Carp Fishing

In our minds, one of the topics most overlooked by modern-day carp anglers is knowledge of the species they are angling for. It's all well and good possessing a developed mind for bait, rigs, and tackle, but fundamentally, the angler will fail in many ways if he doesn't fully understand the target fish. A fish is not just a fish, as all will differ in many ways. Use the information wisely to plan your tactics for your chosen venue. Before you look at the fish themselves, however, it is important to know a little about the world in which they live. Remember that freshwater fish have a very simple existence in that all they require for a happy life is food, oxygen and a mate with whom to reproduce.

Many of you will have heard of the food chain in past biology classes at school, but if you were anything like us, you will have spent most of the lesson time daydreaming of being out on the banks instead of inside a stuffy classroom. Basically, the food chain is the name given to the way superior animals feed upon lesser animals lower down the chain. Man is said to be at the top of the food chain, but each and every link is important as, if one were missing, a natural balance would not be reached so animals higher up the chain would suffer. So where does the animal at the bottom of the chain get its food? The answer to this question is that light and heat energy from the sun together with various chemicals, such as phosphates and nitrates in the water, create the part of the chain known as photosynthesis, which allows plants to grow. Once plant life is established, animals will also be able to survive.

The carp, in common with all other fish, takes oxygen from the water through its gills in order to breath. The gills are situated just behind the head of the fish and are protected by bony plates called gill covers. The fish breathes by taking water into its mouth with its gill covers closed. Then it closes its mouth, opens its gill covers and raises the floor of the mouth, forcing water out over the gills. The gills themselves contain very fine blood vessels which allow oxygen to pass through their outer membrane and into the blood stream. As an illustration of how effective this system is, consider that the air we breathe has an oxygen content of approximately 21 per cent, whereas water contains only 0.001 per cent oxygen at 8C. Photosynthesis is another word you may recall from biology lessons. Basically, this is the process whereby green plants take in carbon dioxide and sunlight and produce simple sugars, releasing oxygen into the water in the process. This is obviously useful to know, as it is only during the daylight hours that the green plants are oxygenating the water. At night the opposite is the case, with the plants taking oxygen out of the water and releasing carbon dioxide back in. Furthermore, the water temperature also makes a difference to the amount of oxygen it contains - the warmer the water, the lower the dissolved oxygen content.

So what does all of this mean? Well, we know that carp require a certain amount of oxygen to survive and we also know that oxygen gets into the water via a number of different ways (wind action, pressure changes, etc), but we can also draw the conclusion that, at certain times of the year (for example summertime), certain parts of the lake will have more dissolved oxygen than others. The shallows, where the water is warmer, will have less dissolved oxygen than the cooler parts of the lake. Also, the weed beds at night will be taking oxygen out of the water and replacing it with carbon dioxide. The shallow margins, especially those with reedbeds and weed, may therefore become depleted of oxygen during a warm summer night, so fishing in these areas during this time may not be productive. It is vitally important to note here that if you intend to sack a fish for the night in summer, from a fish welfare point of view, it must be away from weed and reedbeds in a reasonable depth of water. In the daytime, it is best to sack fish in the shade if possible, but really there should be no need to sack a fish during the day.