A MASSIVE common carp of 27lb 12oz has been purchased for an undisclosed sum and transferred to Wayne Little's Milton Abbas Carp Syndicate along with another common of 23lb 6oz.

Rather than the size of the fish at present it's the potential and the history of the fish that made it a must-have- at-all-costs for Little. The fish grown by New Forest carp specialists Heather Fisheries will not be five years old until June, 2001 and incredibly was just 15lb 4oz when stocked out in December 1999 recording a sensational 12lb 8oz weight gain in exactly a year.

With ten years actual structural body growth still left in the fish, after which it can still get rounder, the size potential of the fish is staggering and already it is one of the biggest commons in the area.

The fish is the fastest growing specimen out of an original batch of 150,000 and the carp fishing world waits to see if this fish will live up to its potential and possibly grow into one of the country's biggest fish.

Just up the road from Little's Milton Abbas Fishery is Warmwell where previously one of the countries biggest commons 'Herman' lived before dying several years ago after reaching just over 50lb. Time will tell if Little's new fish can deliver.