aquarium gifts

[KATALEKEEPER]

I was fishing for pike with a friend, he snagged a big red horse, even though the fight was good he was disappointed lol. I know Asian carps are invasive, but the fights they put up and how easy they are to snag, will make fishing fun and give you lots of catfish bait.

asian carp and redhorse are different things lol

 

[KATALEKEEPER]

Before commercial fishing really took off in the uk carp were few and far between. They were considered a very wily and clever fish, people just didn't catch a lot of them back then because their numbers were nothing like they are nowadays. But when you did hook into one, jesus, you knew about it. One minute you'd be catching small roach and perch and the next the line would be stripped from your reel at breakneck speed. If you only had light tackle you had no chance.

Early commercial fisheries recognised the attraction that such a hard fighting fish, with a potential to grow huge too, could potentially have in their efforts to lure anglers to their venues. So lakes were stocked with them at an alarming rate. The rest is history. Pleasure fisherman like myself were replaced by die hard carp fanatics. The carp fishing business just exploded. Back then it was just common, mirror and leather carp. The smaller and truly beautiful crucian carp, my favourite, also was introduced along with koi and the grass carp.

The temperatures in the uk mean the carp max out at around the 60lb mark, which is huge. But the die hards wanted more. They'd read reports of true leviathans being caught in warmer European waters such as in Spain and France. I believe the current European record is over 100lb from an Hungarian venue.

This carp boom came with a heavy price though. A lot of Europeans eat carp, they are considered a delicacy. And the influx of Polish, Bulgarian and Lithuanians into the uk have meant that many of the top top commercial carp fisheries have had to put state of the art security measures in place, fish stocks were being decimated by these hungry newcomers.

This is going back years though. I don't really keep abreast of what's going on in the fishing world much now. Though looking at the miriad of fancy gear in the angling section of my local LFS, i'd say carp fishing is still as popular as ever.

crucians are my favorite too!

 

[jjohnwm]

Before commercial fishing really took off in the uk carp were few and far between. They were considered a very wily and clever fish, people just didn't catch a lot of them back then because their numbers were nothing like they are nowadays. But when you did hook into one, jesus, you knew about it. One minute you'd be catching small roach and perch and the next the line would be stripped from your reel at breakneck speed. If you only had light tackle you had no chance.

Early commercial fisheries recognised the attraction that such a hard fighting fish, with a potential to grow huge too, could potentially have in their efforts to lure anglers to their venues. So lakes were stocked with them at an alarming rate. The rest is history. Pleasure fisherman like myself were replaced by die hard carp fanatics. The carp fishing business just exploded. Back then it was just common, mirror and leather carp. The smaller and truly beautiful crucian carp, my favourite, also was introduced along with koi and the grass carp.

The temperatures in the uk mean the carp max out at around the 60lb mark, which is huge. But the die hards wanted more. They'd read reports of true leviathans being caught in warmer European waters such as in Spain and France. I believe the current European record is over 100lb from an Hungarian venue.

This carp boom came with a heavy price though. A lot of Europeans eat carp, they are considered a delicacy. And the influx of Polish, Bulgarian and Lithuanians into the uk have meant that many of the top top commercial carp fisheries have had to put state of the art security measures in place, fish stocks were being decimated by these hungry newcomers.

This is going back years though. I don't really keep abreast of what's going on in the fishing world much now. Though looking at the miriad of fancy gear in the angling section of my local LFS, i'd say carp fishing is still as popular as ever.

Dang. Yet another example of learning some more up-to-date info on a topic that interests me...only to wish that I had remained blissfully ignorant of developments. My knowledge of current developments in fishing...as in aquariums and many other of my interests...is pretty old and out-of-date. Check my sigline.

Just to clarify: when you talk of "commercial" carp fishing, are you referring to fishing boats capturing them with nets, for sale? Or are these some kind of "pay-for-play" operation, where you are charged an admission fee to fish a private body of water? I know that type of operation seems to be common in Europe for many types of hunting...the so-called "estate" hunts. They exist here in Canada, but they're not that common, or at least not yet.

In the spirit of giving the experience a fair shake, I hunted a private reserve once in Texas; it felt like going to a grocery store or a butcher shop with a rifle. Not my cup of tea at all. It would be sad to learn that fishing is being destroyed by the same type of greedy commercialism.

Edited to add: I just realized how far off topic I've help to drag this thread. My apologies. My Xmas gift-to-myself in the aquarium area is several large slabs of frozen foods; brine shrimp, bloodworms, Mysis, plankton and silversildes. It was nice to return some variety to my fish food stash and to my fishes' diets.

 

[esoxlucius]

Dang. Yet another example of learning some more up-to-date info on a topic that interests me...only to wish that I had remained blissfully ignorant of developments.

Just to clarify: when you talk of "commercial" carp fishing, are you referring to fishing boats capturing them with nets, for sale? Or are these some kind of "pay-for-play" operation, where you are charged an admission fee to fish a private body of water? I know that type of operation seems to be common in Europe for many types of hunting...the so-called "estate" hunts. They exist, but they're not that common, or at least not yet, here in Canada.

In the spirit of giving the experience a fair shake, I hunted a private reserve once in Texas; it felt like going to a grocery store or a butcher shop with a rifle. Not my cup of tea at all. How sad to learn that fishing is being destroyed by the same type of greedy commercialism.

Yeah, my mistake. Commercial can also refer to mass net fishing, as you alluded to, but the commercial I refer to regarding the carp fisheries is purely a rod and line only policy, a pay for play like you said. A very large lake will have hundreds of accessible pegs where to fish from, any bushes and trees, or areas where underwater snags are a problem, are all cleared away by the owners making more room for more fishing areas. It started off as a pay per peg system but carp fisherman, with all their sophisticated bait alarm systems can have many rods out at once, so the fishery bosses started charging per rod, more revenue.

Some if these lakes can't even be fished by the average Joe, many of them are syndicates with strict membership. And you got it, the yearly subscriptions can rival the fees that some of the revered Scottish salmon rivers can command. And last time I checked angling was the largest participation sport in the uk, surprisingly usurping even football!! That was a staggering statistic and shows how popular, and extremely lucrative it is.

Although carp are the biggest draw for many anglers, mixed fisheries are also gold mines. Pike fishing is big during the winter months and summer isn't just for carp, we also have huge tench and bream fisheries with roach, rudd, chub, perch, barbel and zander in too. And we even have the odd fishery stocked with the European Wels catfish.....though that one, I have a feeling is going to turn out very bad.

And I believe the European angling scene is bigger than ours!!

 

[KATALEKEEPER]

Dang. Yet another example of learning some more up-to-date info on a topic that interests me...only to wish that I had remained blissfully ignorant of developments. My knowledge of current developments in fishing...as in aquariums and many other of my interests...is pretty old and out-of-date. Check my sigline.

Just to clarify: when you talk of "commercial" carp fishing, are you referring to fishing boats capturing them with nets, for sale? Or are these some kind of "pay-for-play" operation, where you are charged an admission fee to fish a private body of water? I know that type of operation seems to be common in Europe for many types of hunting...the so-called "estate" hunts. They exist here in Canada, but they're not that common, or at least not yet.

In the spirit of giving the experience a fair shake, I hunted a private reserve once in Texas; it felt like going to a grocery store or a butcher shop with a rifle. Not my cup of tea at all. It would be sad to learn that fishing is being destroyed by the same type of greedy commercialism.

Edited to add: I just realized how far off topic I've help to drag this thread. My apologies. My Xmas gift-to-myself in the aquarium area is several large slabs of frozen foods; brine shrimp, bloodworms, Mysis, plankton and silversildes. It was nice to return some variety to my fish food stash and to my fishes' diets.

noooo its fine im enjoying it

 

[KATALEKEEPER]

Yeah, my mistake. Commercial can also refer to mass net fishing, as you alluded to, but the commercial I refer to regarding the carp fisheries is purely a rod and line only policy, a pay for play like you said. A very large lake will have hundreds of accessible pegs where to fish from, any bushes and trees, or areas where underwater snags are a problem, are all cleared away by the owners making more room for more fishing areas. It started off as a pay per peg system but carp fisherman, with all their sophisticated bait alarm systems can have many rods out at once, so the fishery bosses started charging per rod, more revenue.

Some if these lakes can't even be fished by the average Joe, many of them are syndicates with strict membership. And you got it, the yearly subscriptions can rival the fees that some of the revered Scottish salmon rivers can command. And last time I checked angling was the largest participation sport in the uk, surprisingly usurping even football!! That was a staggering statistic and shows how popular, and extremely lucrative it is.

Although carp are the biggest draw for many anglers, mixed fisheries are also gold mines. Pike fishing is big during the winter months and summer isn't just for carp, we also have huge tench and bream fisheries with roach, rudd, chub, perch, barbel and zander in too. And we even have the odd fishery stocked with the European Wels catfish.....though that one, I have a feeling is going to turn out very bad.

And I believe the European angling scene is bigger than ours!!

pay for pay

 

[Fishnerd360]

asian carp and redhorse are different things lol

I know, I was just explaining another species that people aren’t a fan of catching.

 

[esoxlucius]

Dang. Yet another example of learning some more up-to-date info on a topic that interests me...only to wish that I had remained blissfully ignorant of developments. My knowledge of current developments in fishing...as in aquariums and many other of my interests...is pretty old and out-of-date. Check my sigline.

Just to clarify: when you talk of "commercial" carp fishing, are you referring to fishing boats capturing them with nets, for sale? Or are these some kind of "pay-for-play" operation, where you are charged an admission fee to fish a private body of water? I know that type of operation seems to be common in Europe for many types of hunting...the so-called "estate" hunts. They exist here in Canada, but they're not that common, or at least not yet.

In the spirit of giving the experience a fair shake, I hunted a private reserve once in Texas; it felt like going to a grocery store or a butcher shop with a rifle. Not my cup of tea at all. It would be sad to learn that fishing is being destroyed by the same type of greedy commercialism.

Edited to add: I just realized how far off topic I've help to drag this thread. My apologies. My Xmas gift-to-myself in the aquarium area is several large slabs of frozen foods; brine shrimp, bloodworms, Mysis, plankton and silversildes. It was nice to return some variety to my fish food stash and to my fishes' diets.

Oh dear, you've just brought it to my attention that I have absolutely nothing to offer regarding the original topic of the thread! No fish related purchases at all for me. Yet another thread that's ended up going in all directions. At least you've redeemed yourself with your fish food purchases. Lol.

 

[KATALEKEEPER]

I know, I was just explaining another species that people aren’t a fan of catching.

oh ok. I dont get why people dont like to catch them tho or dont like them

 

[Ogertron3000]

A few years back I got the cliche gift of a "hilarious" ceramic NO FISHING sign to put into my tank from one of my wifes relatives.
It went straight in the bin once they had left. My wife wanted me to keep it and put it in the tank when they visited so they wouldnt be offended. I will wear a shirt that I got as a present occasionally or eat some horrible food so as to seem appreciative but that dodgy sign was going too far.