I went out to fish Darracott Reservoir last night for a short roach session, and after catching some small ones, rudd and bream, I caught the carp pictured. To me the change in Darracott represents everythi...ng that is bad about modern carp fishing. I mentioned previously that the trees have been cleared to make way for platforms for bivvies etc.
You then have to look at this poor carp; quite long but only 12lb but with such a deformed mouth it could barely eat my grain of sweetcorn bait. It has no lips, undoubtedly due to fixed bolt rigs or people using 3lb test curve rods at short range. When you see how hard people strike at short range without understanding what is the outcome is, it is inevitable this will happen. Then I hear it may be restocked with more carp next year. It seems that people think that they should all catch fish for their money - regardless of skill. Overstocked fisheries are again not good for fish. I see people just seeing fish as a vehicle for personal trophies and the fish welfare is not considered. Whilst I appreciate not all modern anglers are like this, and there are highly skilled ones, it is these sort of activities that make me question if I want to carry on fishing and fuel the anti's who want to ban the sport. Totally depressing!