Carp Care

Total Carp Staff  |  May 9, 2012

Question: Having caught a decent amount of sizeable carp i would like to think i treat them well after landing. They are weighed and photographed quickly and returned to the water, usually within 2 minutes. Some of the videos and clips on you tube, featuring very high profile carp heads, show the fish to be on the bank for longer than i feel comfortable with. What, in your opinion would be a safe time to have a fish out of the water? James Wright via e-mail


Total Carp editor Marc Coulson says: That is a very good question and you raise an excellent point, James. Quite simply, I would say to keep the carp out for the absolute minimum amount of time. Weigh it, photograph it and perform any carp-care necessary, then get it back in the water as soon as you are done. Remember to also keep some water nearby to drench the carp whenever you can.

As for the films you see, the first thing to remember is that they may well be heavily edited. The Korda DVDs for example feature lots of carp on the bank for what might seem like a long time. However, I have seen the guys shooting these often enough to know that the carp are kept out of the water for the minimum amount of time. Sometimes there may be other clips cut into the film and you’re given the impression that they’ve had the fish out for al of this time. They haven’t; they’ve simply stitched different clips together for the purposes of the film. As for the stuff on YouTube, if it’s filmed in real time then they should do exactly as I have said above and get the carp back as quickly as possible. Carp are extremely hardy creatures, but no matter, they still are not designed to be out of the water for long periods.

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