Record trout caught in the New River at Harringay

(Before you strain your eyes, a transcription of the following article is provided below!)

Daily Telegraph & Courier (London), 17 Sep 1907

Mr Brigg's fame spread as far as New Zealand where the Dannevirke Advocate of Hawke Bay, reported the catch in their hunting section on October 22nd 1907

The long article reads as follows:

THE HARRINGAY TROUT

A correspondent writes:

The venerable trout captured at Harringay proves to be the survivor of some thirty-six placed in the New River at the Hornsey Sluice by the late Mr.Courtney Page, in 1885. The fish originally came from a small private hatchery at Hertford, and were two years old when liberated. The writer well remembers wondering, as he placed them one by one in the water, how many would be left alive at the end of the week-the pike in that piece of the river being so numerous. The few that did survive increased in size and weight very rapidly, and one taken in 1887 weighed 3¾lb. The following year two more were captured, weighing 5¼lb and 5½lb, and a fourth, taken in 1889, weighed 6lb 9oz. Two were known to have taken up their quarters under the road bridge, and one found dead at the Harringay weed gate seven years, ago weighed 13lb 8oz. The fish captured by Mr. Briggs was undoubtedly the sole survivor. It was well known, and a day or two before its capture, it was noticed, its vitality and shyness were waning. Prior to 1885 it is a fact beyond doubt no trout existed in that section of the New River. The age of the Harringay fish is twenty-four years. There is no doubt that had the water been thoroughly cleared of pike before the fish were introduced, the experiment would have been highly successful, and now the ownership of the New River has passed into public hands the water-rate payers of London would be the proud possessors of a fine trout stream.

Some Prussian carp were placed in the big reservoir at the same time, but none was ever captured, though very large ones have been seen on a still summer's evening motionless at the top of the water. One found dead in 1890 weighed 9lb.