The Perceived Enigma of Carp.

I just don't get this with the coarse anglers of old; why were carp seen as such an impossible catch, as once located and if remotely hungry they'll readily take almost anything put in front of them, from maggots, worms and crayfish to meat, sweetcorn, wheat and bread, even a lump of spud.

I understand that tackle back in the 50's and 60's was crude compared to todays but anglers were catching big roach and rudd, which are considered by most as far more fickle fish.
And if as a kid I could land an 18lber on a 1.7lb Bayer Perlon bottom, using a 10ft Shakespeare Omni match rod and a hideous Sundridge reel, then they were anything but impossible to land.

So why were carp thought to be an impossible target?

To kick off with, for every ONE carp back then there are many tens of thousands now.


Ps - Think of Mount Everest, from Sherpa Tensing and Ed Hillary's epic in 1953 to the multiple summits a day Industry today...

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The carp in the 50s were natural fish that were feeding on natural food, that is probably why in they were considered uncatchable. Todays are usually bred for a fishery and artificially fed both in the breeding pond and the fishery they live in.
Jerry
Prior to 'Clarissa' being caught from Redmire Pool in the early fifties there were few carp in any waters - certainly, there were no fish farms breeding them and it wasn't until Alec Leney of the Haslemere Trout Farm started importing them from the Continent things really got going.

finding them - and then playing them - learning curve playing roach to playing carp

In the 50's they didn't have those realtree costumes to wear on the bank,or realtree bivvies to hide in...in old photo's they seem to be wearing suits and ties to go fishing ....no wonder they couldn't catch !!

simon dunbar said:

In the 50's they didn't have those realtree costumes to wear on the bank,or realtree bivvies to hide in...in old photo's they seem to be wearing suits and ties to go fishing ....no wonder they couldn't catch !!

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Brilliant post - made me laugh - Thanks !!

Paul and Jerry, I can see your points about numbers/accessability but even 50yrs+ ago there were quite a lot of waters holding carp, albeit some were the smaller wild strain.
Two lakes that spring to my mind that I fished as a youngster that had carp pre-dating the 50's; Farnborough hall and Clattercote.

I think where I done most of my early carping; the Oxford canal was stocked late 60's/early 70's but they weren't quite as rare as hens teeth, were they?

I’m not sure that there were many renowned carp waters local ish to me Colin. I remember that Dagenham Lake (too far away) and Cheshunt Reservoir produced big (20+) fish in the 50s also Aldermaston Lake, Reading. The Royal Park lakes of course, Wimbledon Lake, and the Thames. I can’t remember having access to any of my local Colne valley pits that contained carp then (most of them were still working pits), possibly someone could update me on that one and enlighten me as to what I might have been missing?
Jerry

The difficulty for myself was finding a carp water to fish. What I did find, didn't hold many carp and other species were more likely to take your bait.

But I did manage to catch a few.

And then I went to South Africa and found out just how easy carp were to catch, well certainly the smaller ones.

For many years, say from 1905 to 1952, anglers thought that carp were virtually impossible to catch. They thought that carp would only bite on very fine tackle and then they would immediatly smash the anglers line. They thought that carp fishing was not worth while. What British anglers had obviously not taken notice of was the fact that in other countries, carp were quite easy to catch, this is based on the vast quantity of carp in overseas waters compared with the very few which was then the case in UK waters.

Redmire never had more than about 30 big carp. One small water in the Cotswolds became famous as England's number 2 carp water. It was called Ashlea and only contained about 3 carp, one of which was a 40.

Compare this to a few reservoirs in South Africa where they trawl for carp, and there are still vast numbers left. Carp are one of the most fecund of all the fishes.

I also have landed double figure carp in very light tackle. There does seem to be some carp that don't fight particularly hard. Yet I have had some fish run off and not stop for over 100 yards, and only weigh 10 lbs or so - river fish of course.

Anyone who has caught Trent carp will tell you just how powerful they are. There are many who have been devastatingly smashed by Trent carp on 15 lb line and hooks to match.

Is "Catchability " learned?
I remember a chap on the Royalty in the '60s who was three-quarters of an hour playing a nine-pound barbel. He wasn't messing about; his rod was hooped over and he was applying "proper" pressure all the time.
The fish wasn't snagged, it just wasn't "having it", and the consensus seemed to be that this was very likely to be a fish that hadn't been caught before and therefore found the whole business frightening - c.f. "Lumpy", a recognizable eleven-pounder who was many an angler's "P.B."
It may just be that carp who visit the bank a few times a season from pastiehood find capture a mild inconvenience to which they are largely inured, whereas the almost unfished-for carp of old simply won't risk it.

I'm not sure fish are able to interpret and process such information. I'm certain they react on instinct.

It may have been a self perpetuating myth. The more it was said that carp were a difficult fish the less anglers fished for them. I can remember thinking that as a youngster and wouldn't attempt to fish for them. You were made to believe you had to be really clever to fish for them. The other myth that used to go about was that fly fishing was very difficult and hard to master. I didn't try it for many years also but, when I did, didn't find it difficult. Took me an hour to learn the basic cast. These myths sort of have a momentum of their own. I have learned to never believe in them and just have a go if you want whatever it is. Find out for yourself if it is difficult, don't believe all you hear.

markg said:

It may have been a self perpetuating myth. The more it was said that carp were a difficult fish the less anglers fished for them. I can remember thinking that as a youngster and wouldn't attempt to fish for them. You were made to believe you had to be really clever to fish for them. The other myth that used to go about was that fly fishing was very difficult and hard to master. I didn't try it for many years also but, when I did, didn't find it difficult. Took me an hour to learn the basic cast. These myths sort of have a momentum of their own. I have learned to never believe in them and just have a go if you want whatever it is. Find out for yourself if it is difficult, don't believe all you hear.

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good point - I didn't fly fish for ages having thought the casting looked difficult - I'm still no master but at least I can get the line behind my feet now

As others have pointed ou already, i think that carp were far less abundant and also there were a lot of myths about the difficulties of catching them - using the gear available at the time.

I wonder of they are far more wary and difficult to catch if theres only a few in a body of water, where they do not need to compete with each other for food and theres plenty of natural food available, as compared to the present situation in many cases where a water is stuffed with them and they race to get the bait first.

I like Mark G.'s point, too.
Having spent some time training fish, I know they can learn; what, how much and how well are the big unknowns as I see it. A fish brain physiologist told me (ca. 1980) of a paper that claimed goldfish could not learn at temperatures below 5C; I too have difficulty thinking in those conditions, so I know how they feel; it may be a piece of the jigsaw, though.
There's a thought - I wonder if the close season had anything to do with it?
In the old days, carp were thoroughly warmed up, well-fed and alert before anyone could cast a line at them, but now, every April (-ish, and yes, I know they keep feeding all year on heavily fed waters, but generally, April) they come-to after a the Winter with a raging appetite and giving every indication of having forgotten everything they learned last summer - whereupon everyone catches them, (even I, occasionally) and the inuring process gets under way while they're still too hungry to play hard to get. ???