Carp colouration?

[Dave Burr]

I agree that water clarity is the major factor. Catch a barbel from the muddy old Severn and they are pale silver, catch one from the Wye and they are vibrant colours and look like barbel should do. Likewise, on the South drain in Somerset where the water is crystal clear with a hint of peat, the fish are stunning, the roach have pewter sides and scarlet fins and the perch are the best I've ever seen. Nip over to the Huntspill which is often coloured and they are all pale and horrible.

[Loop Erimder]

I fish a farm pond and the water is clear znd the one carp I had was very dark indeed so I'm inclined to go with clear water dark fish

[Mario]

i fish the severn quite bit and the teme and i dont find the fish pale at all not compaired to trent anyway as for carp where i fish the carp are a nice chest nuti colour and the lake has some colour

[St.John]

never fished the severn, cos i always get waylayed by the teme. had some dark barbel and some light ones out of it! i recon some are southern european in origin and some are pale, sun deprived brits!!

[Mario]

st john do you fish the wocester angling society water if so do you fish there water on the wye

[St.John]

st john do you fish the wocester angling society water if so do you fish there water on the wye

i'm the bailiff for their water on the wye! the mother-in-laws house is at the bottom of the stretch. the teme and severn are far better bits though

[Mario]

what the fishing like as i would like to give it a go but my mate want to know whats it like before we make the trip as its a longish way ie are there many barbel extra

[St.John]

sod all barbel and very few chub. loads of bleak though!!!!

[Mario]

thanks for the info st john my mate would kill me for such a wild goose chase

[Gary Bills]

It is all down to clarity of water and the same fish will change dramatically in a very short space of time. If you want to see for yourself keep a small silver fish for a day in a black bucket and another in a white bucket then swap them over and see the difference.

On deep waters it is very easy to see the fish that spend most of their time in shallow water or the upper layers compared to those that prefer to stay deeper.

Here is a classic example of how the same fish change...



This little fella is out of my garden they change colour all of the time (both pictures same fish) it is simply natures way of camouflaging them.

In my opinion, some of the most impressive "carpy" research on this site, Shaun!
This explains a lot - such as how, sometimes at Redmire for instance, it was not uncommon for syndicate members, apparently, to fail to recognise fish, because the colours seemed so different from capture to capture. If carp can change colour like that, and by so much, it's not so surprising. This also nails the old chestnut that dark commons are necessarily of an old strain. Instead, it looks as though they've had rather too much sun!
The old Hunstrete "wildies", according to BB, were silvery in tone...with that strain going back to the early sixteenth century, in that pool.
In an interview in The Fifth BCSG book, BB said: "We went down to Lackey's Leap..there were a lot of what I call the old fashioned monkish carp - long thin common carp, and a sort of silvery colour they were..."
Occasionally one still sees this kind of carp; they turn up, now and again.

DSCN0423.JPG

This is a small Clay Farm Pond fish - a water stocked by a syndicate in the late Seventies, with fish from various pools, so it's hard now - even with direct questions, to get clear answers concerning the origins of those fish...