What is "Specimen Carp" Angling?

N

Nepptune

Sealiner
Ok, so please can someone explain what exactly is "Specimen Carp" angling?

Is it a style of angling?

How is it different to Pap gooing? Is it different to papgooing?

As someone who is completely clueless to this term "Specimen Carp" and pretty much anything else to do with Carp, can one of you guys explain? Ryan? Jaques? Whats the deal Freshies?

 

Thanks

Nepps 
 
H

Hammertime

Sealiner
Hello....... hello ........hello
Echo effect ok!

I am keen to know the answer to this as Nepps and I discussed it on board the other day and clearly we both got no idea what you all on about with specimen versus a good old carp caught here in the vlei???
 
R

royboy

Sealiner
Hey Nepps, Hammer. Good question....I have also pondered this. The Specimen bit that is. I know what a Carp is, but toss the word "specimen" in and I am clueless.

Nepps, your new Avatar is pretty cool.

Cheers, RB
 
M

momo330

Sealiner
hi guys
i just started specimen angling
im not all that clued up but i know this much,its targeting the bigger fish in the 20lb plus range. doing this requires alot of patience.good bait presentation and knowing what attracts the bigger fish. usually for carp fishin guys make a big feeding area but when going for specimens the guys make a small feeding area usually just around their bait using bigger pieces of bait like tiger nuts and boilies. the smaller fish tend to take better on flavoured mealie pips etc.

in conclusion i think its just targeting the bigger fish.....just my 2c
 
N

Nepptune

Sealiner
Ok, so then surely all the fishing we do is "Specimen" angling.... I mean when I go out fishing, I am targeting the biggest fish I can.... for example, if HT is out on the tuna grounds, he is not going to say to himself " Nah... today I'm just gonna target the little guys out here... " no, you are trying to catch the biggest bloody YFT you can on the day, thats the point....Does that make you a Specimen Tuna Angler?

When I'm fishing the streams here in the WC for trout, I'm not going to ignore the big 18 inch fish feeding under the that overhanging palmiet and just target the 8 inch fish at the head of a pool....

But I understand targeting big fish only, and maybe Carping enables you to do this better with specific techniques as bigger fish supposedly feed differently to the little guys....?

Ryan? Jacques? BC? Whats the story here okes... Sorry if I'm sounding stupid here, but being interested in pretty much every fishing aspect there is, I wanna know...

Thanks..

Royboy - Glad you like the Avatar.... :)
 
M

momo330

Sealiner
yes the bigger carp are attracted to certain types of feed compared to the smaller ones and when the smaller fish are feeding the bigger ones tend to saty far.
small carp wont take a tiger nut or i doubt they would.
 
G

GTZA

Banned
Nepps, I'm also no expert on this but let me offer this. The difference between specimen carp angling and other angling methods is that specimen carp angling not only targets the biggest fish in the water, but is designed to make sure that it is only the biggest fish that will take the bait and not the smaller buggers. And of course, specialising in carp only. The preparations are onerous and may take several months to enable the fisherman to reach his target. Jacques has written up a piece on how to become a specimen carp angler elsewhere on this site which you will find hilarious and have you in absolute stitches.

But please do not suggest to the specimen carp guys that what they are doing is basically what other anglers do, or that specimen angling could apply to other species as well. The response would somewhat resemble a bullterrier with PMS.
 
M

MadCarper

Sealiner
Specimen carp angling is basically the European style of carp angling. The word "specimen" was thrown into the label, to differentiate between just normal carp angling that 80% of carp anglers do (where any sized carp are fished for), and the European style of carp angling where the bigger and biggest carp are targeted, using specific methods/rigs/tackle etc.

Yes, as GTZA said, if you read about it you will think its quite funny and perhaps stupid. But its definitely not. "specimen" carp angling is a style of angling almost on its own.
 
G

Guest

Guest
bear with me:

Specimen:
• A representative thing - “something that is representative because it is characteristic of its kind or of a whole, especially something that serves as an example”
• Type of person – “somebody who displays particular characteristics”

Carp:
• Carp, common name for certain fish belonging to the minnow family
• Adults generally weigh no more than 2.3 kg (5 lb), but specimens weighing more than 35 kg (80 lb) have been recorded.
Angler:
• somebody who goes fishing: somebody who fishes with a hook, line, and rod

Some semantics:
Specimen Carp Angler – Someone who fishes (with a hook, line and rod) for above average sized carp (an organism preserved as a typical example of its classification) AND displays particular characteristics (in this instance ethics – a system of moral principles governing the appropriate conduct for a person or group)

So - it's is not just what we do but how? Thing is that European carp angling and Match angling were the reason that Gautneg North missed the Curry Cup this year. If it was just bank angling then GN would have taken the curry cup - nu about that.

So - we target the biggest possible fish in a particular piece of water (or alwys trying to break our PB's). This done with utmost care of the environment and the species (carp) we catch.
 
N

Nepptune

Sealiner
Thanks Jacques, I completely understand now..... makes sense....
I actually have a DVD (someone gave it to me... ) of some guys who I now realise are "Specimen Anglers" for sure, who target HUGE carp somewhere in the UK... Yetley or Yately or somewhere like that.... and all the fish have names like "Heather the Leather" and "Goldie" etc and they have each caught them a number of times.... apprently only 3 t 4 BIG carp in each of these lakes.... Was the first time I'd seen an unhooking mat..... definetly makes sense...

Thanks for your reply and explination, and also your sense of humour! Good stuff!
 
H

Hammertime

Sealiner
For your Information.

A specimen Tuna is so called when it attains a weight of 60kg.

Do you know how long it took me to get that info...
 
N

Nepptune

Sealiner
HT - Is that for YFT only or does that count for BFT and Big Eye too?
I mean a 60 Kilo Atlantic BFT is little more than a toddler.....
 
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