Wildies

[dant]

Good luck with the wildie hunt, but as others have said, they are getting as rare as hen's teeth.

All the ponds where I used to catch wildies have now had other strains of carp put in, so when the true monastic strain eventually dies out, there are only mongrels to replace them.

 

The last true wild I caught was back in 1995 and since then the pond has been netted, drained and "restocked"

 

Please put a picture up if you get one - so that people will know what they look like. Gardon Hunter put up a picture last year of one he caught in France, and the initial reaction was that it was a starved carp!

 

 

I don't think they're gone just yet but it's not far off happening. I fish quite a number of Estate lakes in Norfolk and Suffolk which once contained Wildies and I know of only two places where they're genuine and viable

[badgerman]

Aye it would be nice to catch one before having to go abroad to do it!

 

I have heard that pound for pound they have immense fighting power and thats what I like in a fish, a good scrapper!

[badgerman]

An update:

 

Well, my hopes have been shattered for the time being! Sat on the side of the lake for 8 hours, mostly in hammering rain and not a wildie to be seen! (no great surprise there i know!)

 

I think the rain stopped most play but I did manage to get a few small roach, perch and rudd... and one 8lb mirror carp.

 

Pretty miserable conditions but I was happy to get some action none the less!

 

My search for a wildie continues....

[Anderoo]

Keep up the search, you won't be disappointed! I used to catch the real deal wildies from a little lake in Norfolk, and they're incredible creatures. The biggest one I ever caught was 5-6lb, and most were 2-3lb, but my god do they fight! On standard float gear it was superb fun.

[AlanLewis]

They are. Just different strains of.

 

The ahem' pellet pigs are just a strain bred on through the years from the fish that would of been classed as wildies.

 

A bit like the Roses you see in peoples garden with big bright red flowers and the vicious little buggers that you can't see as you edge through the undergrowth on a river bank trying to get to an undercut in a bank, get your leg shredded, recoil in pain, slip forwards and end up half submerged in said undercut.

 

This sadly and embarresingly has happened to me and it's just as annoying as finding out somone has slipped a rouge Carp into somewhere.

 

Hi, just found your forum on wild carp. The rhayader and elan valley angling association own a 16 acre natural spring fed lake near Rhayader in mid Wales. The lake was stocked with WILD CARP by the monks of AbbeyCwmHir sometime after the building of the Abbey in 1143AD. The same strain of Carp still exists in the lake today. No other strain of Carp has been introduced to the lake. On the 2nd June 2008 a local angler caught a 6.75kg carp on a montana fly whilst fshing for trout in the same lake. Does anyone know what the british or welsh record is for a wild carp? If you want to look at our website it is www.rhayaderangling.co.uk

[chesters1]

if the lakes fished for carp then just use carp methods ,if its not sick a bit of crust on a hook and squash a slice of bread round it its a killer

[Vagabond]

The lake was stocked with WILD CARP by the monks of AbbeyCwmHir sometime after the building of the Abbey in 1143AD.

 

This link might be of interest - it shows that although a lot of "wildies" were stocked by monks, as far back as 1250 (and maybe sooner, like just after the Norman conquest), carp were also being farmed by landowners who had dug a hole and were looking to make a fast buck - a bit like today's commercials really

 

http://www.bahs.org.uk/39n2a1.pdf

 

Carp thieves were common then also

Edited June 3, 2008 by Vagabond

[chesters1]

both frenshams were "built" by monks from waverley abbey ,trouble is there was a leney explosion decades ago (as in owners wanted these new fangled quick growing strains) which probably destroyed any original fish left in most waters ,the frenshams were drained in ww2 and trees planted because they "pointed" somewhere ,both refilled but the stumps remain by the scores in the silt.

as i said in other posts the countryside now is almost barren to what it was ,even the shallow river wey had barges on it to ferry stone when the abbey was built ,most rivers look natural now but in reality few are what they would have been centuries ago nor as natural as they would have been if we hadnt got involved with them ,most are being naturalised by lack of use rather than natural ,the wey was 4 feet deeper in norman times than it is now ,lack of maintenance has allowed it to silt up like most rivers ,those "traditional" spawning beds we hear of probably didnt exist so salmon probably went far further up tributaries than they do now ,if man was involved those beds would not have existed, being shallow they would have been removed to allow boat passage.

looking out at the countryside what looks natural is far from it! the countryside has been managed since the bronze age and probably far better than today

Edited June 3, 2008 by chesters1

[fruitloopy]

Can someone have a look at this carp I caught and see if its a possible wildie?

 

I am fishing an old lake which used to be part of land owned by the abbey and originaly stocked to feed the manor house which no longer exists. I wasnt expecting to find this guy in here, I knew there was a Ghost Carp but it mostly seemed to be only Tench & Roach.

 

He put up quite a scrap!

 

Weighed 13.5lbs.

[Anderoo]

Can someone have a look at this carp I caught and see if its a possible wildie?

 

I am fishing an old lake which used to be part of land owned by the abbey and originaly stocked to feed the manor house which no longer exists. I wasnt expecting to find this guy in here, I knew there was a Ghost Carp but it mostly seemed to be only Tench & Roach.

 

He put up quite a scrap!

 

Weighed 13.5lbs.

 

Afraid not - wildies are all commons and are a slightly different shape to the carp we are used to (big heads and bodies tapering down to the tail, all muscle with big fins). Also a 13lb wildie would be huge!

 

Nice carp though