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Carpfishing UK - The Carp Facts Page |
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The History of carp in the UK Cyprinus Carpio - The carp is one of the most adaptable fish in the country. Its introduction to England and Wales started as early as the 1300’s, when carp were imported from mainland Europe and reared in stew ponds. Today carp flourish in almost every river and lake in the country. From small village ponds to the largest, most powerful rivers. The carp has succeeded in every available habitat. Introduced initially by monks as a food source, carp became established and were stocked into estate lakes and fisheries, and once available, quickly became a target for anglers. At this time, the carp had a fierce reputation for being incredibly difficult to tempt, and was thought by some to be un-catchable. Slowly anglers developed their knowledge and techniques, culminating in the birth of modern ledgering techniques pioneered by the likes of the legendary Richard Walker. These anglers had none of the specialised tackle available today, and had to make their own, nets from hession sacks and bicycle wheels, specialised split cane rods and eventually the first electronic bite alarm. During the mid-20th century, carp became increasingly popular with anglers and in 1952 Richard Walker netted Britain’s first 40lb fish. Ever since, carp have been one of the most sort after species, as confirmed recently when an Environment Agency telephone survey asked the question; Which species you most like to catch? 55% of licence holders stated carp as their preferred quarry. The British Record now stands at over 60lb. Whilst carp this large are a rarity, they readily grow to over 10lb, with 20lb being considered specimen sized. Carp are amongst the longest living fish species in the country, with wild fish of over 60 years old being recorded, but most carp will live for 10 - 20 years. The common carp is the original strain with the mirrors being genetically bred out of the stock. In China, Carp were the first fish to be bread for food with several domesticated verities emerging. Chinese domesticated verities include the Mirror Carp, The Leather Carp and the Crucian Carp which is barbell-less and is a relative of the gold fish The Japanese were responsible for breeding Koi Carp, which are large ornamental verity with mixture of colors including White, Orange Gold, and Black.
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| Carp Strains (common to the UK) | |
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"Common Carp" - The most "common" carp lots of small uniform scales all over; [see this example] caught by Nigel Sharp. "Leather Carp" - No scales at all with a leathery appearance, hence the name [see this example], the famous Heather The Leather caught by Steve Pagulatos. "Mirror carp" - Small numbers of large scales scattered randomly [see this example] the photo is of a 30lb 8oz specimen caught by Mark Normanton. "Linear Carp" - Like a mirror but with scales along the lateral line only [see this example] caught by Chris Frankish. "Grass Carp" - Similar to the common but with a long slender body and upturned mouth [see this example] caught by site regular Dirk Wise.
Breeding information Carp Spawn from around May-July and need a temperature around 16-22oC sustained over a varying number of days (typically 7-14 days) multiple spawning is common. The carp produce somewhere in the region of 100,000 - 200,000 eggs per kg of body weight so you can expect over 1,000,000 eggs per carp for each spawning, so over a lakes population this adds up to a massive amount of eggs. Sadly or so it seems most of these eggs will be eaten by insect larvae, birds, fish including carp and everything else that is looking for a nutritious meal. Quite often not a single carp will make it into adulthood from of the millions of eggs produced, some will become fry only to be eaten by other fish or birds and most of the remaining fry won't survive their first winter. While this sounds quite sad it's not really the case as it would only take a small percentage of these fry to survive each year to leave our fisheries totally overrun and indeed there is some such survival success on some waters but these are in the minority.... so the yearly harvest of eggs actually provide a yearly source of highly nutritious food and the odd few that do make the long journey to adulthood in ideal conditions can keep a water perfectly balanced, a perfect balance is perhaps very rare..!! How do to tell the different sexes This is a very difficult task most times of the year and is best done during the breeding season, at this time of year the males usually loose much of their protective mucus and their body feels noticeably rougher, some say sandpaper like. The male develops small white lumps which account for the roughness known as tubercles which are often more noticeable around the head area. The females retain their mucus coating and are noticeably plump compared to the male fish, also the ovipositor (egg depositor) of the female carp may distend somewhat before, during and for a short while after breeding.
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