If you are a serious big carp angler, fishing the

[Guest]

R,

haha, never mentioned that I am going to leave

I will still be bashing away trying my best to promote specimen angling and everything related to it.

 

[Guest]

[color=#006600]Critter[/color] wrote:

[color=#006600]Jacques[/color] wrote:

Last thought - what would be left for a freshwater angler if all alien species are gone? Don't get me started on this one!!! Getting the real big barbel on a hook is just as big a challenge as is a big Carp (I am talking about specimen size fish). A big kurper in prime condition will give you a good run for your money, We have 9 species of yellowfish, all of which is great fun to pursue. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy fishing for carp and bass, but they are in my humble opinion not better than our indigenous species....there are just more of them!

Caught my fair amount of yellow fish and still enjoy presenting a fly to them - but no art in catching yellow fish. Now you guys might be the "thunders" in for me about that statement. Just catching 15 - 30 yellows in one afternoon is not that diffcult. Going after specimen catfish, in relation to specimen carp (note: the in relation to - part).

Getting a specimen sized carp hooked (on regular basis) requires extensive baiting campaigns, water crafting etc etc. Just to explain - my frst real speciman sized carp was caught after a 3 month (weekly) baiting campaign with me not even putting a single line in the water during the campaign. Before I went on this campaign, and not wanting to dump in R1000's bait blindly,it took 2 months extensive watercrafting and research. The result THEN hooking into a 40lb fish is so much more rewarding than takeing a muddie head dorpping it blindly into Bloemhof and landing a 22.17kg catfish. Remember - we are not just targeting big carp but the biggest carp of a specific water.

 

[GTZA]

Thanks for the compliment Ryan. The yellows on fly issue is an excellent example of what can be achieved through education and a common will to find solutions. However, on the flip side is the fact that years of attempted eduation on the need not to spread alien fish have been met with an attitude of "we will continue to do so" and this has led directly to the current legislation prohibiting such activity, with concomitant heavy sanctions.

Somewhat humourously, the constant tussle between the boating bassaholics and the hook-and-cook bank anglers led to the legal provisions prohibiting release but allowing killing of alien species. So all in all, not only do we have the anglers themselves to thank (blame?) for the legal constraints, we also have them to blame (thank?) for the solution to employ themselves in the eradication of aliens. :thankie

 

[Andre Laas]

[color=#006600]Jacques[/color] wrote:

no art in catching yellow fish. You are most probably referring to sm yellows in the Vaal river here. What about catching largemouth yellows, clanwilliams, etc. etc. No art in that? 

takeing a muddie head dorpping it blindly into Bloemhof and landing a 22.17kg catfish. If it was that easy to catch a 20kg plus barbel, I should have had hundreds of that size behind my name!!! Yes, you can cast a muddy head out for a barbel and strike it lucky with a big one, just as you can do the same with a pappie and land a carp.

 Remember - we are not just targeting big carp but the biggest carp of a specific water. This is exactly what I meant with the Barbel as well. The idea is to constantly land specimen sized fish. The sharptooth catfish is known to reach a mass of 60Kg and is believed to grow even larger. I stand corrected to say that the record in SA is around 42 kg? That must surely be an specimen fish?

I have nothing against targeting specimen carp, but that is not the only type of specimen angling around.

 

[drewmill]

i am no real fresh water fisherman, caught a few bass and trout nothing to write home about, but i am a qualified conservationist. i have said before in other posts i consider myself an indiginut,that is pro indigenous. yes we have a problem with aliens and yes it will take a long time to eradicate. remember with some species it can take a very long time before we start feeling the effects of their precenseand by then it could be to late. as to alternative fish specimens to these aliens maybe there are none due to the fact that these fish may have removed them from the ecosystem.

some would argue that it is the natural way of things that the new species must adapt to survive or die. unfortunatly things that control that species like predation ( general and specialist), habitat needs and even disease resistance are lacking. a good example are the himilayian tar on table mountain. nothing can prey on them due to their habitat specs, one of the thoughts with these animals is that they have lead to the decrease in indigenous mountain species. i dont know i would rather be able to see a species in its own country of origin than to see it in my own country and lose out on getting to know indigenous species.

i have no problem if one sets up a dam with the intent to have only carp, bass or trout and being shut off from all open natural water sources, thus preventing contamination. i have seen this with a few trout dams in the burg so why not follow the same principles. i see this as along the lines of having agricultural land set up for use exclusively to cattle, by doing this the guys can still catch what they want and our ecosystem will not feel the impact. as well as economically people will not lose jobs in fact there may be an element of job creation. just an idea.

my question is with regards to these species reproduction and please excuse the ignorance as no body knows everything. the question is, what level of predation besides humans do carp expeirence in the wild. i ask cause i question the fact that these fish get so big may be because their is nothing to eat them once they get over a certain size. also what would the infant mortality rate be, is there a level of balance. this could mean that large fish are getting larger and they take up recourses that other fish event hose of the same species could use.


i appreciate everyones input and for me the only way to learn is to listen to others views. whether i wet my lines regularly or not i see it as growing as a person and enables me to make better judgements on issues. and if you cant laugh at something why bother being involved at all. i am by no means saying that their is not a level of seriousness but i believe that one can make a bigger change if you present a situation in a different light to this is how things are gonna be attitudes. as my motto in life says without education there can be no conservation.

 

[GTZA]

Drewmill, you are quite correct w.r.t. the (lack of) predation of large specimens of carp (and other fish). While the predators of fry and smaller specimens are still present to some extent, most water bodies in South Africa do not have the major predators such as otters and crocodiles any more. This is also one of the reasons for the population explosion of sharptooth catfish (barbel) in some waters.

 

[MadCarper]

good question drewmill. From an angler's point of view I cant think of any form of predation on big carp, or carp over a certain weight, other than by humans.(fishing, bowfishing, netting(illegal and legal), pollution, etc).
But I wonder if any research have ever been done on what you're asking. I doubt it...

I would say the millions of smaller carp in a dam has a much larger impact on that system, than the bigger carp (of which there are alot less normally).... but its offcourse never as simple as that, hehehehe....

 

[Ryan]

What about "Knersises" and in Bloemhow Barbel packhunt carp of just about all sizes granted I doubt anything over say 10 kgs would fall victim to a barbel.

 

[FJ]

what is europ style carp fishing?:fishn