The species stocked by the various acclimatisation societies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were the carp, tench, perch and brown trout. The largemouth bass, rainbow trout and smallmouth bass came later.
There are no more tench around, although they did reach weights of up to 19 lbs. Perch did quite well reaching weights of up to 9 lbs. The SA record carp is 64 lbs. LM Bass 16 lbs and SM bass 7 1/2 lbs. I am not sure of the rainbow and brown trout records, but they are each close to 20 lbs.
There is a movement afoot to rid SA waters of non-indigenous fish such as the above. I think they have their priorities wrong and should be concentrating on the elimination of pollution instead.
---------- Post added at 04:18 ---------- Previous post was at 03:20 ----------
Ron
Do you mean proper carp?
Not like those we see in the mags with guts like a Rotherham dinner lady
I am informed that many very large carp as are found in France, are fed up on high protein boilies/pellets etc and are not natural fish at all.
The fact that the Rushmere carp are wild, hard fighting fish means little to the fanatical carp anglers of today. I have heard it said on quite a few occasions that weight is the only thing that matters and how a carp looks has no relevance to the matter. That's why some of the latest monsters look so horrid with tatty fins, enormous guts and half their scales missing.
Many of the top carp anglers of today don't even want the fish to fight!
Where the needle on the scales stops is what matters today, nothing else.
Totally wrong in my opinion!
---------- Post added at 04:23 ---------- Previous post was at 04:18 ----------
The species stocked by the various acclimatisation societies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were the carp, tench, perch and brown trout. The largemouth bass, rainbow trout and smallmouth bass came later.
There are no more tench around, although they did reach weights of up to 19 lbs. Perch did quite well reaching weights of up to 9 lbs. The SA record carp is 64 lbs. LM Bass 16 lbs and SM bass 7 1/2 lbs. I am not sure of the rainbow and brown trout records, but they are each close to 20 lbs.
There is a movement afoot to rid SA waters of non-indigenous fish such as the above. I think they have their priorities wrong and should be concentrating on the elimination of pollution instead.
---------- Post added at 04:18 ---------- Previous post was at 03:20 ----------
I am informed that many very large carp as are found in France, are fed up on high protein boilies/pellets etc and are not natural fish at all.
The fact that the Rushmere carp are wild, hard fighting fish means little to the fanatical carp anglers of today. I have heard it said on quite a few occasions that weight is the only thing that matters and how a carp looks has no relevance to the matter. That's why some of the latest monsters look so horrid with tatty fins, enormous guts and half their scales missing.
Many of the top carp anglers of today don't even want the fish to fight!
Where the needle on the scales stops is what matters today, nothing else.
Totally wrong in my opinion!
I have heard these big ugly fish described as fine old warriors!
Raddled old tarts would be a better definition!!
