ENORMOUS carp

Interesting to see what the non-angling media call 'enormous'

To non anglers it probably is, perhaps even to some carp anglers, but in these days of big fish in almost every hole in the ground what is 'big', what is 'huge' and what is 'enormous' ? It depends on your individual perspective of course but when all is said and done there has never been a better time to catch a big carp than now!

What I find rather sad here is that Boldermere is not exactly a tiny puddle, something like a 1 km hike round it yet in the report “Ranger” Gemma Grant said:

"Non-native fish have been a problem at Wisley and Ockham Commons, attracting illegal fishing and eating pond vegetation and insects. If we were to leave them in such large, unnatural numbers, they would eventually adversely affect the water quality and biodiversity of Boldermere Lake."

She adds :

“Sixteen common carp, seven mirror carp, 12 pike and nine bream, were retrieved”

The thing is I dont really see what removing that number of fish is really going to do to “save” the biomass?? Also If you trying to lower the number Why take the Pike out ? ...plus non native ...Pike?..Bream?...You sure about that ?

I am no “Ranger” but it seems all a bit messed up to me...

about 15 yrs ago i went to france fishing the river soan for cats. i had a 9.04 lbs cat (my personal worste) and showed people pics of it head on with its mouth wide open. wow how big is that monster or omg thats massive. then i showed them a pic of my m8s 109lbs and the look on their faces was priceless
most people see a gold fish and naturaly think we all fish for fish the same size

Used to be a day ticket water, and I fished it once in the late 1980s - but few if any others did apparently. It was extremely shallow around the edge - waded out about 40 yards to set up fishing position.

I can understand the wildlife trust not wanting it to become heavily stocked by carp (through self recruitment), but frankly most of the wildlife interest of the water is around the rushy edges, and it is way too shallow for carp to get to such areas. Also as their catch return shows a tiny, relict population of large carp, then there is surely no point removing them.