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Tom landed the fish from the Daiwa Manton carp syndicate in north Lincolnshire.
Scunthorpe-based Tom, who works in marketing, said: “At around 9 pm I had a brace of 4 lb rudd, the best one 4 lb 8 oz and another of exactly 4 lb.
“I was over the moon with the once in a lifetime catch and I very much doubt I will ever catch one bigger.
“I have been fishing since my dad got me into it from a very young age.
“I started out as an all rounder then went into match fishing and eventually started targeting specimen fish mainly carp.
“My PB rudd before this brace was around the 2 lb mark many years ago.
“I knew the lake at Manton held big rudd and it is common knowledge there could be a potential British record in there.
“I was fishing to a clear spot amongst weed at around 40 yards using a simple hair rig with a 15 mm DNA Baits Secret 7 wafter boilie, fished over whole and chopped freebies.
“The second rudd came around ten minutes after putting the rod back out after the first specimen at 4 lb 8 oz and it was 4 lb on the nose.
“I was on a 48-hour trip fishing for carp but I didn’t manage to catch anything else that trip but that didn’t matter as this was a catch of a lifetime,” concluded the 30-year-old.
Manton catch equals English record
Tom’s biggest 4 lb 8 oz rudd from Manton equals the official English best. That was caught by the Reverend Edward Alston at Norfolk’s Ringmere way back in 1933.
Reverend Alston’s fish remained the British record until Simon Parry caught two rudd at 4 lb 10 oz in Northern Ireland in 2001.
But a gigantic rudd of 5 lb 2 oz was caught on opening day in June 2012 from a Whittlesey AA drain in Cambridgeshire.
Captor Adrian Cannon only had stepson Ollie Bottomley to witness it so got the nine-year-old to hold the fish in the picture. But with no independent witnesses he couldn’t claim a record.
Since then, the water which many fancied to beat the record was Buckland in Kent. It gave a number of 3 lb-plus fish, the best just hitting 4 lb.
Now all eyes are on Manton, run by top piker Neville Fickling.
Neville said: “I stocked the fishery with rudd back in 2000 after the lake flooded but only two or three anglers target them.
“The previous authenticated lake record was 3 lb 11 oz, but many others in the 3 lb-plus class are caught by carp anglers.
“They see them as nuisance fish and return them without weighing or photographs.
“The rudd are full of spawn at the moment so will soon drop back in weight but by next season a record is certainly a possibility,” Nev added.
There is currently a waiting list for the syndicate, which costs £470 a year to fish three lakes.
