Why not Carp??

[jeepster]

wasnt't it carpers that shot john lennon? oh no, sorry, wasn't it carpers that made princess dianas car crash? no, wait a minute, i got it, carpers faked the moon landings, thats it!

 

den, you're a good carper, so you dont see the bad carpers doing whatever it is they do. sure there are bad anglers of all disciplines, but carping seems to attract more than its fair share of weekend anglers looking for a bigger fish than their mates, who are only after the photo of them with the fish. so the bad carp anglers are a bit more obvious than the bad barbeler or piker.

[Peter Waller]

Nathan:

Many people say that fishing soon will just be Carp fishing. So what? I think that would be excellent. I prefer to catch carp more than any other species. Except I like to catch the odd Tench or two. But otherwise I think that would be great. What do you think? :confused:

Going back to the original question Nathan. If ever fishing just became 'carp' then we would loose a richness that is angling.

 

No, I'm not knocking carp. Imagine a life when all you ever eat was McDonalds! Lovely to start with, but you would eventually tire of it. Or you could be doomed to read Mills and Boon for the rest of your life, or just listen to Barry Manillow records for ever. Maybe that is your comfort level then so be it! But it will be a very shallow life that you lead.

 

If you explore other styles of music or writing, it will enrich your life. And so it is with angling. If you stay with angling I reckon you'll tire of carp eventually, especially as it gets more commercialised. Whilst I regard myself as a pike angler I get immense joy out of other species, roach especially.

[awaaar]

I like catching Carp, but don't particularly target them, I'd like to echo what Mr Waller has stated, although I rarely target pike either, but again like catching them when I do..

 

For me, I love the thrill of wondering what is going to come out next, be it a 6oz dace, a 3 pound chub, roach, barbel, trout, eel, Perch and even carp which are now popping up in my local river!!

 

If it came to sitting next to a stillwater knowing what was coming, just a case of how big it was going to be (not knocking that at all - just not my cup of tea) I'd probably pack it in to be honest.

 

tight lines - Andy

[jeepster]

awaaar:

 

 

For me, I love the thrill of wondering what is going to come out next, be it a 6oz dace, a 3 pound chub, roach, barbel, trout, eel, Perch and even carp which are now popping up in my local river!!

i couldnt agree more, sometimes i target pike exclsively, usually alone, on still waters i spend a couple of hours walking round chucking lures out. most of the time though i go to the river (trent or derwent) with a couple of mates (one who is so obsessed with catching barbel its funny, this time last year it was carp he was after ) the other, like me will target whatever is biting that day. i love the exhilaration you get when playing a fish and not even knowing till you get a glimpse of it what species it is.

[kleinboet]

I think that an angler is one of the luckiest people in the world. Where else can you participate in a sport where you are 'at one' with nature. I go down to the water (pond or river), feed my swim, set up, cast my line into the water and then sit back and relax! I am still alert for a 'twich' but that same alertness lets me enjoy the rustle of the wind through the trees, the song of a bird, the shrew that scuttles past my feet etc. etc.

 

what I am saying is really, if you look at it unemotionally, CATCHING fish is a bonus. If it were only Carp I would only have the pleasure of guessing the weight, if it was a mixed fishery (or a river) you have the additional delights of wondering what species your adversery at the other end of your line.

So Carp only would be O.K. but give me multiple species of fish every time.

[Peter Waller]

poledark:

I really am thinking hard to figure just what bad things carpers are responsible for.

 

Den

I respect the fact that you feel strongly on this one Den, and I know that a few others do to. I certainly don't want to enter into an arguement with you but I think there is an answer to what you said above, and that is simply 'attitude'.

 

No, I won't greatly enlarge on that, 'cause it could so easily become a slanging match, but 'attitudes' are changing in angling, and many outside the general carp world focus the cause on carping in the widest sense.

 

There have been numerous changes, some good, some not so good in angling. I'm more inclined to point the finger at changing social values when it comes to the not so good though

 

In its simplest terms many of us see modern carping as digging a hole in the ground, putting in ten ten pounders, twenty twenty pounders, ten thirty pounders and five forties, then putting in fishing platforms thus telling people where they have to fish. Then, after a few years the water is netted and the population is once again regimented, or is it regulated? It is a strange 'attitude' that has created a need for such things. Okay, its not always like that!!

 

As I have said many times before, angling is all things to all men, and sometimes women!

 

[ 16. January 2004, 01:51 PM: Message edited by: Peter Waller ]

[mark barrett]

here is one for you then den,

 

i was recently asked to do a feature for a magazine on catching big rudd. upon getting to the lake i walked round it a few times trying to locate some rudd. i didnt find rudd untill my third circuit but at one end of the lake there were carp bubbling up and smokescreening everywhere, these would have been very catchable.

anyway i found some rudd in one swim and was watching their reactions to some crusts, when BADOOSH, right next to them landed a marker float, exit the rudd in a major hurry. i kept my temper and went round to have a word with the guy who had cast the float, by the way to fish in the swim where i was from where he was he was cutting off at least two other swims. i told him about the carp at te other end of the lake and he replied well i cant get the car round there, i saw them too. oh and by the way you wont be able to fish from that swim because i am fishing to the reedbed.

THAT Den, is the kind of brain dead moron that Carping alas attracts, i could give you plenty more. i think that for some reason that Carping attracts these people as they see it as the more macho branch of the sport.

 

i rest my case m'lud!!!!!

[me]

This topic has done much better than I expected. Thanks for all your replies !!!!

[Peter Waller]

Ohhhhhhhh Mark, we've got 'em in piking too! But where did it all start?

[poledark]

Peter, attitude is what it is all about, it seems that anyone who targets known big fish waters has an attitude. If so then I have had (and still have) an attitude to barbel, roach, bream, catfish,chub and a few other fish as well.

 

My attitude started when at the age of 16 I travelled to Christchurch to target the reported 13lb barbel in there. I already had an attitude to catch Big carp from Keston Lakes, listed in AT book of where to fish as "the home of large carp"

 

I have been known to travel to the Wye for Salmon and Dungeness for the cod, Shingle street for the skate and all these travels were in pursuit of big fish. Not the tiddlers of the species but the biggest I could catch.

 

I posted on another topic re the "worst example of bad fishing practise" and it was pike anglers responsible.

 

I ask again just what is wrong with bivvieing up for a few days or a weekend? what is wrong with wearing bivvie slippers to keep your bedding clean?, what is wrong with targeting known big fish, EVERY ANGLER WHO VISITS A NEW WATER USUALLY DOES SO BECAUSE HE/SHE HAS HEARD ABOUT THE FISH THAT LIVE THEREIN.

 

If you happen to be one of the very few that find new unexplored waters then you are in a very very tiny group of people, I doubt if there are many worthwhile waters that are unknown.

 

Now we come to "the morons" who cast 100yds when the fish are somewhere else....that is there prerogative...they can fish where ever they want, it is not up to anyone else to tell them where they should cast there baits, in the same way it is not up to me to tell you where you should cast your lure or moor your boat.

As a long casting moron I have just caught an unknown 30+ from a relatively new water which was enlarged from 2 small lakes into one 25 acre lake. Where were the fish? god knows but the long chuck has caught a few and the margin rods have had none.

 

Yes there are problems with long casting and sometimes lines crossing leading to shouting matches, I was close to that myself on Tuesday.

 

If you think that defending any chosen form of angling against prejudice will lead to a slanging match then I will not get involved.

 

You live in Pike country and I live in Carp country,had I moved to the Kennet valley I would be fishing for barbel and roach, and keeping my eyes and ears open for the locations of the big ones.

Perhaps I am lucky in that the waters I fish are pretty well free of the moronic element that others see, but I dont class having a social in the next swim, casting long distances to where the fish may be, camping out and generally having a good time of it as bad practise.

 

You are right though about attitude being a modern desease, it seems to have grown up with the popularity of carp fishing, and now even poor NIge Williams is getting some stick for targetting a known 30!!!!!

 

As I said before, "give it a rest"

 

Den