levigsp

Nick in waters fished little, the carp will do better with very cold winter so it is not expending energy that it cannot replace, that's one of the main reasons carp do well in Europe. However if its a fished lake with plenty of feed going in, the carp can replace energy, so milder weather helps them, so in the Uk this is a better bet for the carp as mostly we don't get it cold enough, so the carp is looking for feed that is difficult to find unless put there by anglers. You are right in that the English method of carp fishing has resulted in bigger carp being caught in the rest of the world.

Its quite simple really, adult carp are at their lightest straight after spawning, not just because they have shed spawn / milt, but with all the excursions they lose body condition. They then set about eating and what they eat is important, remember this is normally the start to mid summer, naturally the food would be in the for of various natural fauna, all very high in protein and little else, this soon builds muscle and supplies the carp with any energy it may need it is at this point that the carp gains any AVERAGE annual weight gain[if it is gaining at all][this is why I believe in High Usable Protein bait.] By this time it is the end of Summer and heading into Autumn and this is where my own experiments taught me something new that is not normally seen in print and differs somewhat with what some people preach. The carp start eating natural flora, this gives them carbohydrates that not only gives them the energy they need but lays down fat reserves that help them over the coming months. As the autumn progresses and goes into winter the carps diet slowly changes into a high protein diet again, but far less that eaten in the warmer months, sometimes eating is so infrequent one might believe they don't feed at all, this is brought on by the cold water slowing down their metabolism and a lack of food also due to cold, it then becomes worthless for the carp to search out food expending valuable energy. That energy is better utilised by converting it into Spawn/Milt, now dependent on each individual fish, this could be the point at which it is at its heaviest, or sometime later in others when the spawn has begun to expand somewhat. You are then into spring and the water warming up, the carp then starts to burn the last of its fat reserves off as energy looking for food, if it finds enough, it wont lose weight, but if it finds it difficult it will lose condition using its one muscle for energy and the spawning process. Then the whole cycle begins again.

The answer is long and complicated but I will start with the Europe. The Carp here are in their homeland, the closer to their[species] birth place the better they do, so carp in Hungary will do better than carp in Germany on average. Up until recently the culture in Europe was to catch what you can and eat it, so carp never grew big at all, but now the iron curtain has gone and people have more cash, they would sooner buy a lump of salmon, so the carp do get chance to grow and because they grow fast it does not take long for monsters to appear, this combined with a relatively new movement of pleasure carp angling has resulted in the catches you hear about. Next comes SA, the carp here are a mixed bunch bred from the original German fish and later aditions of Israeli fish and the can and do grow massive, somewhere in my files I have photos of 3 carp weighing in the 70-80lb bracket shot by two Irish lads at Umlilo. These came from a freshwater storage dam that was very deep with no shallows [very important]The carp were stocked by the bucket load and allowed to grow, no shallows so no breeding so plenty of food for the fish. However a lot of waters have perfect breeding for the fish and are then massively over populated. Australia had its fish from, Europe and Asia, so two different sub-species of carp, where only European carp live the same rules as SA apply and they can and do grow big, however the hybrids etc. don't grow so big and on top of this the constant harassment by people works against the carp. New Zealand had its fish from Asia and these were what we tend to call Koi, they reverted to wild type, small long and lean. But as already stated by others on this thread, the USA and Canada are a different ball game in that most of Canada does not have enough degree days to produce big carp, they get a great start because of warm water in summer but suffer in winter, so tend to grow quick for a few years and then slow right down, also they are mainly in rivers as the ponds, lakes etc are a predators playground, with Bass, Pike, Muskies, Trout, Sturgeon etc. and of course the otter. USA is the same in some senses with predators reigning supreme yet in other its the same as SA, they over populate and starve themselves out. One thing I will say is in quiet backwaters where carp can thrive there will be carp as big if not bigger than anything in Europe, but people have to fish to catch them. I think I've covered it all there in a simplified manner, although I could add a lot more.

You are VERY wrong, the carp in the USA grow far faster than anything in the UK, its all down to degree days, and they have far more, so more food and more growth. You are right about it being pointless, because in the UK, regardless of what anyone says or does the likes of Chris Peckham will always win and the true naturalists and persons who live by the countryside will lose.

I did read, they do use the furs, I did say they trap them for fur did I not! They do thrive, but now YOU LOOK UP the actual statistics about populations per hectre and then try telling me. Next do you realise that carp in the UK take 5-1 usa years to grow to same size? that for every 10 fish naturally spawned here in the UK the figure is 1000 in Europe and closer to 10000 in the USA and Australia, that's why they are a pest. You simply cannot compare the different countries never mind continents. You remind me of lots of people talking about foxes," Oh there not that bad, if they were left alone there would be a natural balance" bla bla, then they move to the country, buy some chickens and phone the likes of me and its the " they should exterminate all foxes" The average persons love of Otters, Foxes and Gippos is in direct proportion to the distance they live away from them [Frank Law]. I do not wish to exterminate otters, I love seeing them, I have an affinity with them having kept them for many years, But I see them for what they are with my own eyes, not through media taught rose tinted glasses. And I know that unless something along the lines of Parvo wipes the otters out in the UK, normal carp lakes in the UK don't stand a chance, unless we simply treat them as put and take lakes, we put them in the otters take them out.

You make me laugh trying to compare the two. In the states the people who trap fur are fantastic at it, they know how, where etc, yet most struggle to get an otter or two a season. Here in the UK you would get dozens if you trapped the same area of land as the trap lines in the states. I know places in Europe where fish farms are killing 2-6 otters a year, and there are far fewer otter there, so what chance have our carp fisheries got. I get sick to the stomach listening to people going on about the natural balance, I wish people would wake up to the fact the HUMANS are part and parcel of the natural balance, we are not separated from nature, although a lot of people would like to think we are.

There were two separate breeders/ kennels that produce dogs that became known as Labrador retrievers, one in Scotland [Duke Buccleugh] the other in South of England [ Earl Malmesbury], later joined by a third in Scotland[earl Home], these laid the foundations for the breed. Shame that the fantastic dog they developed has been spoiled by modern breeders. I have photographs somewhere of myself as a young boy sitting with a brace of Golden Labs in the kennels of Earl Malmesbury in Hampshire, I've also fished there. I have hunted and fished on the Buccleugh estates, Its a small world we live in when it comes to fishing/shooting and hunting.

I have seen a 53, that looked absolutely massive, something over 20lb heavier would be unbelievable. Big pike like perch always seem to look bigger for some reason.

I'm sorry, I don't know the answer.

Interesting but the answer is no not loch Awe, loch Awe 14 square miles is a lot smaller than the Loch I was fishing, Corrib is 68 square miles.

Some years ago I took the notion that I would like to catch a truly wild trout on the fly, but not just any trout. I wanted to catch one of the big fish eating trout that are often called Ferox. One wind swept day at the end of March found me in a large traditionally clinker built boat slowly meandering around a huge sheet of Inland water with its multitude of islands. When I say huge I mean huge by UK standards, 25 miles long and some ten miles wide is big by anyones standard. On one side of the boat there was a downrigger, set to troll a fish bait at great depth, but it was only there as a teaser to try and get the fish interested and never meant to catch the fish. My fishing gear was used on the opposite side of the boat, this consisted of a very large and heavy brass tube fly, some 3inch long dressed in black, yellow and silver sporting a rather large treble hook, attached to my 10ft nylon leader , a 30 yard weight forward 12 weight ultrafast sink line and 150 yards of backing line filled my reel, a 16' double handed Salmon fly rod completed to outfit and it was gear I was very used to using, however I normal used it for casting on some great Salmon rivers. This time I was simply casting the fly out behind the boat and pulling the backing of the reel as fast as I could allowing the whole lot to sink into the depths, some 90-130 feet down and when it touched down I reeled in some ten feet of backing before gently working the fly sink and draw. Every now and then I would let line out to check the depth or reel in some to shallow up, strange how ones heart would skip a beat every time it touched bottom! We had been at this for some 4 hours, all the time getting soaked by the constant waves crashing over the side of the boat, when the down rigger released, I franticly worked the fly to no avail, that was the total excitement that day, some would say I should have had hooks in the bait!. Dawn the following day saw us on the loch in the boat again on a rolling 3ft wave with perfect overcast and very cold conditions.' Fishing in 30-40 ft of water produced 2 small jack pike, so after lunch we moved back into deeper water. At 2.30pm I was watching the fish finder/ depth sounder when I could clearly see a fish come up ten feet or so and start moving back and fourth at the back of the trolled fish, it was clearly a big fish and I worked my fly with a little more effort whilst still watching the sounder. The fish vanished of the screen for a minute or so and then it happened, the line simply felt different, I lifted hard and there was a resistance like a wet rag, I started hand lining to get the rag in the boat, about half way up the rag woke up and took all my gained line back, that was its only good run, it was then simply a matter of getting it back 130+feet . The fish was slid over the net and its beauty was there for me to behold in-between its mad slapping about and to realise a dream, a double figure wild brown on the fly, it was just over 10lbs and was slipped back carefully to hopefully live the rest of its life in piece. The memory of that trout and the 3 that followed will live with me to my dying day, no more or less than any other of my red letter captures over the years, captures that make life truly worth living.

The Contacting Saul on the Scottish Carp Group

The two GSPs and the two cats, Silver Bengal and Selkirk Rex and the grumpy old git Algernon the tortoise .

my pair love the bank

Try this for a rendition. http://www.lifeaspire.com/7631/sound-of-silence-on-an-18-string-harp-guitar-is-haunting/

This week I have been listening to all sorts but this caught my ear http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p056k9bf And this

Ive kept them, Ive also shot wild ducks.

I would say I have caught more big fish in the past ten years using a short rod, centre pin and float than any other method, I love watching fish on the move and placing a bait in their path, a real adrenalin buzz.

​Reminds me of a time when people just let themseves go.

Don't ask why

Thought of some on this site

Ok I get it

Strange people full stop!