The FM Problem Page

“Is there a rough guide as to the number or size of fish a given type of water can support, ie, small man-made lakes or ponds, gravel pits, large lakes or reservoirs, canals and rivers. If left to nature what would these types of venues potentially support carp-wise. And where geographically in England would you say is the best locations for producing large naturally bred carp? And one more if I may: What distinguishes a wild carp from other types of carp?”

DR PAUL GARNER, PhD IN FISHERIES ECOLOGY AND SUCCESSFUL SPECIALIST ANGLER, ANSWERS.

How many carp?

I love fishing big wild waters for fish that may have never seen a hook before, but you have to be realistic about what you are going to catch. If any fishery is not being fished then the chances are it is because there isn’t much in there! This is particularly true for carp, as it is quite rare for them to spawn successfully in the UK. Also, as carp are often quite visible, swimming near the surface on a warm day, people will see them if they are there.

Anyway, back to the question. The general rule of thumb is that most reasonably productive waters can hold 500lb of fish per acre. This is the weight of all fish. In a lake that has had time to settle down carp will normally only make up 20-40% of this total (100-200lb per acre). There is no reason why all the fish can’t be carp, this is just how things normally work out as the smaller fish spawn with more success.

The weight of fish is a rather arbitrary figure though. As the carp are unlikely to reproduce on a regular basis how many fish in a water normally has more to do with how many have been stocked. Carp generally have a good survival when stocked, particularly if they are 5lb or more in weight. Above this size you can expect 70-90% survival, as they are safe from cormorants and pike. I then reckon on around 5-10% of the fish dying each year after this. So if you stocked 100 carp after ten years you could expect there to be around 31 remaining (100*90% [stocking survival]* 90% [survival each year], etc, etc…). This really is just a rough idea, but it does give you somewhere to start and does show how numbers do fall off fairly quickly.

I would actually be more interested in a river or canal than a stillwater. In my experience there are loads of good carp in many rivers and canals and they can be much more elusive in these types of fisheries. I spent quite a few years fishing the Thames and caught on a regular basis, yet it was rare to see a fish in the water. My advice would be to look for stretches bordered by lakes which have been stocked with carp, as you are reliant upon fish that are stocked accidentally when they escape during floods.

Where in the country for big carp?

Although we normally associate big carp with the South of the country there is no reason why they shouldn’t be found further north. The actual difference in conditions around the country don’t fall into a north-south split. Just look at Cumbria, you might think of this as a cold area, but the gulf stream brings with it warm winds that lift the temperature significantly. I am a keen gardener and there were many species of plant that I could grow up there that will not survive here in Suffolk where I live now.

Carp will generally grow more slowly in the North of the country. Particularly, on the colder East coast. Even here though there is no reason why carp cannot reach massive sizes. Twenty odd years ago a small gravel pit on Humberside produced a forty pound carp, an enormous fish at the time, so we have firm evidence for this. Similarly, I know of some very larger tench caught from small ponds in Cumbria, again a long way from their traditional Southern strong-holds.

Carp will generally grow more slowly in the North, as the summers are a little shorter, but the long winters will slow the carp’s metabolism, allowing them to live longer. Whilst carp in the South might only grow for 10-12 years, in the North it can be more like 15-18 years. Just like the hare and the tortoise, growing fast doesn’t always mean you will come out tops.

WILD CARP

Carp are native to the River Danube and it’s tributaries. From here carp were raised in mud ponds and transported around Eurasia, where their ability to survive in poor water conditions, their fast growth and pleasant taste meant that they became an important source of protein, particularly in land-locked countries. Several hundred years ago humans stopped just growing carp in ponds and started to selectively breed them. You always get a few carp that grow faster than the others, which are deeper bodied and very rarely ones that are mirror scaled.

As an aside, I don’t know how rare mirror scaling was in wild carp, but if other species are anything to go by it might have been almost a fluke. You can also get mirror scaling in dace, roach and probably other coarse fish, but I know of only one or two specimens from millions of fish.

Over time, this selection for traits which made the carp a better domestic animal took it further and further away from it’s true wild form. By the time monks brought carp into the UK this process had already been going on for hundreds of years, so it is generally believed that what we call wild carp are in fact an early form of domesticated fish. Even when left to their own devices carp do not revert back to the true wild form. Whilst it is true that the off-spring will tend to be long, lean commons, these mimic the monastic carp, rather than the true wild fish.

So how do we identify a ‘wild carp’? Firstly it must be fully scaled. The fish is long and thin, almost chub-like in shape. The deepest part of the fish should be directly behind the gill cover. The fins tend to be much larger than on stocked carp and have a reddish hue (particularly the tail). Obviously, ‘wild carp’ can come in many different shapes and sizes depending upon their background. After a few generations even stocky mirror carp will revert to this long lean look, although the effect of humans can never be completely erased.

RUNNER-UP QUESTION

Kevin Bangs wins a runner-up prize of 100yds of Shimano Exage mono for:

“After months of asking I have taken up the challenge of taking my eight year old son fishing. He is a typical eight year old and can never stay quiet or still for long. Or so I thought.

Well, he has taken to fishing like carp to boilies. He watches every fishing programme on the TV, and at first I had to convince him that kissing the fish before putting them back was not the normal thing us anglers do, but it did not stop him trying. He reads all the fishing magazines and he really has the knack for catching some quality fish using waggler and maggots.

But he would rather carp fish. He says “catching small fish is easy.” He has only been fishing for the last two months.

So could you tell me of any good books or videos that would help him to start carp fishing and catch the fish of his dreams – a world record carp.”

GRAHAM, FM EDITOR, ANSWERS:

I thought at first that you were doing a bit of kidding here Kevin, and I still think there’s an element of that in your question. But ambitions for a world record carp after two months of fishing is probably about right for an eight year old. Good on him.

The best advice I can give him, and you, is to take it easy. Just let him carry on pulling the fish in on waggler and maggot, and to ease him into carp fishing on the commercial fisheries. Pick a decent venue and he can catch carp on his waggler and maggot, and a few different baits like pellets, boilies, sweetcorn, etc, before moving onto less active legering methods.

It’s important that he carries on catching fish, of any size; the big ones can come later when he’s well and truly hooked on fishing. But pushing him into targeting big fish now, with its inevitable number of blanks, can be enough to put a youngster off. They want continual action at that age and if they don’t get it their attention wanders off to something else.

It’s down to you to ease him into targeting world records gradually Kevin (if he ever should when he gets older and wiser). Forget about books and videos about the technical side of carp fishing at eight years old. Just let him carry on catching lots of fish and tell him all about the importance of enjoying himself.