Carping X-Files

[Spiderfan]

Just how ‘intelligent’ are carp (or any other fish for that matter)? We hear and read phrases like; ‘that bait flavour has blown on this water’, ‘they spook off large beds of particles’, ‘they bolt if your lines are up in the water’, ‘they avoid that area as it’s over-fished’. In response, we seem to develop ever more complicated rigs, gimmicks and gizmos in order to stay ahead of the game on the assumption that the fish are continually wising up.

 

Are we justified in thinking that our quarry is capable of cognitive thought and have a memory capable of storing personal experience over days, weeks, months or years? Do they ‘learn’ by their mistakes, or are they just dumb animals that rely on basic instinct in order to survive and propagate the species? And is it merely self-gratification on the angler’s part so that we can say we’re cleverer than them when we’re successful, or is it Lady Luck who decides if and when we catch the largest fish in the lake?

 

To my mind, fish are bound by what I like to call the three ‘F’s: Food, Flight and . . . well, I’ll let you guess the last. They’re not in any particular order. Indeed, in different circumstances their importance and order in which they’re applied to a fish’s behaviour changes.

 

Generally speaking, ‘Flight’ comes first – self-preservation – can’t do anything if you don’t survive! If a threat, potential or otherwise is perceived, then leg it to the nearest bit of cover, be it deeper water, a weedbed or the centre of the shoal. Then comes ‘Food’, and it’s usually a see-food and eat it before someone else does or, if it looks like it might be food, taste it to find out if it is. It’s not necessarily a hunger thing; if food is plentiful it comes out of the other end just as fast as it goes in. If food is scarce and nothing goes in, bodily reserves are used and nowt comes out. Sometimes, hunger puts ‘Food’ ahead of ‘Flight’, especially in instances where other fish are already feeding (confidence/competition). Finally, when the spawning season arrives, the third ‘F’ kicks in and the other two go right out the window!

 

Season’s greetings to all.

[Woodzzz]

Have you ever seen carp bolt from tight lines?

Or spook from beds of bait?

Or spook from certain kinds of bait?

 

I think anyone who has done any amount of serious carp fishing has seen and heard things that only point to one thing...carp have brains.

It is a well know fact that carp have the largest brain of any inland fish.

 

I have seen things that back up many of the spin and claims carpers make.

 

A great article on this can be found here:

http://www.rmcangling.co.uk/carpworld/page...ml?CAT=3&ID=367

 

I must agree that some anglers give carp more credit than they perhaps deserve, but let's be serious for a moment, the old warriors a lot of us target do things and get away with things we wouldnt think they were capable of.

 

Take the old redmire videos with Chris Yates and Bob James...probably some of the wisest fish live in Redmire, and the video showed this.

 

One thing it also showed was that with ingenuity and tact they could be fooled. Remember the scarecrow trick chris yates did? "Kevin"?

 

He showed that fish learn by association. By putting a scarecrow in the water Chris was able to fire bait into the area over the space of a couple of days until the fish felt 'safe' in that area. They knew they could feed there without getting caught.

 

Chris replaced the scarecrow with himself, stood in the same position with the same pose, as soon as his maggots hit the water a group of fish sped across towards them, he had a take within seconds.

 

Hope you enjoy the article.

[Gaffer]

Very true Woodzz, and a good article as well!

[Spiderfan]

Hi Matt,

 

Yes, I have seen fish spook off lines and bait, but not unreasonably more so than I’ve seen fish spook themselves in shallow, exposed situations with neither bait nor line anywhere near. Maybe a leaf fell of a tree and landed by them or a twig they didn’t notice touched their side? It’s just that when fish feel vulnerable, especially in clear, shallow water, their ‘flight’ senses are turned on high such that they will panic even if the shadow of a bird flying overhead hits them.

 

Thanks for the link to an interesting article, but I read nothing compelling that would change my views.

 

As for the Redmire scarecrow (I couldn’t tell the difference, could you?), it’s merely a case of the fish exploring their feeding opportunities. It’s very fanciful to think that the fish he caught had ‘accepted’ the presence of a scarecrow because it had not been threatened by it for 3 days. Who’s to say that was not the first time that particular fish had visited the area and all Chris Yates was doing was being stealthy by making no sudden movements while moving into position etc.?

 

If you can put a hook-bait that a fish will eat, in a situation such that a fish will find it while using tackle strong enough to land it, then the only other requirement is time. That’s regardless of species, be it still or running water. Greatly over-simplified I know, because you need to add watercraft, casting technique, fish-playing ability, sharp hooks, good knots, blah, blah, blah to the equation in order to achieve success and consistency within the time window you have available to fish. Bait, location, presentation – they’re my priorities, and in that order.

 

I think red letter days are as a result of us getting it right and the times when we struggle or blank are more down to us getting it wrong, rather than the ability of the fish to avoid our attempts to catch them.

 

We’re creatures of logic and naturally try to justify our successes with our alleged ability to solve a perceived problem - we’ve got the opposable thumb after all! When we cast to a different spot, or change a rig or bait and then catch a fish, the reason for our previous inactivity was probably down to a problem with bait, location or presentation in the first place rather than our cleverness in solving an angling conundrum.

[Gaffer]

Spiderfan, you've raised some good points, but......

 

I've seen a carp put it's mouth around a hookbait whilst pinning down the hooklink to the lakebed. The carp could then be seen to suck and blow whilst maintaining pressure on the hooklink, against the lakebed.

Once the carp had realised that the hookbait was attached to a hooklink the hookbait was ejected and the carp moved on to another bait, that being a freebie.

After a period of time all of the freebies were gone with just the hookbait remaining. The funny thing was that no other carp entered that marging in a small bay area again that day. It was as if this carp had reported back to his buddies that there was a trap in that area as other carp could be seen avoiding the area.

 

Apart for the 'telling his buddies' bit the above is all factual and witnessed.

 

Carp do learn by association, that's for sure, so at times a different approach needs to be employed to 'trip up' these wise old carp.

 

Personally my priorities are location, presentation and then bait, with not a lot between them. But like everything in angling, it's about getting the balance right.

[Spiderfan]

Hi Gaffer,

 

I very much doubt that either of us has professional qualifications in the ‘animal behaviourist’ field, and far be it from me to refute your interpretation of what you saw.

 

At the other end of the scale though …

 

I was floater fishing a lake whilst ‘paddling’ the margins in waders as the banks were largely overgrown and access by wading was the only route to the area I wanted to fish (other than using an axe and bow-saw!), standing in water 15” deep no more than a yard or two from the bank.

 

I was fishing into a slight breeze and un-taken freebies were starting to drift back round my feet, when I felt something between my legs (no laughing, please – I’m trying to be serious!). I looked down to see a large carp literally bullying itself between my waders to get at floaters behind me. The fish methodically began mopping up all the bait it could find while I slowly reeled in.

 

I held my controller at arms length, with the hook-bait touching the surface and it was taken just seconds later. I ‘struck’ by hand, and after a good scrap, returned the estimated 16-17lb common without it ever leaving the water.

 

If carp can learn by association and communicate their acquired wisdom, how come we can still catch them?

[singy]

They certainly aren't as clever as we like to make out. The do however have a very keen sense of survival.

 

One thing that has always puzzled me about the inteligence of carp is how come they continue to take pop ups? Surely every pop up ever taken has a hook in it. You cannot position free offerings 2 inches off the lake bed.

 

Then again you have situations in lakes like the Car Park at Yately where 12 fish or so (6 over 40 and a couple of 50s rest 30s) rarely get caught despite being fished for by some of the countries top anglers. These fish are big, and need to feed a hell of a lot to maintain such body weight. Some fish in there go seasons without being caught, so they must have learnt to cope with situations where they have a chance of getting caught. Many times they leave the angler cleaned out, leaving only a hookbait.

 

they probably all use popups in there

[Gaffer]

The more I think about this the more of a Tiswas that I get in. I can think of loads of occasions where carp appear to be thick, but on the other hand I have seen carp to have what appears to be high intelligence. There's no pattern to it.

 

For myself I do what ever I feel confident in doing. If I feel that the carp are taking the wotsit, then I'll try to fool them in one way or another. That might be in a more complicated, or alternatively, a simple way.

[RobStubbs]

Singy,

Pop ups probably look the same as any other bait if they are within a few inches of the bottom. Carp will come upon a bait from above (and to some extent the side). Also in a feeding situation the whole area gets rapdily disturbed thus it is pretty much impossible for a carp to tell the difference.

 

I do think people give carp way to much credit (intelligence). I have heard people say things like 'boilies have blown' on this water - which was complete nonsense. I am prepared to believe that some baits can blow if used to the exclusion of all others although I've never experienced it. In similar to lots of people I would guess, I have caught the same fish on the same bait up to three times in little more than a year - and this has happened a few different times.

 

Like Gaffer I try and get the traps set properly (location etc) and fish with confidence, and sooner or later you will catch.

 

Rob.

[singy]

the reason we are told pop ups work so well is because it presents the bait off the bottom to the carp, it is a more obvious item of food, and by being more obvious surely that reduces the life span. Just goes to show that they are not as clever as we think.

 

As for boilies blowing, I have to some extent seen it happen. Only one fish from the Car Park lake this year has been caught on a boilie. But as soon as anglers get into the mind set of 'boilies have blown' most stop using them. Saying that a lot of anglers have carried on using them.

 

It is a very complex issue. the carp in my pond show a great deal of 'intelligence' despite never being fished for. This is instict, they follow the same pattern every day as it has proved to be a safe routine. If that routine however, was disturbed some way. They would soon adapt to an alltogether different way of doing things.

 

That is why hot spots change every so often and new ones emerge.

 

they are one of the most intelligent fish, yet we do tend to credit them with human like attributes.