Fair play – second 30lb carp in a big match in a week!

Maver Festival standings after day 3:

Overall Top 20

1st Steve Ringer 27 points 288lb 12oz
2nd Nick Speed 26 points 306lb 13oz
3rd Adam Wakelin 26 points 292lb 2oz
4th Russell Grimes 26 points 202lb 5oz
5th Nathan Watson 26 points 182lb 1oz
6th Callum Dicks 26 points 170lb 7oz
7th Adam Richards 25 points 187lb 7oz
8th Andy Power 25 points 162lb 3oz
9th Tommy Pickering 25 points 122lb
10th Lee Edwards 24 points 205lb 9oz
11th Tony Gilbert 24 points 181lb 12oz
12th Eddie Green 24 points 180lb
13th Luke Sears 24 points 150lb 2oz
14th Karl Webster 23 points 215lb 14oz
15th Grant Albutt 23 points 183lb 15oz
16th Colin Mulholland 23 points 172lb
17th Steve Clark 23 points 162lb 8oz
18th Kevin Wadge 23 points 146lb 6oz
19th Phil Ringer 23 points 98lb 10oz
20th = Kieron Rich 22 points 215lb 1oz
20th = John Whincup 22 points 215lb 1oz

As the only angler now on maximum points Steve Ringer once again looks set to take a podium position on the festival but there is two days left to go and any thing could happen yet. There have been points won and lost across the pack to day which has once again seen a shift around in the overall results. At the end of play tomorrow we should have a clearer idea of the front runners but then that dropped result will come in to play so no one can afford to put a foot wrong.

omg so them .10 rigs wont be any good for next week then? lol!
looking at the daily reports theres quite a few big bream coming out to method/boilie as well!

apparently the bigger bream have started feeding due to the amount of colour in the water and are being caught on boilies.

Yep and the retard put it in his keepnet! he’s lucky the local carp guys weren’t there, t 😡 sser

:rolleyes: How else was he going to LAND it :rolleyes:

Did he have another option then – will the scales come round especially for big fish?

Of course they should bring the scales round! Fish welfare should be a priority, do you guys not have some sort of protocol, where large fish are weighed immediately? if not, you should.

Cornishcarper……..

That must be the same protocol “carp guys” follow by sacking up fish for long periods!!! 😡

im sure the fish was well looked after given the unique circumstance, well done to the lad for landing such a special fish I say!!

Cornishcarper, the keepnets that are used these days are designed to keep carp in. They are as carp friendly as a carp sack. The carp concerned was not kept in the net for longer than needed. Much less time than those carp that are caught and kept in a carp sack over night by the big fish boys.

I wonder at what point after Lou’s tip smoshed right round he thought……..OOOOOoooo.. Thats not a bream…..LOL :rolleyes: 😀

Firstly a sack holds a single carp, by design the fish cannot swim about stressing itself trying and escape. If sacked correctly, a carp will just stay still and relaxed, causing minimal stress.

Having said that, no sensible carp angler would sack an old carp like this any longer than absolutely necessary (if at all). Carp are only sacked if you want to wait till some one can take a photo, genrally much less than an hour, carp are not sacked in carp matches as there are plenty of people about.

I assume the guy was using light tackle, so the time it would have taken to land the carp would have been long and stressful. Add this to the stress of being chucked in a keep net, you are potentially causing serious harm to the fish.

I guarantee the staff a White Acres would not allow this practice on their own waters, in fact even the sacking of carp is banned full stop.

I am told top level match organisers do in fact weigh large fish immediately, therefore I have no more to say on the matter. Hopefully this thread will educate those who have previously given little thought to the welfare of big carp, and that White Acres rethink their procedures.

” I assume the guy was using light tackle, so the time it would have taken to land the carp would have been long and stressful. Add this to the stress of being chucked in a keep net, you are potentially causing serious harm to the fish.”

Light tackle, as opposed to a 3.75lb test curve rod, skull dragging out of the water??

I believe the fish was landed in 10 mins?

Always an alternative option. Remove all fish over 10lb from the venue. Problems then solved!

Why would you remove large fish on a venue that is fished predominantly by dedicated carp and pike anglers all year round?

The only time Porth is really fished by maggot drowners is during these so called fishing matches/male bonding sessions/shouting matches; which occur only a few times a year.

Hears another option, why not stick to fishing small JCB dug holes in the ground stuffed to the rim with small silver fish and pasty carp? I know the guys wouldn’t get their pleasure rides on a boat, but at least they wont have to shout as loud when they want to have a conversation with their mate fishing on the opposite bank!

Failing that show some respect for the fish, the venue and other anglers!!!

Show respect for fish. Thats a laugh how many times have you seen a Carper realise its a bream thats took his boilie instead of a carp, then proceed to reel it in at speed with his high power reel and 2.75test curve rod. Most of the bream in our lakes have all damaged mouths and thats only since so called carp lads joined.

@cornishcarper wrote:

Firstly a sack holds a single carp, by design the fish cannot swim about stressing itself trying and escape. If sacked correctly, a carp will just stay still and relaxed, causing minimal stress.

Having said that, no sensible carp angler would sack an old carp like this any longer than absolutely necessary (if at all). Carp are only sacked if you want to wait till some one can take a photo, genrally much less than an hour, carp are not sacked in carp matches as there are plenty of people about.

I assume the guy was using light tackle, so the time it would have taken to land the carp would have been long and stressful. Add this to the stress of being chucked in a keep net, you are potentially causing serious harm to the fish.

I guarantee the staff a White Acres would not allow this practice on their own waters, in fact even the sacking of carp is banned full stop.

I am told top level match organisers do in fact weigh large fish immediately, therefore I have no more to say on the matter. Hopefully this thread will educate those who have previously given little thought to the welfare of big carp, and that White Acres rethink their procedures.

Being a match angler myself i actually agree with you on this,i was also surprised this fish was`nt weighed and released asap…

We have good and bad anglers on both sides of the fence and i think we should applaud cornishcaper for actually caring about fish welfare :rolleyes:

What i would like to know was this fish returned to porth or put somewhere else as it surely does`nt belong in that lake were most anglers are fishing for silvers with light tackle :confused:

@mannymaggot wrote:

Show respect for fish. Thats a laugh how many times have you seen a Carper realise its a bream thats took his boilie instead of a carp, then proceed to reel it in at speed with his high power reel and 2.75test curve rod. Most of the bream in our lakes have all damaged mouths and thats only since so called carp lads joined.

I have i seen match anglers swinging in small carp when they should be landed,i witnessed this last year on a match with newly stocked fish 6oz – 1lb there was lots of signs around the fishery clearly saying all fish to be landed 🙁

I know some very good carp anglers who work tirelessly to look after there fishery and that includes fish welfare.

So we should`nt tar everyone with the same brush which is what your doing,

To be fair, I think the fish should have been weighed and returned, BUT, there may not have been the system in place to do so. If not, perhaps this instance will put that right.

Don’t start slanging each other people, there are good and bad practices from anglers in all branches of the sport.

Go back to sleep cornishcarper your alarm has not gone off yet :rolleyes:

I was down fishing the festival last week and heard a rumour on Saturday in the shop when we were leaving that the local bivy boys were already up in arms about the fish being caught, only thing was the way I heard it was more a case of jealousy by most of them 😀
Just for a heads up we dont have the opportunity to weigh and return individual fish when we fish a match especially on Porth with its size, all the competitors in the match are weighed with the same set of scales for continuity by white acres scales men who bring them out at the end of the match.
I saw a pic of it as it was returned and it was a beautiful condition fish which I’m advised swam off like a train looking non the worse for wear.
congratulations Lou any one of us would have given their eye teeth for it, at least you wouldn’t have been bothered by the Pike on the way in eh 🙂

Actually Cooky, the fish in question is a well known fish called ‘er indoors’ (dont ask me why) and is what is known in the carp scene as a ‘mug fish’ as it gets caught very regularly; so no jealousy warranted.

Yes it is an absolutely stunning linear mirror and when at its full weight is the largest known carp in Porth, all the more reason not to take the chance of harming the fish.

I now have it on good authority that the reason why large fish are not weighed immediately at these ‘matches’ is due to the fact that there is no one present during the match, other than the competitors. Only at the end of the ‘match’ does someone turn up from White Acres to weigh everyones catch, so nothing to do with the size of the water; just that there is no one physically there to do it!

I will leave you with this question.. Can a match without any officials to monitor anglers activity and compliance to rules; really be taken seriously or is it just a bit of a jolly?

No it’s deadly serious – when we want a jolly we smoke weed with our friends in tents with some alarms not far away to let us know when someone is stealing our rods.

Happy As Larry – The purpose of this thread is not to slag off each others preferred method of fishing; thats just childish..

Each to their own I say, in fact for many years as a youth I pleasure fished with poles and feeder rods etc; happy to catch anything that swam.

However after a while I got bored of catching loads of tiny fish one after another (each catch pretty much the same as the last); and wanted my fishing to be more challenging and the fish I catch to be more memorable.

The tread is about highlighting poor fish care by those who should know better, if you want to slag off carp anglers.. start your own thread.

I’ve been reading this thread since it started and I feel is now time for someone to defend Lou (the chap who had the priviledge of catching the 30lb carp in question). I have fished with Lou for a number of years and I know that he would’ve done everything humanly possible at the time of catching the fish for its welfare. I’m sure he would’ve been trying to get a number to ask the guys at the fishing lodge at whiteacres for advice as to what to do.

The one thing we all know now from this thread was it swam away fit and heatlhy none the worse for its moment of fame in a whiteacres festival, and is that not what we all want as anglers at the end of the day.

The fish was hooked just before the final whistle and landed after and the scales were there to weigh it pretty much straight away! Even if it was hooked earlier, what do you expect the bloke to do in a big money match, put it straight back? :rolleyes: And as for officials checking rules etc, it’s not perfect but if someone is breaking them, the anglers nearby will normally spot it and challenge them and we take the White Acres festivals very seriously! Think you’re totally out of order abusing the bloke and others that go there! 😡

I agree with Kev34’s comments on the matter.

I’ve no axe to grind with Lou or Cornishcarper, but the catch does highlight the need to have in place a recognised system of dealing with fish of this size. They certainly don’t deserve to be put in a keepnet along with smaller fish, nor do the smaller fish deserve to be crushed by the larger one.

I believe match organisers have the responsibility to ensure that fish of this size are weighed and returned within minutes of capture, the excuse that competitors monitor each other does not sit well. In my experience very few anglers get challenged about their fish handling or conduct in a match and when they do it often gets ugly.

Match organisers and fishery owners owe it to themselves and to the creditability of the sport to maintain sensible rules and be present to ensure that they are complied with.

The way carp matches are now going with multiple ton weights on some waters, one has to step back and decide do you want to fish such competitions of attrition? If so are the weight limits per net sensible and practicable?

Perhaps the solution is to have a nominated steward in each section? This could simply be sorted at the draw. If said steward has mobile phone he can call into the lodge to deal with issues like this. I am sure other lakes used in the festival have large fish and a simple system of managing this can be sorted.
I am not sure of mobile covereage at Porth however I know its patchy down there.
We have a rule in our club that large fish have to be weighted and returned straight away, but we leave it to the anglers to decide when to apply this rule to avoid any dispute. I think intuitively we know what should and should not go into a keepnet.
Well done to the the lucky angler in this instance, he had no other chioce than to do what he did, I am sure every other angler would have done the same. Its up to Clint now to sort a process for dealing with it.

@JohnH wrote:

Perhaps the solution is to have a nominated steward in each section? This could simply be sorted at the draw. If said steward has mobile phone he can call into the lodge to deal with issues like this. I am sure other lakes used in the festival have large fish and a simple system of managing this can be sorted.
I am not sure of mobile covereage at Porth however I know its patchy down there.
We have a rule in our club that large fish have to be weighted and returned straight away, but we leave it to the anglers to decide when to apply this rule to avoid any dispute. I think intuitively we know what should and should not go into a keepnet.
Well done to the the lucky angler in this instance, he had no other chioce than to do what he did, I am sure every other angler would have done the same. Its up to Clint now to sort a process for dealing with it.

I can never get a signal at Porth! 😡

I thought that might be a problem Nathan, two other possible solutions, Whiteacres have a staff member and scales available or a set of scales is made available for anglers to weigh themselves (with appropriate witness of course).
Bilingey is ok for mobile cover so only really Porth to cover.