Understanding the Phenomenon

I get a lot of personal mails which I try and answer as best as I am able.

I've recently received one from a Swedish student
(it's a male before all you old gits start getting excited)
who is writing a project on why carp fishing is so popular in the UK and he has posed these 3 questions which I thought we could answer between us.

1)Why is carp fishing so popular in the UK?

2)What has carp fishing meant for the sportfishermen(specimen hunter?) in England and for
the development in fishing in general?

3)Approximately how much does the average angler spend on carp fishing every year?

What do you all reckon then?

Rik Sorry mate he sent me the same request?? which I posted before seeing your thread.....

No worries, I'll delete one to keep the forum tidy.

Well what happend to the replies?

)why is carp fishing so popular in the UK?
* ACCESSIBILITY.
* REASONABLY INSTANT SUCCESS (COMM'S)

2)What has carp fishing done for the speci hunter and the development of
fishing in general?
* Two areas of carp fishing-match type and speci.. There are now
possibly more waters capable of producing a '40' than ever and perhaps
several UK waters that could feasibly do a record at any time. Recent
European studies prove that we now have far more (20%+) liesure time
available to us generally as well as greater disposable income, which
perhaps goes someway to explaining why people are able to fit in 2-4 day
sessions often associated with the average carpers. I think that the fact
that a gradual change in society in general such as shiftworking has also
given some people longer periods to concentrate their efforts as opposed to
the traditional weekend.
* There are huge inroads in specimen hunting and other aspects of
fishing that have all originated from the carpers.
* hair rigs, bait technology, lines, hooks, rigs-the list is endless

3) sorry, cant answer that one, the odd bit of carping I do is usually spur
of the moment or opportunist and I use my standard gear .