My Little Carp About Carp!

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John Jones

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Staring out at me from the front cover of a famous angling publication was a picture of a grinning chap proudly holding a 40lb plus carp.
In truth the fish looked hideous, its swollen belly hanging like a sack of spuds beneath the anglers hands.
The head and tail indicated that as a wild fish it would probably have weighed around 25lbs.
Gorging on a constant bombardment of boilies and other freebies had bloated this fish to the point where it had become grossly obese.
Had it been a dog the owners would have risked prosecution for cruelty.
No doubt its captor knew its name, having met it several times before. The fish probably recognised him too. My sympathies lay with the fish.
Just what do they see in catching these 'unnatural' and artificially inflated fish? I can only imagine its the kudos gained in fellow travellers' bivvies.
I dont want to deny these blokes their pleasure but maybe there should be two seperate record lists, one for 'true' carp and the other for 'boilie' carp. Ok I know its not possible, but I'm just trying to emphasise my point.
No doubt the wrath of the carp fraternity will descend on me from a great height, but I'd sooner blank on a river than catch any of these 'fat frauds'.
Yes, I know I'm an old fart stuck in a time warp, but so be it. **** Walker caught his 'proper' record carp from Redmire on a split cane rod, a float and two maggots. He was an old fart too!
 
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Ron Troversial Clay

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By the way if anyone thinks I have taken on another name, it's not true.

I tend to agree with much of what you say John. The definition of a specimen fish has been distorted by the unholy obsession with weight, and weight alone. These fish do look awful and I don't mind admitting that I have caught a few like that in the past myself. I have certainly not been proud of them.

However is it always the consumption of boilies that cause fish to become so bloated and horrid? I have caught similar looking fish in the past that have never seen a boilie in their lives, but have had distended guts. This has mainly been caused by desease of some sort, dropsy is common; and the inability to spawn naturally.

**** Walker was certainly no old fart when he caught his record carp at Bernithan Court (Redmire) in 1952, he was 34 at the time. And he caught it on floatless weightless tackle using balanced bread paste and crust, a no 2 hook and braided line. These were quite revolutionary tactics then.
 
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John Lock

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>I'd sooner blank on a river than catch any >of these 'fat frauds'.

So would I mate. Calling these lumps of blubber specimens is just ridiculous. Man-made freaks is what they are.
 
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Malcolm Bason

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You just stick to catching your little two ounce roach eh! Leave everyone else to their chosen quarry!
 
Graham Whatmore

Graham Whatmore

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Oh! dear John, what have you done, do you think we'll be safe when we go fishing tomorrow?

Just had an email off Len Gurd and he tells me all the roach and tench have died so it ain't worth going again.

Ha! Ha! Ha!
 
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John Jones

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Graham. Don't worry mate, Ive hired a couple of asbestos suits for tomorrow.
Thanks for those few kind words Malcolm. Just one thing though. My two ounce roach is now a 1.5lb. I've stuffed it full of boilies!
And thanks Ron for putting me right. My point remains valid though. **** Walker upheld the finest traditions of our sport but were he fishing now would be regarded as an old fart by some.
 
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Big Rik

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"**** Walker upheld the finest traditions of our sport"


what like nicking the biggest carp in a lake and transporting it elsewhere?

A very fine tradition...



and some fine traditionalists have followed him onto Redmire.
Chris Yates, a fine angler and firmly holding and supporting all traditional values.
His sweetcrn caught British record carp at 51lb 6oz was testiment to his dedication at traditionalism.
Or was it a 38lb carp full of spawn, with a gut touching the ground when held aloft?


Boilie belly?
I don't think so.

If you are going to moan and argue John, then at least get your facts right.
 
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Frothey

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what about the superb looking 41(?)common yates had when he was fishing with hutchy in the early seventies rik....true slim wild carp if ever i saw one.

that was caught on a split cane rod, old style reel, but he had progressed to corn by then.....funny that had a big gut, and that was before boilies.....

come to think of it, the raduta fish were a bit gutty before the carp anglers got there......
 
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Ron Troversial Clay

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To be fair Rik, at the time things were different. One of the main reasons that Walker had Ravioli sent to the London Zoo Aquarium was that many of the boffins did not believe that carp would grow so big in England. And as you know, scientists do not believe photographic evidence, nor a thousand affidavits. Such evidence is classified as "anecdotal".

Not only that, many other big carp at the time were killed because stuffing big fish was part of the scene then. Walker did not want to kill the fish and having it on show in Britain's top aquarium was the next best thing.

Far from nicking the fish, Walker was one of the first who told anglers to take a decent photo and return it. He was a pioneer in the trophy photograph.

Many years ago a UFO was seen above Joburg. It made the national press and many thousands of people were quite aware of what they saw and signed sworn statements to this effect. The photos taken were some of the most credible ever in the study of UFOs

But this did not, and will never convince the scientists. Scientists want total irrefutable proof and that means having the thing that has been seen or caught, on a slab in the laboratory.
 
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John Jones

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Take your point Big Rik, but I think your twisting what I'm saying. I'm not condemning all carp anglers at all and I totally agree about Chris Yates. Did I say his fish was a 'boilie belly'? But surely even you have to admit that some of the fish we see are grotesque and cannot be considered as true 30,s or 40,s. Sure, every man to his own, but lets not pretend that artificially reared fish are worthy of headlines in the angling press.
 
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Frothey

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fat people should be laughed at, denounced as freaks, and be seen to be not as worthy as pure bred lean people as well ;)
 
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The Monk

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I think the main concern with modern carp is diet, indeed in some lakes the carp have become dependant on artificial baits, and not neccassarily good quality food sources, poor quality foods will of course have a detrimental effect on the fishes fitness.

A number of years ago I did a survey on the types and amounts of invertibrate found in the literal zones of two lakes, lake 1 was a fishing lake and Lake 2 was a lake reserved for wildfoul, both lakes had significant numbers of carp present and both also held the same amount and type of wild fowl. The figures from the study indicated that the lake which allowed angling to take place had a significant proliferation of invertibrate Sps in the Literal Zones, thus suggesting, (all things being equal), that the carp had become semi-dependant on anglers introduced baits
 
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The Monk

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Walkers named his carp Raviola originally, I think London Zoo renamed her Clarrissa later?
 
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Ron Troversial Clay

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The London Zoo people called the fish Clarissa. Walker and his mate Peter Thomas, called the fish Ravioli, due to the large amounts of horrible canned ravioli they had with them on that fishing trip.

Walker's big carp grew big on natural food. Boilies were not invented then.
 
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John Jones

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Graham, your big belly is also the result of freebies. Your round mate!
 
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The Monk

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Interestingly, I believe Clarrissa was 28lb when she died, indeed she lost considerable weight in captivity
 
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