yonny

The other one (white with light orange - a Kohaku??) aint as big as it looks in the photo, maybe 20 lb at a push. Still, a great fish. It's a Doitsu which for those who don't know means leather/lightly scaled mirror. They sound like bangers mate, especially the zip karashigoi... looking forward to seeing them.

Popped out to get a photo last night. It's the one fish in the pond that's not a koi. It's an albino grass carp. Despite its mental golden colour, this one was always going to be tricky to get a shot of as it tends not to come up for food, preferring to mooch around about a meter under the surface like a massive orange submarine. It has to be nearly a meter long but v tricky to put a weight on. It's certainly the longest fish in the pond but not the biggest. Maybe 26-27 lb? This is the fish that's had all our visitors giving it "oooooh" and "aaaaah" which is silly because there's 2 or 3 that are a fair bit bigger, but the length just blows people way. I just call it The Big Grassie. Again, apologies for the poor pic quality.

Funny, I was looking at these online yesterday! Glad to hear they work!

Destructive creatures aint they?!! I think I'll just take the lily out. I'll want to give them some shade come spring/summer, I'll figure out how in due course.

I'd planned to introduce another kipper today but was busy as owt last night and didn't get the chance for photos. I did manage a quick filter clean on dark and grabbed a shot of how the pond's looking now. You'll notice I've removed most of the plants, basically taking it back to a blank canvas to help me visualise what I want to do with it. The water still isn't quite as clear as I'd like, probably due to the fact the UV filter hadn't been changed in ages. This was done last week so hoping to see an improvement for the weekend. Although I don't want to, I may have to remove the water lily too. The carp are smashing it to bits as it dies back for winter which really isn't helping the clarity. Not sure which would keep the carp happier tbh... keep the lily at the expense of water quality or get rid at the expense of the carps favourite 'toy'!

I have another pond down in the main garden with goldfish in.... the heron can have them! Otters...... now there's a scary thought. We're 3 miles away from the Nene... but there's a small brook just 250m away. Fencing the pond, or the garden, isn't really possible. Maybe a steel mesh over the top of the pond when I'm not around?

So I did my best to get shots on the phone - apologies for the poor quality. This fish is one of the bigger koi in the pond. It's a Gin Rin Platinum Ogon. Gin Rin meaning 'scaled' i.e. a common, Ogon meaning metallic, solid, single-coloured koi, and Platinum referring to the white/silver colour. In our carpy language it's basically a pure white common. The kids have named it 'Whopper', which imo is an absolutely rubbish name, but they love it so the name stays. I put Whopper at about 28 lb despite the local pond/koi expert being adamant she's a 30. Stick to your pond building mate... I know a 30 when I see one😅 Whopper is actually a young fish, possibly as young as 5 or 6, so if I want to grow a real monster (which obviously I do😅) she's probably my best bet in the shorter term. She's probably the most friendly fish too and will always be first up at feeding time. I'm taking it easy with the food at the moment due to dropping temps, but next year I'll up the feeding during growing season. Whopper should easily be 30lb by this time next year. I've taken a lot of advice on how to grow as safely and as naturally as possible. I don't want to heat the pond, I want the carp to have a 'natural' annual cycle, so I just need to optimise feeding at the right time.

Not automatic but it is the 'Eazy' version so no need to get wet when cleaning. You just shut the pump off, isolate the central chamber, turn on airlines to the central chamber, leave it for 5 mins and drain to waste with a ball valve. Top the pond up with water and you're good to go. Takes about 10 mins, and of course while you're doing it the carp are milling about next to you at about chest height. I'm still loving this little job.... but it's still the honeymoon phase innit. We'll see how much fun it is in January in -4 C with no carp on top to stare at. Looks like a great set up. I was thinking about putting some 'proper' carp in mine. Will see what happens in spring. There are 3 or 4 ghosties among the koi and while they're all a bit different I might want to take 1 or 2 out and replace them with fish of my own choosing. I found out last night how difficult it is to get good shots of the fish with my phone camera. My proper camera isn't yet onsite (it was relocated prior to our house move, with my fishing gear, separately of the removal trucks, to avoid damage) and I haven't yet collected it. For now the rubbish phone pics will have to do.

I foresee that you are right😅

So this is what the pond looked like when I arrived. The pond is 2m wide, 6m long, and 2m deep. It holds 24,000 litres (~5.2k gallons), with the filtration and pipework capacity taking it to over 30,000 litres. Construction is by way of reinforced concrete base and walls set into the ground by ~1.6m, with the top ~0.4m sitting above ground. The wooden decking on the left is essentially a lid that is raised using a pulley system. You can then walk down into the filter house, which is also set into the ground just like the pond. The filtration system is gravity fed, which means there is a bottom drain in the pond. The water is pushed down the bottom drain, along some pipework, and up into a Nexus 310 which is a high-performance combination mechanical/bio filter. First the water is pushed through the mechanical filter section which removes dirt, grime, and weed etc. The water is then passed to the biological filter section which uses a filtration media, agitated by air lines, to foster friendly bacteria growth. This bacteria converts ammonia and nitrite (from carp poo) into harmless nitrate. The water is then fed, by pump, into a UV filter which passes the water through a tube under UV light which kills algae. The treated water is then returned to the pond through an outlet ~15cm below the ponds surface. There’s also a skimmer system which filters contamination from the surface of the pond. Water that goes through the skimmer is then pumped into a ‘veggie’ or ‘bog’ filter (an additional shallow, gravel-filled pond, planted with moisture-loving plants). This section, located over the back of the main pond, is currently blocked off due to a leak – I’ll worry about this next year. So, as you can see, it’s far from just a hole in the ground. I’ve spent loads of time online researching how all this stuff works, and spoken with the local koi centre, and the local pond builder. I’ve replaced a pump, and the UV bulb in the UV filter, trying to get the existing system working as perfectly as possible ready for winter. We have loads of trees, which means loads of leaves, and this could be a problem when autumn hits properly, especially with the skimmer system blocked off. I’ve purchased a massive fine mesh net to protect it this year and I’ll just chuck this over when the time comes. In the coming days I’ll post about the best bit…… the fish.

Of course!!

As some of you know I've inherited a koi pond after the purchase of a new home. It's not your average garden pond... in fact it's pushing 7000 gallons. Quite an installation I tell thee. It holds 16 koi to nearly 30lb, and 1 albino grass carp which is also a biggun. I'm considering doing a diary of sorts on here to document my journey keeping koi. I'd talk about the set up, any changes, and more importantly the kippers and their condition and growth. Obviously I know a thing or 2 about carp but I'm a complete newbie to ponds so it could be interesting to share in the fun of it all, as well as the blood, sweat and tears that are bound to manifest!

https://www.facebook.com/share/19dC17gyV4/

Bear in mind it'll likely mean less bites..... if you have the time to wait for the ones that matter that's great. If not - you could be screwing yourself over. I don't measure, I just do it by eye. I guess I'm talking about the bottom of the pop up to the deck/substrate.

Another great example 👍

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19Umg4Z88Z/

Great example 👍

It depends on the angling situation tbh. If I'm boilie fishing, or fishing to open water, I tend to go with 15 or 16 mm. If I'm fishing over bits, or in the margins/shallow water, I tend to drop to 13 mm. It'll also depend on what I'm fishing for. On a campaign for a biggun I like to use bigger baits. Nowadays it seems it's all overnighters so I just want a bite - for that I like smaller, brighter hookbaits. There's loas of reasons I might choose 13 over 16 and vice versa.... all depends on the specific situation. Same with colour.

In my opinion you will absolutely increase your average weights by using pop ups. The higher you fish them off the deck, the higher your average weights will climb, and it's purely down to the mechanics of how fish of different sizes approach baits. If you whack a pop up 3 inches off the deck you'll hook fewer small carp as it just looks alien to them. Bigguns can't even tell as they're approaching from above due to their sheer size. Just my opinion of course..... I have a mate that fished the same waters as me for 5 years. Great angler. His average, every year, was significantly smaller than mine, and he caught just as many fish if not more. Only difference is he fished bottom baits where I used pop ups. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not..... During my most focussed campaign after 1 particular fish, I increased the height of my pop up rigs significantly to avoid smaller fish. I landed 16 fish after that modification with an average of over 30 lb, and then the biggun. Normal average on this water was mid 20, my smallest fish was 25. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not..... You might sacrifice bites with big blatant pop ups but when the bite comes it's normally one that matters. My first piece of advice to anyone looking to target big fish would be to use blatant pop up rigs. You'll still catch smaller carp, and you'll still catch tench/bream, but imo frequency will be reduced.

Absolutely awesome kipper Kev. People underestimate how hard it can be getting everything right on that place. What a result. Buzzing for you mate.

The move itself was fine, but the build up was a nightmare. We were supposed to exchange on the Thursday, complete on the Friday, move on the Saturday. The exchange failed to materialise so it was all down to the Friday. At 16:30 on the Friday we had a call to say our buyers lender wouldn't release funds so the sale was off. Great! The solicitors and estate agents agreed to stay on late and at 17:50 we heard it was all done. Very lucky!

Well chatting about fishing is about as close as I'm getting at the moment. Not been in more than 2 months due to the house move, which finally took place last week. Still loads of unpacking to do but the move itself went ok. Managing to partially scratch the itch by sorting out the koi pond ready for winter. I'm doing my best to get the water quality as good as possible ready for the drop in temps. Seems to be working. It's looking crystal clear and the carp are certainly acting very happy. Some real bigguns in there, it's absolutely awesome. At some point I'll get some pics up on here.

There's a few proper buffs on here that will be able to give you real feedback. I think it looks ok but I'm no expert!

Defo a sexy looking mix but I'd personally go lower on the spice. The Kingfisher Red will be largely paprika so the base mix is heavy on spice before you've even started. Maybe go with the AA HNV Superseed if you want to add your own spice mix at higher levels?

When I was 19 a v large water near me came up for sale at 40k. I pleaded with the bank to lend me the money and of course they just laughed at me. Ten years later it was sold again for more than a million. I still haven't forgiven the bank 🤣