Spring time – No serious fishing

As a fishery owner, for Neville Fickling the Spring is the time for some work related carp fishing!

At Daiwa Manton carp fishery we have a stock pond, where we have been growing on carp in the 1.5 acre pond since we started 22 years ago. During this time carp to 30lb have been grown on from a fish of 19lb, a 20lb ghost carp from a 2 pounder and so on.

We used to drain the pond down every 6 or 7 years to relocate the carp to either of the two lakes. In those days it cost £400 in diesel to pump the pond down. These days that’s more likely to be £800. Netting was also a dirty muddy job that required volunteers.

In the end I decided that catching and transferring the fish with rod and line although more time consuming was the way forward. That meant learning to carp fish again having given carp fishing up in favour of things with teeth. You’d think a stock pond would be an easy place to catch carp from! Well it can be in April and May, after that it’s as if there are no carp in there. So each season now I do a bit of carp fishing. Last season I moved 8 carp up to just over 20lb to the other lakes.

Though carp live for a long time they do eventually die and it is important to trickle new fish in a little at a time. So that is spring time for me, carp fishing as work!