How deep do carp eat

Shine · Sep 8, 2007

Blue lake in kent has now opened again to our club. This is a huge lake (old quarry/chalk pit)that is very deep in places, 40-50ft.

Some people were telling me carp will eat at the bottom of this while other are saying carp would only go 20-25ft deep to eat at the most.

How deep will they go to eat and what is aaverage depth for a carp to eat at.

Thanks for any help.

Ron 'The Hat' Clay AMIMechE (SA) MIFE (SA) (ACA) · Sep 8, 2007

Anywhere where there is food.

One of the carp's most important natural foods is daphnia which is abundant in many still waters. Daphnia is a tiny water flea which is found in countless millions and migrates upwards and downwards in the water depending on the strength of the light penetration. During strong sunlight the daphnia are deep and when it gets darker, daphnia migrate nearerto the surface.

Not only carp, but many other species including trout, eat these little beasties in vast numbers. Often, all a fish has to do when dapnia are in abundance is to swim through the clouds of them with their mouths open.

Of course carp will take food from the surface and the bottom too. They are adept at rooting out bloodworms from the bottom detritus.

Then you have to consider where a carp will feed when it is influenced by human agencies such as by groundbaiting. I have caught carp at depths in excess of 50 feet on many occasions. Although in some lakes, great depths mean little oxygen

Hope this helps.

Shine · Sep 8, 2007

Thanks for the info Ron. Much appreciated.

steveo · Sep 8, 2007

ron,.interesting about the dafnia.....so where do youon many occasionscatch in 50"+ of water!!?? is this in engalnd or europe,what time of year,time of day,what the bottom like ?are these waters with sheer sides or gradually getting deeper.jus wondered,i wonderd how much natural food is at thoes depths and what the temperature is??..the reason i ask is because i have a few timew fished deep water(35"+)and havelttle success,so any info would be of interest.

alan · Sep 8, 2007

Steveo, there a lake in stubbington, man made that is meant to about 60ft deep. the side slope in at a very steep angle, 6ft from the bank and the water is between 10-12ft deep.

Ive caught fish from the top, and the bottom, and find the margins and the centre fish about the same.

watching a mirror that you have just got to the top dive back to those depths is heart breaking and any double figure fish becomes a back breaking exercise to get them in, but its good fun.

steveo · Sep 8, 2007

fair enough Alan,for me a confidance thing,ive always found the shallower areas of a deep water to be more productive,i was jus surprised that ron is regularly catching at such depths as 50"+.are the carp expelling much gas from their bladders on the way up and are there any problems returning the fish.i have witnessed carp de-gassing in deep water in spain on their way to feeding in the shallower margins(still 20"ish of water)it was a good way to spot them before stalking them....also i have scubed to depths of 30meters and find that food ,light,temperatureis a lot less.

BAZ (Angel of the North) · Sep 8, 2007

50" = 4ft 2 inches.

I think you mean 50' not 50".

Ron 'The Hat' Clay AMIMechE (SA) MIFE (SA) (ACA) · Sep 8, 2007

I should have mentioned that depths in excess of 50 feet are not found very often in Europe. The deepest lake I have caught carp has been the Sterkfontein Dam near Harrismith in South Africa, which in parts exceeds 300 feet!

Dont expect to find much living at the bottom of those depths however.

glenn melsome · Sep 8, 2007

alan this is on tanners lane its not in stubington its in fareham

and ive been told this isint a lake its a resivewire it feeds the fields

also ive been told the sides have colapsed so the water is only30 to 40ft deep if you want i will plumit itwith you one day it was the bayliffe that told me

i think roach and rud adjust to only a few meters

i dont no about perch which is also in the water also there is chub ive been told but what ever they have got ant doing its job theres so many small perch its unril it was hard fishing the other day just to catch a few roach or rud i was fishing deep water thoe

Shine · Sep 8, 2007

Thanks for all this folk. Keep the info coming. At the deeper depths we are talking about what sort of bait should be used, boilies, sweetcorn, pellets, maggots or doesnt it matter?

I need all the help I can. I've never fished a lake this big before.

Cheers.

alan · Sep 8, 2007

Glenn, the bailiff has told me different depths every time i go ranging from 90ft to 40ft.

Ive heard about the chub but never seen them, lots of perch, some nice roach and rudd (if you get past the perch)

bailiff also told me it was man made as a fishing pond and had no other purpose, but then he also reckons the bottom is crammed with rods and poles that have been dragged in by the fish, that there is other 2tonnes of carp in there and the bigger fish go to just under 40lb.

oh and tanners lane is classed as stubbington.

glenn melsome · Sep 8, 2007

sorry about that but i would take cheese cut it up into small cubes 10mm cube and air rig it. my so son was catching from deep but me my self i was catchin in the margines we were using mild cheeder me and my friends have had about 60 or 70 carp out in the last two weeks on it when i say margin i mean 2\3ft a way from the weed /forum/smilies/tongue_out_smiley.gif

glenn melsome · Sep 9, 2007

alan ive also been asked any carp over 30ld this should be reported to bailiffe but i sapose that is the same on any water to any species if there near the top wait. ive not seen or heard any over 30ld just been told or over 20ld me and my friends have had them out to 18

yes but if people dont keep them in formed of how they get on when we have given them info how do we get on so a short measage of how you do would be fine

alan · Sep 9, 2007

how i get on there?

last time i went i took 1 of my sons, and 2 people who have never been fishing before, lent them the stuff and should them how to fish. they caught

18 perch,
1 roach
14 carp

i was to busy helping out to fish properly.

the time before that i took someone who goes sea fishing but has never been carp fishing.

i had 38carp, he had around 15

the 1st time i went there i had 26 fish out.

for me its great to take some one there to catch their 1st fish, but you get way to many idiots.

watching people strike the fish with the rod going from flat to behind their heads at high speed.

loud radios.

leaving their rods in the water and sodding off for a walk around the lake, watching the rods go for a swim is funny though, seen that happen at least once a day ive been there.

its not a hard lake to fish and once youve worked out where the fish are you cant fail to catch.

if you do fish there regualry fish one rod unless there are 2 of you fishing, ive lost count on how many times i was playng one fish when the other rod screamed off,

glenn melsome · Sep 9, 2007

thanks alan but i was not on about you but ive got to agree ive seen this myself sorry but ive done this with my rod as well from flat to behind me but ive only done it on a few acasions but ive come from mullet fishing down to fresh water where ive had to gather a lot of lose line up before contact with the fish but this has only hapend afew times so idont no why most pepole do this yes i saw a person dive in after his rod the other day

yes ive got to agree theres nothing like teaching pepole to fish i dont charge ether but what was your bigest carp

alan · Sep 9, 2007

Biggest? i tend to weigh and take photos of the better looking fish so i havent got a clue.

fish for mullett with your carp rods, its great fun.

where do you normally fish for mullet, and do you fish for any other sea fish?

sorry diamond, weve hijacked your thread.

Shine · Sep 9, 2007

Not all bad Alan. I'm going to try catching with a bit of cheese later....

Only been carp fishing for just over 2 years and always learning something new.

steveo · Sep 9, 2007

thank you to baz for ponting out the obvious!!

Frothey · Sep 9, 2007

pointing /forum/smilies/wink_smiley.gif

Frothey · Sep 9, 2007

"carp sense" by Jim Gibbinson has a decent bit about fishing deep pits, try and borrow a copy from someone

How deep do carp eat

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