A carp is to intelligent to be caught!

[Vagabond]

Still, they make nice fries!!

That is why some of the monks Dave H is complaining about are called friars.

 

I'll get me coat.....

[kirisute]

That is why some of the monks Dave H is complaining about are called friars.

 

I'll get me coat.....

now that was laugh out loud funny!!

[Vagabond]

now that was laugh out loud funny!!

So you might like this one (so old I fell out of the cradle laughing when I first heard it)

 

Weary traveller asks for food and shelter at his local monastery (as you do)

 

"You are in luck" says the doorkeeper "we have a spare cell, and as its Friday we are having battered carp and chips for supper"

 

Shows matey to his cell, and says "must leave you here, its my turn for kitchen duty"

 

"Oh" says the traveller "are you the fish friar, ho ho ho"

 

"No", came the reply "I'm the chip monk"

[gozzer]

Groan.....Keep that up Dave, and you'll soon run out of coats.

 

John.

[Ken L]

Water pigs were a rarity when I was a lad and the myths about carp were perpetuated by the likes of Dick Walker and his ethereal writings about monster fish in secretive lakes that mere mortals couldn't hope to fish. Then, my dad got a transferable annual ticket to fish a muddy pool dug by a farmer where we had a caravan. I fished it to death during school holidays and had fish to over 20lb with little difficulty using a simple match rod and a Mitchell 300.

The mystique was gone and the whole specimen scene of the 80's passed me by.

Carp aren't hard to catch or intelligent in any way. The only thing that makes them a worthy target (for some) is their size and the difficulty in selectively fishing for them in waters with low stocking densities. The problem for me was that the tactics required amount to trapping and my angling instincts were heading in the other direction.

Sadly, now I hardley ever fish Stillwater's precisely because so many of them are stocked with the damn things and if I were presented with a big red button that would eradicate them, it'd press it without hesitation.

Edited March 12, 2014 by Ken L

[ayjay]

and the myths about carp were perpetuated by the likes of Dick Walker and his ethereal writings about monster fish in secretive lakes that mere mortals couldn't hope to fish.

Really?

 

I thought that the whole point of Walkers writings were to show that fish like carp could be caught if you actually set out to catch them.

 

Isn't that how "Specimen Hunting" was born?

[Phone]

All,,,,,

 

We've always had large stupid carp. Guess that's the difference?

 

Phone

 

(I think, among fishes, carp are hard wired with top of the line survival skills.)

[Rice Crackers]

I’ve never really understood the whole specimen carp angling scene. I can’t really understand the point of casting a boilie out 40 yds then sitting behind shiny, expensive buzz bars messing around on an iPad for the next four hours. It clearly suits quite alot of anglers though and seems to carry with it some kind of macho ‘my kit is more expensive than yours, I can cast further than you, my Fox rig is trendier than yours’ mentality with it. And the money they must spend on their hobby in which rigs, boilies and bite alarms do all the work for them could probably keep Concorde in the air.

 

I have a club lake near me however that is full of carp and crucians up to 4-5lb and it is my favourite lake in the world. Shallow, with an acre of lily pads in the middle during summer you can just turn up, cast a float out and reel in fish pretty much all day. It is great sport. The specimen guys don’t touch it as there are no specimens in there but those who do love the place and I really feel that these specimen guys miss out on what I feel REAL fishing actually is.

 

The point I’m trying to make is that while I really like this forum and understand (and largely agree with) the disdain toward specimen carp anglers, there seems to be a dislike of carp themselves which I don’t really get. I understand that some commercials are all about carp but there are plenty of waters with a variety of species into which carp are a valuable addition. On a day when I’ve had a few roach, bream etc, picking up an unexpected, hard-fighting, 7lb carp is a huge bonus and usually the highlight.

 

Let’s give the poor carp a break....

[Dales]

I have a club lake near me however that is full of carp and crucians up to 4-5lb and it is my favourite lake in the world. Shallow, with an acre of lily pads in the middle during summer you can just turn up, cast a float out and reel in fish pretty much all day. It is great sport. The specimen guys don’t touch it as there are no specimens in there but those who do love the place and I really feel that these specimen guys miss out on what I feel REAL fishing actually is.

 

The Crucains sound fun but the thought of catching small Carp sounds like hell to me. Unlike some others on AN I have no disdain for Carp or Carp anglers but I do not like to see waters filled up with small Carp, If I want to fish for Carp i want to catch bigger fish and if I want to fish light for the smaller coarse species the last thing I want is a load of small pasties or any at all to be honest ruining the fishing. If I want to catch hard fighting fish in the 4 to 5lb plus bracket then I would rather be Tench fishing.

 

In my view it's not the love of Specimen Carp angling that is bad for fishing it's the match/pleasure anglers wish to catch loads of small Carp which is the real issue. On many specimen Carp waters you will find other species doing very well along side them, the same is not always true on waters with a lot of small Carp. Specimen Carp fishing does come under the cosh on this site as do Carp but for my pennies worth it's the over stocking of small Carp that is the main problem and it's the displacement of other species and effect on choice that the over stocking causes that gets most people worked up.

 

There are so many better options of fish to target then 5lb Carp but not so many once you get to 15 lb plus. So I am all in favour of thining out the stocks of smaller Carp in the country but have no problem with having the bigger ones.

[chesters1]

Agree a lot with Dales, I reckon the Gudgeon is now the most intelligent fish. I never seem to catch them anymore, used to catch 100's of them as a kid. I reckon they've wised up to my float fished single maggot rig.

 

I need a new gudgeon rig!

 

Mat

Only take 22mm boilies nowadays chum ,chuck it in and wait a month for it to chew it down small enough to eat is how it works