Carp good or bad for angling

[seth49]

Yes me to, I always like to see what I'm buying.
And as mentioned I won't give any details in the net.
Never had a credit card and never will.

The very rare ocasions I'd get something online, I ask my daughter to get it with her PayPal account, And I would give her the cash.
But I like going to my tackle shop, Have a natter and a look round.
Use it or lose it comes to mind.

 

[rayner]

There is one thing I can never bring myself to do that is purchase tackle on the net.

For one I hate putting card details over the net way too much MS Windblown for safety

For second I like to handle the feel before I buy.
I am fortunate I have a few tackle shops around me one of the big chains and a few other smaller ones that so always go to purchase gear


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I too have an aversion to putting information on the net. I'm also from the same school and like to see what I'm buying.

I don't see that Carp are to blame for the out of favour appearance tackle shops suffer from.
More anglers have come into fishing because of Carp than have left because of them.
I fish commercials and catch my share of the sods when fishing just for fish.

When I fish the canal for Perch I see some big Carp cruising but I've never considered casting to them.
Carp are there for those who want them and on occasion through the summer I too have a pop.
The draw of commercial Roach though always gets the better of me.

 

[terry m]

But I like going to my tackle shop, Have a natter and a look round.
Use it or lose it comes to mind.

Spot on. The individuals who buy online to save a dime or two will be the first to grumble when their local shop closes down.

Try asking your local dealer if they can match - or at least try to come close to - the online price you have been quoted. You may be surprised at the response. And when it is faulty or it breaks, I fancy your chances on a speedy fix far better with your local trader.

---------- Post added at 05:54 ---------- Previous post was at 05:52 ----------

Back to the original question about carp being good or bad. I am astonished by the amount of people who are critical of the species. If you don't want to catch carp, go to a water that does not contain them, or better still try fishing a river.

 

[greenie62]

......Back to the original question about carp being good or bad. I am astonished by the amount of people who are critical of the species. If you don't want to catch carp, go to a water that does not contain them, ......

Hi Terry,
It's not the fault of the Carp that fishery owners have introduced them to the water - I don't think respondants are being critical of the species - more the 'commercialisation' of the species.

I don't want to catch Carp - I want to catch Crucians - but there aren't many waters around that have Crucians and no Carp!

The Carp are often difficult to avoid when fishing for Cru's - particularly when you've eventuslly found the Cru's and are just starting to 'build' the swim - fishing on fine tackle - BANG! in comes a greedy swim-wrecking Carp hoovering up your bait! Grrrr.....! mg:

I think the OP had this more in mind, coupled with the attitude of Tackle Sellers and Commercial Fishery owners!
Tight Lines:thumbs:

 

[seth49]

That's the only thing that spoils the fishery I joined last year, Seven lakes and they have all got carp in.

I wish just one or two just had tench and crucians and silvers in them. as it is you end up fishing heavy enough to have a chance of landing the carp.

Don't mind carp as such. Just wish they weren't in all of the lakes.
Wouldn't go any where else though.
Enjoy it here to much.

 

[terry m]

Hi Terry,
It's not the fault of the Carp that fishery owners have introduced them to the water - I don't think respondants are being critical of the species - more the 'commercialisation' of the species.

I don't want to catch Carp - I want to catch Crucians - but there aren't many waters around that have Crucians and no Carp!

The Carp are often difficult to avoid when fishing for Cru's - particularly when you've eventuslly found the Cru's and are just starting to 'build' the swim - fishing on fine tackle - BANG! in comes a greedy swim-wrecking Carp hoovering up your bait! Grrrr.....! mg:

I think the OP had this more in mind, coupled with the attitude of Tackle Sellers and Commercial Fishery owners!
Tight Lines:thumbs:

You make your point well Greenie, I understand where you are coming from.

Stocking policies are great in theory, but it is hellishly difficult to take fish out once they have been introduced. You are correct, the traditional estate lake setup (crucians, tench, rudd) are becoming fewer and further between.

 

[daniel121]

The introduction of carp into a lot of venues has nothing to do with tackle shops closing!Easy for people to blame introducing carp as the cause of all the worlds problems..Anglers wanted it in the first place,now theyre winging,we want more silverfish venues,we,re fed up with carp...blah,blah....

People like to moan Gazza, I have been involved in running a fishery in the past. Don't get me wrong I'm not a fishery manager but I have some idea.

The problem with sliver fish venues is the way they (the fish)feed, the cost and the volatility of the fish to disease. Carp tick so many boxes, they are very hardy in fact they are on the list of the world's most INVASIVE species! They are are cheap and they feed aggressive stirring the bottom mud up, cutting weed growth. And they are highly loved by anglers too boot.

They are so much loved that I know several sliver fish venues good ones too, that had to stock carp to get people to fish the water!!

I personally love fishing for slivers but I can also assure you all, commie carp fishing is not always easy.

 

[tom_moran]

I'm a member of two clubs one is big and has lots of Lakes and stretches of the Thames. My only issue with it is all the lakes have carp in them. There is one that used to be an amazing lake with silvers, bream, rudd, crucians amd a fantastic head of tench. Then for some unknown reason they put a load of mid double carp and pike in it. It's Completely ruined it. So much so that all the crucians have disappeared as have almost all the tench. They have now (with ea approval) removed all the pike and are stocking a lot of crucians in the spring. Luckily the new club which is a big stretch of the Kennet and Avon canal and a small lake has no carp in its lake, it has all sorts, including golden tench and brown goldfish, which I'm very much looking forward to catching this season.

I like catching carp, but I like catching other stuff too, hopefully in time fishery owners will balance out their stockings and we will have a real selection of different types of fishing to choose from.

I try and buy from tackle shops, and usually all my bits of tackle and bait do come from them. However I love a bargain and I will buy things online if they are significantly cheaper

 

[nocturnus anglius]

This is a double edged sword topic really, I haven't fished for anything else but carp for many a year, and I've only recently started to think about other species. I started off netting sticklebacks as a lad down the local stream. I started fishing with rod and line when I was 4, catching roach, rudd, gudgeon and all manner of fish, anything that swam really. I progressed on to carp fishing and it's the side of the sport I most enjoy. I have definitely seen the demise in other species though. I used to love stick fishing for tench, but I suppose it's a by product of commercialisation. I would say the Internet has ruined a lot of singular tackle shops but it's also made tackle a lot easier and in many ways cheaper. I'm in my local shop once a week because I like the chat and banter, but I won't apologise for sourcing cheaper items online.
On the whole it's a hard question to answer because I can see both sides of the argument, but carp have definitely kept me fishing for as long as I have

 

[laguna]

In terms of actual tackle/bait bought, Carp angling has taken over in the UK and Europe.

Ive read reports regards UK angling expenditure and also see first hand, most of it is carp orientated.
Tackle shop sales are down in general as they have been year on year, possibly due to the Internet (I'm sure it is), there is obviously more variety on ebay collectively than there is in any one individual shop... its a buyers market and there is some very cheap **** to be had!
The overall spend is somewhere in the region of 52% carp with the vast majority spending as much as 3x more on travel related expenses and accommodation, weekends and over nighters and holidays to France.

The Match and Pleasure anglers only come in to buy pellets and live baits and little else. 8 out of 10 are carp anglers.

Most kids I talk to will not consider any other species and probably never will. They see carp angling as grown up fishing.

 

[wanderer]

What you have said there Chris, for me represents the obituary of a great sport and the birth of something lesser.

 

[jimlad]

There are various types of carp fishing. Commercial carp fishing for me is just not something I would like to do. But there are aspects of carp fishing that create a bit of a mystery, the ponds and lakes that were stocked long ago and are rumoured to hold the odd lump, but very difficult to land. A lot of the modern carpers leave these places alone, knowing that other runs waters will give them greater publicity and action. There's also the odd stretches of river that will hold a few carp, stocked there naturally through flooding (albeit in a secondary way). These are the fisheries I would target carp from. I wouldn't and don't fish places where if you don't get there quickly enough, you miss out on a bivvied up peg.

It's a big shame that young anglers are going straight into carp fishing with bite alarms. The local rivers are generally quiet (other than specific and prolific barbel stretches). Part of me enjoys the freedom to roam, trotting a stick float or dropping a bait, for miles without any other people are around. But part of me wonders whether some river based clubs will continue holding onto stretches of very few people fish them. Getting people into fishing on the rivers offers them so many lessons that you wouldn't necessarily get when carp fishing.


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[terry m]

It depends on how you perceive it.

It could be perceived that carp angling has been the saviour.

If 52% of spend is on carp angling, then split the remainder between match, game, predator and pleasure, that is not a very large part of a pie that is already shrinking.

The litmus test is ask yourself what percentage of current carp only anglers would be spending their time on the bank if carp stockings were not so prolific? For sure some would, but I doubt if it would amount to more than 50%.

That is a large revenue stream coming into the industry that would almost certainly not be there otherwise.

I am not a carp angling specialist, but I understand business. Reality is that the market has brought us to where we are.

 

[chub_on_the_block]

But is this new carp nirvana a thing for life?. I reckon theres a faster turnover rate as anglers give up once they have achieved their 25th thirty or whatever. It must get boring and a bit like groundhog day targeting the same species, using the same approach, year in year out?. Theres no seasonal element either.

I would caution against any optimism for the future of angling if it became a monoculture of carp angling. I dont think it is, quite yet, though. My worry would be that we would need a new generation of all-round anglers interested in a range of targets and venues to replace those who are sadly dying out! But I cant say i will be too arsed what happens once i have departed for those tench bubbles in the sky.

 

[rayner]

To be honest I couldn't care less if any species of fish is or isn't to the benefit of angling.
As long as I get my fix on the bank I'm not bothered if angling stops when I take my last breath.
If I can't fish I see no reason why others should be allowed too.:guinness:

 

[seth49]

Things change though, I know a young chap who was carp mad, All he ever fished for.
Now he's given up carp fishing completely, Concentrates on tench and bream now.

I my self have changed from mainly game fishing, To nearly all coarse fishing nowadays.
Different challenges keep me keen.
Much prefer sat in my chair in the sunshine.fishing and watching the wildlife.

Still like my reservoir trouting every spring though.

 

[Ray Daywalker Clarke]

The stocking of carp has nothing what so ever to do with shops closing down, far from it.

My local shop now has 14 full time staff, thats just in the shop. The shop sells more Carp gear than anything else. I would say for every float rod they sell, they will sell 60 carp rods, and that isn't joking.

At the tackle show this weekend, we didn't sell one float rod, yet we sold close to 100 Free Spirit carp rods, thats without those that ordered rods to be made to their specification.

Match fishing has gone to mud puddles, you no longer see canal paths full of anglers, and the rivers are just the same.

At the end of the day many anglers just want to catch fish, and thats where the carp has taken over. These venues also hold some very good fish of other species, that mostly don't get fished for, yet are getting bigger on the carp feed.

These venues are not for me, but it is easy to see why anglers fish them.

If our rivers and canals still had the fish stocks of years gone by, tackle shops would still be closing.

Phones, Playstation, Computers, kids getting fatter and kids wanting to catch bigger carp than their mate, thats the problem, getting kids to fish for everything, and getting kids out on the bank in the first place.

Kids of today are wimps, its cold, its raining, give um a kick up the backside and into the real world.

There is only one thing worse than seeing a little fat kid fishing in the summer, thats seeing his fatter mate next to him fishing. Well not fishing, just on the phone whilst eating.

I wouldn't say the web has much to do with it either, as most shops have their own websites, and will do cheaper deals on line than in the shop. i don't buy from websites full stop.

 

[Bob Hornegold]

Without Carp, fishing as we know it would be " DEAD ", if you take Match Fishing, the vast majority are won with catches of Carp, Pleasure fishing on Commercials= Carp,
Specimen Fishing- who has not caught a Carp when fishing for Chub, Barbel, Tench or Bream.

Why ?

With predation running at an all time high, what species is the most likely and cheapest to stock ?

Carp.

At a well known Trout water near me they only stock with Trout over 3lb/4lbs, because the Cormorants eat anything smaller.

So what are clubs and commercials going to stock to stay in business ?

Carp.

Bob