first angler to catch a twenty pounder from Redmire in winter and the first angler ever to catch thirty twenties in a season. By the early eighties his tally of 35lb-plus carp was light years ahead of his contemporaries, and he took his good friend Rod Hutchinson under his wing in an attempt to land Rod's first big carp. Ritchie earned the reputation as the big carp hunter of the day, and not without reason. Longfield fell to his approach, and a season on Ashlea Pool saw him soon become the lake record holder with Peter Mohan pushing this publicity-shy phenomenon to tell the world of his captures. Once in the Colne Valley, Ritchie once again ruled the roost, smashing the exclusive Conservative Club venue, catching Sally from Savay and conquering Harefield. But it was Yateley again where Ritchie was back in the headlines, catching the impossible by landing the Pad Lake Forty (Jumbo) and Heather from the Car Park in the same week. This was not the end…