Carp Catchers Blog

Customer Ian Smith caught one of his target fish recently. Fishing a new water, Ian caught the magnificent common carp shown below after only a few nights. The common weighed 35lb 5oz, a little bit down on it’s normal weight. This is no doubt due to the good spawning weather we had a month or so back. Ian fished a light scattering of mixed sized Nash Scopex Squid Liver Plus Robin Red Shelf Life Boilies  to a silty area in open water. The rig Ian used was a 10”  Kryston Super Mantis hooklink tied to a size 6 Gardner Mugga  hook. The hookbait was a Nash Scopex Squid Liver Plus Robin Red  pop up fished an inch off the deck. This guy just keeps catching, well done Ian.

Best Fishes,

John

Here’s my latest catch which weighed 19lb 11oz. Though it looks really nice you can see it’s well spawned out, but I was happy none the less. I caught the mirror using my normal rig and it came from the area that I have been baiting regularly with good quality freezer boilies. The boilies I used on this particular occasion were Mainline Activ-8 in a mixture of sizes.

Best fishes,

John

As most of you will have noticed the carp in your local water maybe getting ready to spawn and are grouping up in large shoals in the shallows of your local lakes or they may well have already spawned in the past month. In their natural environment in the UK carp breed through the summer months, the exact time depends on location and certain conditions. Their breeding takes place in a constant water temperature of around 73^oF (23^oC) with their eggs being laid in shallow water over fine leaved vegetation or aquatic weed. The process of spawning for them is a vigorous and sometimes violent ordeal where some individuals end up being injured; any injuries caused during spawning are normally superficial and heal over time. During spawning carp will become very preoccupied with each other and in a lot of cases you will be able to stand just a few feet away and watch the process without so much as spooking a single fish. A large female will lay hundreds of thousands of eggs and these hatch in around 5-8 days at around 73^oF, the fry are able to swim properly a few days later. The number of eggs that a female produces depends on a number of factors; size is a big factor in the quantity of eggs they produce but also their state of health and diet. A reasonable estimate would be 100,000 to every kilo (2.2 lbs) of body weight, so therefore batches of well over a million eggs is quite a common occurrence. The carp’s sex organs otherwise known as their gonads vary in size and structure depending on the sexual maturity and size of the fish. The males sexual organs a far smaller than a females but still the size depends on the sexual maturity and size of the fish. A females sexual organs are huge, she has a pair of ovaries that prior to spawning take up the majority of her body cavity and weigh a third of her weight hence the dramatic weight changes around this time of year. During the spawning period it is easier to determine the sex of a carp but not in all cases; males develop small white lumps known as tubercles which are more noticeable around the head area. Females do not lose their protective mucus or develop tubercles, they become considerably plumper than the males in their stomachs and their ovipositor (egg depositor) become distended shortly before and a little while after spawning which is visible on a female when on the bank. Although carp all over the UK will have spawned or will be spawning in the near future it is very unlikely that many of the fry will survive due to the environmental conditions of the UK.

If you land any carp during this period please take the utmost care when handling the fish and release it back to the water as quickly as you possibly can to reduce stress levels during this delicate time.

Regards

David Moore

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