Carp: "How old do they go? How big do they grow?"

[Ron Clay]

The problem with huge carp is that they are so darned ugly.

I have seen a few big carp in my life and I have also caught the odd one too. None of them were perfect examples of their species. But worst of all the fights they put up were completely hideous.

They didn't swim, they "waddled".

There are no doubt some very big carp that look like what carp are supposed to look like, such as the fish in North America or even Australia. In South Africa there are also some exquisitely gorgeous fish but they have a problem getting much heavier than 35 lbs.

But in the UK I don't think you will do better than trying for Trent carp. They are the nearest thing I have seen to big feral carp, even though some of them may have got into the Trent during floods, from ponds that were stocked with hatchery fish.

[Ron Clay]

During the early 1970s, I heard a story of a lake that supposedly contained enormous carp to over 80 lbs. The lake was on the land of a gold mining company near a town called Nigel, about 50 miles away from my home.

I made enquiries and found the lake, it was a typical dam on the headwaters of a small stream. It was shallow and about 40 acres in extent. After getting permission to fish, I arrived there one Saturday morning. The man on the gatehouse happened to be a keen angler who spent some time pointing out the best spots. It appeared that the lake had been stocked with carp around about 1910, to provide fish for the mining community. The fish had grown big, but they were not as big as they were 20 years ago when a seventy pounder was caught. He showed me a faded photo of what looked to be a monstrous carp hung up on a meat hook.

Later that morning I caught 3 carp, all over 20 lbs. But they were horrible - mirrors with their scales coming away, one was well over 3 feet long and all of them stank like a sewage works. None of them put up much resistance.

They looked like very old fish indeed.

I never went back

[St.John]

what about the Japanese koi that have been handed down generation to generation?

[Gary Bills]

Absolutely, St John - the oldest on record in Japan was said to be 226, if my memory serves me right.

[Beresford]

As a lad I remember a story reported in the angling papers of a 100lbs carp being caught by rod and line in India.

I've caught a carp that was over three feet long – I measured it. It looked amazing, fully scaled with a truly massive shovel like tail. The fish took nearly 50 minutes to land on a MkIV in lightly weedy water using 10lb mono. I was convinced it was over 25lbs but it weighted in at under twenty. On reflection it had no gut at all and was almost trout like in shape. I'm in no doubt that in a richer water this fish could have gone over forty such was the shape of its big head, too big for the body mass really and this enormous tail. However for a four foot long fish to be a massive weight it would need to be of great bulk/thickness over the shoulders and deep set. I'm sure four foot carp could weigh anything from 20 – 100lbs.

Grafham Water is very rich and ideal for growing big fish. I've clearly seen a brown trout in there rolling in the surface not more than 30 feet away that had simply huge red and black spots and again a monster tail. Having caught a trout of ten pounds I'd say this one could have been double that. I'm in no doubt that should Grafham throw up a record of any species, trout, roach, bream, perch, pike, zander or even carp I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised.