Carp or Silvers

[arthur2sheds]

(I apologise if this has been covered before)

As a part time match angler, I enjoy catching roach, rudd, bream, tench, crucians, etc, but lately, every time my club goes to a water it's usually a carp oriented water and to be frank.... it's getting bloody wearing.....mg:

in all honesty it's not the clubs fault.... if you look at most commercial fisheries they are mostly carp waters anyway & with coach costs so high most venues are within a short drive, so rivers and canals that'll take 30 anglers and their cars are also few and far between.

so the club is left with commercial waters..... Now given the proliferation of waters in the south east, (many of them multiple water fisheries) why can't fishery owners turn one or two of their waters over to silvers exclusively....?

I love catching silvers, but I hate having to fish with a 5-8lb mainline on a lot of waters as there are double figure carp swimming over my bait.

Anyone else getting fed up with carp match waters....?

 

[markv]

Yep

I enjoy carp matches but could do with some variety. Pools without many carp are getting harder and harder to find !

 

[maggot_dangler]

(I apologise if this has been covered before)

As a part time match angler, I enjoy catching roach, rudd, bream, tench, crucians, etc, but lately, every time my club goes to a water it's usually a carp oriented water and to be frank.... it's getting bloody wearing.....mg:

in all honesty it's not the clubs fault.... if you look at most commercial fisheries they are mostly carp waters anyway & with coach costs so high most venues are within a short drive, so rivers and canals that'll take 30 anglers and their cars are also few and far between.

so the club is left with commercial waters..... Now given the proliferation of waters in the south east, (many of them multiple water fisheries) why can't fishery owners turn one or two of their waters over to silvers exclusively....?

I love catching silvers, but I hate having to fish with a 5-8lb mainline on a lot of waters as there are double figure carp swimming over my bait.

Anyone else getting fed up with carp match waters....?

Dont start me off about dang infestation of invasive carp Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! .

A Cull is needed ..


PG ..

 

[Bob Hornegold]

I do have sympathy with Commercial fishery owners, knowing the problems they face with predation in some areas.

I was at a club water last week which is used as a match venue and is dominated by Carp now days.

It was once apon a time a brilliant fixed fishery, but the predators have seen a decline in the Silver to the extent that they are nigh non existent.

Whilst I was there the cormorants were on the water all the time, seemingly oblivious to anglers and in the winter it had Goosanders fishing it, the silvers have been decimated.

Bob

 

[mccn]

I know what you mean about carp muscling in on your lines intended for silvers (arrgghh) however there are still some match lakes out there that are mixed with a lower carp stocking which makes fishing for silvers without attracting the attention of the carp quite a skill, which in itself is an enjoyable challenge. That said, i run matches at 2 different lakes and we try to mix it up a little by having 'all in' matches one week and then 'silvers only' matches the following week plus we also have waggler only matches every other month which makes a change from holding 13m + of pole for hours on end. Trying to keep everyone happy though is hard and i also sympathise with fishery owners as you can't please em all!

 

[peter crabtree]

Commercial fishery owners have to cater for the majority of today's anglers or face financial trouble. Carp are relatively cheap to buy from breeders and will ensure their fishery is busy. I avoid any matches involving carp these days preferring to stick to "Silvers only" matches which it seems are growing in popularity among matchmen lately. Fortunately I have a local club whose busy match fixture list consists of canal and river matches only. Ironically we have many "Open" matches on the GUC and attendances are usually boosted by anglers from Essex....

 

[S-Kippy]

What gets right up my hooter is clubs who seem intent on creating their own commercial by taking every opportunity to tip a load of carp into well established fisheries and almost inevitably buqqering them up as a consequence. If Albert and his mates on the commitee want to catch a few raggedy ar$ed carp then why dont you just hoy off to the local commie....DONT stick the bloody things in club waters or at least think very,very carefully before you do.

I like a bit of tench & crucian fishing but once the ravenous hordes of mudpigs arrive they dont get a look in and before you know it your nice little tench lake has gone belly up and become just another muddy hole full of chuffin carp which eventually grow into absolute lumps and you've buqqered the water up again. I've seen it happen & its still happening. There is nothing more dangerous than a fisheries manager who thinks he knows what he's doing and has a lot of contacts & a lorry !

Not that I ever will but if I had my own water there would be not a single carp in it and should any manage to get in [ by fair means or foul] I would happily run an eradication programme. I hate the damned things !

I have no sympathy whatsoever for fishery owners either If they want to create carp only puddles then good for them...there are no shortage of people wanting to fish em but you wont find me in the queue unless I'm truly desperate to catch something.

 

[arthur2sheds]

Our club had a small lake dug a few years back and stocked with silvers only.... it's a delight to fish, I can fish with a 2lb hooklink and not get smashed to bits.... unfortunately it's less than an acre in size so unsuitable for matches.....

That said occasionally I enjoy the odd carp match.... but when you fish 10 monthly matches in a year, it's annoying when every one of 'em is dominated by carp....

It really is a case of putting a bait in the water and hook a carp on some venues, and to me there is no skill in that....! It becomes a competition for who can get the most in their nets, you might as well get rid of the pole or rod and use a bloody net

 

[binka]

I'm lucky in only ever having fished a carp type commie once back when the foot and mouth problem was in full swing around fifteen years ago as it was the only place I could find that was open in the early days.

I sympathise with those who like their silvers fishing though, I love it and have no shortage of waters within a close distance to choose from some of which are your typical overlooked urban waters which can offer some great fishing albeit probably unsuitable for a match.

I'm not knocking those that enjoy it but playing a numbers game and knowing exactly what species is gonna pull the tip round or the float under is just my idea of predictable monotony... I think I would be inclined to hang up my rods and call it a day if there were no alternative.

 

[john step]

Arthur, you list your location as Ongar. I used to belong to a club called Collier Row AC which had a section of the Roding from near Ongar to The White Bear.(Stanford Rivers??)
It was full of everything silver and no carp. Chub were the dominant species.
I wonder if it would be suitable for silvers matches. I know its narrow and a hike but it might make a nice change. The club used to hold rover matches on it and the weights were always good.

 

[S-Kippy]

I'm not knocking those that enjoy it but playing a numbers game and knowing exactly what species is gonna pull the tip round or the float under is just my idea of predictable monotony... I think I would be inclined to hang up my rods and call it a day if there were no alternative.

Sadly I think that's the way things are going and before very much longer I dont think there will be any alternative. I fear the rivers are all about to crash and that will leave the majority of us with carp,carp,carp and er...carp.

Its a very sorry state of affairs.

 

[law]

Id rather give up fishing than only catch loads of single figure carp with battered mouths all day long.
Commi(cals) over stocked with small carp have no place in my fishing at all.
If Im after carp, I want the big ones.

 

[arthur2sheds]

@ John Step.... My club (ODAS) has a section of the Roding I was also a member of Billericay DAS and the whole of that stretch (from Langford Bridge through to Passingford Bridge) is unsuitable for a club matches (30-ish anglers) it has also been polluted recently and it's been ravaged by cormorants and latterly mink and otters, fish are few and far between, which is a shame as it was a great water for roving (on yer own)

 

[jon atkinson]

When I first got back into fishing a little under 3 years ago, I joined a local club primarily because it's 10 minutes door to ponds. I am still a member but given the heavy carp bias I regularly fish other venues for the sake of variety. I don't have a problem with catching the odd carp, but am amazed at the disappointed looks & disparaging remarks from some anglers when they hook something other than this.

As has been pointed out earlier, the fact that so many fisheries do now hold good numbers of carp inevitably influences your set up; Locally, I enjoy fishing at Little Crosby where there are apparently roach to 3lb, but I'm unlikely to catch them because my tackle allows for the double figure carp that also abound there - this I do find frustrating.

 

[john step]

@ John Step.... My club (ODAS) has a section of the Roding I was also a member of Billericay DAS and the whole of that stretch (from Langford Bridge through to Passingford Bridge) is unsuitable for a club matches (30-ish anglers) it has also been polluted recently and it's been ravaged by cormorants and latterly mink and otters, fish are few and far between, which is a shame as it was a great water for roving (on yer own)

Thats very sad. This was a brilliant little river. Sign of the times I think.

 

[jet53]

Thank god I am not the only one.

Back in the late 70's when I started my fishing I used to love the skill of using light, balanced tackle, and catching anything that was in front of me.

Realistically, the only 'big fish' we had any chance of catching on our lakes were the Tench and Bream or possibly a Pike.

I really appreciated everything I caught in those days and even a half pound Roach or Perch could be admired.

Carp were mysterious monsters that lurked in unexplored corners or leapt far out in the ripples. They were the stuff of legend and they performed that role admirably.

It wasn't all good back then but it just seemed a simpler, less complicated, and more enjoyable sort of fishing and I am not ashamed to say that I would have preferred if it could have stayed that way.

I've just been reunited with an old Shakespeare Excelsior Match rod I once owned and would love to use it again but I know there are few of my waters that I could safely use it due to the almost inevitable small carp appearing on the end...

Having too much of anything is not necessarily a good thing and handing anglers almost guaranteed success on a plate is not what Angling was ever about.


Often adding more carp to a water can be the worst thing you can do.

 

[no-one in particular]

Funny old world, who would have thought so many anglers would become so disparaging of carp and their pursuers one day. Carp fishing has lost so much of its mystery and uniqueness, the record carp, its holder and the anglers who exclusively pursued them were held in the highest esteem once upon a time.
Its a shame really and I must admit I do not care much myself or, at least a fraction of what it would have meant once upon a time. The record for Roach or Chub being broken would have me salivating more than the carp record these days.
Its Carp, Carp and more Carp and it just loses its fascination eventually. I think a bit of that is happening now.
Maybe commercials will change a bit to accommodate in the future.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

One or two more enlightened clubs in my area have actually made a few silver fish only lakes by removing the Carp to their match lake(s)

The last time I was at one it was pretty well populated at the weekends, so there are other alternatives out there.

That said, at one of my local commercial lakes it has a very good number of plump Roach from a pound or so up to over two pounds, so some silvers can live in perfect harmony with the Carp.

Throughout the 80's I targeted Carp exclusively and these days I still enjoy a weekend in the bivvy fishing for them again.

My main love is still my local Hampshire Avon and it is looking pretty good these days, the silver fish are beginning to return as the Cormorants seem to disappear . . . . . . .

 

[big bad barry]

I have only fished one commercial venue and that was enough for me, much sooner fish a natural venue.

 

[Chefster]

My favourite commercial is Tunnel Barn Farm at Shrewley,warks,yes it is well stocked,with Common carp,Mirror carp,F1,s,crucians,Bream,Skimmers,barbel,tench,chub,ide,roach,perch,gudgeon,the surroundings are completely natural,beautifully landscaped,fish are in top condition,all methods work,and there is something for everyone...Many,many anglers of all ages and abilities get a lot of pleasure from these venues,they produce good catches year round...and anyone who thinks catching F1,s(probably the craftiest fish swimming),is like shooting fish in a barrel is seriously mis-informed....Personally i was brought up on natural venues,but have had to move with the times,i dont fish canals,due to the obvious problems,and my local river cant even be compared to a shadow of its former self...Yes i purely match fish,and i know a lot of you seem to be anti match fishing,but i also come into contact with a lot of pleasure anglers at the venues i fish,and they are of the same opinion as me...Cheers,Gazza