Spawning Carp
By Jamie simpson
I recently went on a week long trip to Lac De Grosley in France. A well run 25acre venue in Normandy, and only a 2 1/2 hour drive from Calais. I arrived at a very muddy and sodden venue on the Saturday morning not knowing what lay instore for the forth coming week.
Seven days of hot weather and glorious sunshine followed.
This then sent the Carp into spawning mode, which made the fishing difficu
lt to say the least. Had I been at a venue close to home I would have packed up and left them to get on with it, however when you are on your weeks holiday from work it’s not that simple.
I have been carp fishing for 19 years now and have seen fish spawning many times in the past, however this was the first time I had seen it in France where I could watch it happen over several consecutive days.
Even better was the fact that there is a back channel similar in width to a canal that the Carp can escape to without any worry of line pressure. This was absolutely perfect for standing and watching their activities. I was fortunate enough to watch a group of five mid twenties following each other around and a couple of mid to upper thirties were in the area too. The Carp would regularly thrash against the bank and in particular a tree that stretched into the water, often almost pushing each other onto the bank.
This Carp spawned all over the mat, it’s easy to see why they lose so much weight whilst spawning.
They seemed totally oblivious to my presence, either that or just not concerned. I have to say I got so much pleasure just standing there watching the Carp in their annual ritual that I would often be stood for hours gazing into their world.
It is easy to see why some fish don’t survive this mating period and why they often obtain scars and body damage. These injuries on the Carp pictured left were fresh and had almost certainly been caused during spawning. A spot of Korda Carp care body applied before returning the fish will I am sure mean that this heals quickly.
To top it all off I even managed to get them taking floaters in the back channel. Both bread and dog biscuits were taken, although I must say they weren’t entirely comfortable taking food from the surface.
A truly wonderful experience even in difficult angling conditions
Cheers
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Tags: angling, Calais, canal, carp, Carp Fishing, Experience, fish, fishing, france, Grosley, Jamie, Lac, Normandy
Hi Jamie,
I have been real fortunate in being at several different waters on many occassions to watch carp spawn. I seems during my days of working at ‘Walkers’ most of the carp decided that Wednesday’s were a good day to spawn (my day off) so I was treated to the spectacle almost yearly.
I have also watched and filmed my carp at home spawning. As you say - they seem oblivious to almost everything. It’s difficult when you watch them smashing themselves up and losing scales etc but at the end of the day this is what they do. The carp need to rub against things to help release their fluids.
I once watched in horror at a carp at the LEVAS pit rubbing against a barbed wire wrapped fence post - I couldn’t watch that and ended up scaring it away from the post.
One very interesting thing watching the carp spawn at Murphy’s was the amount of un-known fish which suddenly displayed themselves in the margins. During the first few years I fished there I had decided there were around 6 commons in there. Imagine my surprise when a shoal of 20lb plus commons appeared from no-where like a shoal of chub. These fish didn’t appear to be spawning but following the spawning mirrors eating the spawn as they went. I lowered a piece of breadflake in front of one of these commons and it took it straight away which obviously scattered the shoal of half a dozen or so. It was a 20lb common and that fish and the others which it swam with were previously un-known to me and do you know what? I never saw them again either untill spawning time the following year. I don’t think any of those fish were ever caught apart from my breadflake capture.
Strange creatures are carp - very strange.
[...] Hi all Jamie Simpson wrote this excellent write up about his recent trip to the Angling Lines venue at Grosley sur Risle on the Quest baits blog. [...]