We pick the brains of renowned fish farmer and fishery owner/manager Anthony Campbell on his thoughts with regard to the controversial topic of fishing for spawning carp.

To fish or not to fish? That is the moral question!

So we are at that time of year again when it is possible to see our target fish up close and personal, spawning away without a care in the world other than procreation!

It’s an awesome sight as they burst out of the unknown depths to give you a glimpse of what it might be possible to catch!

However, it is an incredibly stressful time for fish and fishery owners alike.

In an ideal world, lakes would be closed for the period of spawning. Unfortunately, it is not an ideal world. They don’t always spawn all at once; they can in fact spawn twice within a year, and in some warmer climates, like on our fish farm in the USA, they are known to spawn three times within the season.

So where some fishery owners have the luxury of being able to close their water for a week to let them get it out of their systems, others can’t. I am lucky enough to co-own a fishery, and it is likely that we will never close during spawning. Our stock typically takes one to two months for it all to be done and dusted and, because it is a commercial fishery, it is just not viable for us to close for such a long period.

So what do I do? I make it known to anglers not to cast to spawning fish. Even though the fish won’t be interested in your boilie you can disturb their rhythm, and if they stop because they are not happy, it is likely they will become spawn-bound. There are plenty of fish in the rest of the lake that do still require food, so go for those instead.

Every situation and lake is different so unfortunately there is not a definitive answer to this moral question – but more the need to educate and the use of common sense by the angler and fishery owners alike.