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And the reason for the odd mirror is because you have hundreds of surviving offspring (to fingerling size at least) per female. In artificial environments it’s more. In the wild the chances of two recessive carrying commons spawning together and the double recessive gene offspring surviving is low but then you may have multiple recessive carriers spawning together and a larger % of non commons than normal. At the danger of this getting dogmatic the OPs chances of a mirror are low.

Like you say ... eventually the dominant gene will take over & you will end up with all commons .so if you start off will all commons the chances of ending up with mirrors is highly unlikely .

scale patterns are like eye colour in humans. I have some old uni notes on this but wont be able to dig through them until July but I will do when I get back from my holiday. I'm pretty sure its the same as human eye colour, so 2 commons breeding, both may have the recessive gene which means some offspring will be mirrors. The 'common' is the dominant gene so you'd need both commons to carry the recessive 'mirror' gene for a mirror to be produced. 2 commons can make a mirror, just like two brown eyed parents can make a blue eyed child. Otherwise there would be no mirror carp in existence! A common and mirror carp are both what we know as 'common carp'. the same species as ghost carp and koi carp too. The only differing thing between them is scale patterns and colour pigmentation.

Best of luck Chill - hope you have a great time 🙂 Lake looks very nice

£5.70 delivered Ebay.... From reading this thread, sounds like there would be some useful info/reminders ..... Easy to get tunnel vision in your own fishing sometimes....

mine arrived at about 7.30, opened it to find this

I think he is a better writer than Yates, by miles.. It's a toss up between this and Carp Sense by Jim Gibbinson as to which holds top spot for the best carp book ever written They are both that good in my opinion. I read this in one sitting. It's phenomenal.

A truly inspirational book that gives an insight into fishing for some of the most sought after UK carp from some of the country's most difficult waters. The narrative reads well (there are a few grammatical errors but on the whole is quite well written) and considering the book was written long-hand using pen and paper is testament to Terry's patience and attention to detail. One or two of the guest chapters do leave a lot to be desired however, with one in particular that perhaps should not have made the final print (at least without a total re-write) as it reads terribly. Rather like an abbreviated list of angling actions. Thankfully this chapter is quite short! The book covers Terry's exploits from his early Yateley days, Wraysbury and a new British record, the "secret" mere, right up until his capture of "two tone" from Conningbrook at over fifty pounds. Some of the Yateley chapters I found fascinating with detailed descriptions of both the historic waters and the equally historic carp that reside within (or at least used to - even rare, historic carp do not live forever!). The chapters describing the fishing on the Mere (aka: Secret mere, Black mere, Colne mere) are excellent and really compelling reading. The lengths that Terry and Co. went to in order to catch the carp from this awesome venue are quite astounding culminating in Terry's capture of the "black mirror" a rarely caught, beautiful English carp of monstrous proportions. On the whole, a good carp book and interesting read. Recommended for any "dyed in the wool" carp angler.

Due to the severe lack of waters to fish in here in the veritable 'carp desert' of Western Australia, I'm forced into having to "guest" some very dodgy places indeed. When I do, I can't help but think of some of the escapades that Hutchy got up to in this brilliantly funny book. It is a permanent addition to my bookshelf, and I get a bit of a 'tear-in-eye' feeling of homesickness every time I read it, as it's serves a reminder of some awesome times I spent fishing in the UK during the 1970's and 80's. Thumbs up for this classic carp book Rod Katfish AKA Niblet