Carp: KHV worry

It appears to have been fairly common practice for anyone with a fish in their pond that looks off-colour simply to bung it into the closest lake or river, even canal, to: "...give it a chance." Well last summer that practice came home to roost.

Keith Arthur
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TIGHT LINES
7pm, Friday, Sky Sports 2
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Generally speaking I am not a fan of single-species groups.

I believe that on the whole they are so single-minded in their attitude that other species can be ignored, or worse still demonised. In the worst-case scenario fish approaching specimen size in 'other species' can become bait! And I'm only half-joking.

However, one group, whilst ostensibly working for their own species, have generated massive benefits that will impact on every coarse angler, the fishing tackle trade and fishery owners too. They are ECHO, the English Carp Heritage Organisation.

You may recall when we had Ian 'Chilly' Chilcott as a guest on Tight Lines, well Ian is the founder of ECHO and the current chair of the group, Ruth Lockwood, was heard on the programme on January 25th explaining on the phone how, along with the Fish Welfare Group, they had persuaded DEFRA to impose new, swingeing restrictions on the importation of carp from sites where koi herpes virus (KHV) was present.

Fish that had been vaccinated against the disease are also now banned from importation as the vaccine involves using the live virus and insufficient testing has been carried out to determine whether vaccinated carp could infect 'clean' fish.

Obviously two groups lose out under these restrictions, which become law in April this year and enforceable from August 2008, namely those who import ornamental carp and some fish farmer/dealers who supply fisheries.

Infected

Preventing the latter from importing potentially infected fish is a genuine no-brainer but the impact of fish supplied via ornamental fish dealers is more subtle.

It appears to have been fairly common practice for anyone with a fish in their pond that looks off-colour simply to bung it into the closest lake or river, even canal, to: "...give it a chance."

Well last summer that practice came home to roost as fisheries and even ornamental lakes up and down the country lost huge numbers of fish to KHV as the floods moved stocks around willy-nilly.

One river system, the Blythe in the West Midlands, was particularly badly hit; even lakes that had not been stocked for angling purposes and then not for decades were sporting dead carp floating on the surface, victims of the dreaded KHV.

KHV is a relatively new disease, only having been identified within the past ten years. SVC (Spring Viraemia of Carp) is another killer, which becomes evident usually when springtime temperatures rise and then suddenly crash - a situation all too common in our climate. That can bring on the disease that has lain latent within the carp. Mainly due to the efforts of ECHO the UK is now officially clear of SVC.

Possibly the worst disease of all for carp is SCMS, Spring Carp Mortality Syndrome, where carp simply die at spawning time for no apparent reason.

Maybe other fish do too, I certainly see chub, barbel, bream and eels floating down my local stretch of River Thames during the close season. Of course most anglers won't experience these events as they won't be on the bank during that time of year.

Nature's way

Maybe it's always happened and can be attributed to 'Nature's way'; maybe when carp stocks were much lower than today - and even as recently as 20 years ago that was the case - these deaths happened but with the close season then covering ALL waters it simply went un-noticed.

Whatever, ECHO are on the case, along with CEFAS (Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science) and if there is a means of determining the cause and then eradicating it, I am certain they will do so.

ECHO are an important part of FACT, the unity body in angling who deal with matters pertaining to fishery work. It is my belief that they will play a massively important role WHEN (he said confidently) all our angling governing bodies become united under one banner. Only then can ALL anglers hope for equal representation - even single-species groups.

Thank you for your excellent feedback regarding the show featuring the ACA's Mark Lloyd. I am delighted to report that, according to the ACA the response has been excellent for them and they have recruited 'several' new members.

If you missed it but want to know more about the Anglers' Conservation Association and the excellent work they do, visit their website: http://www.a-c-a.org

Keith answers your email...

Email Keith Arthur here

Hi Keith, please can you tell me where I can do some trotting for grayling on a day ticket? I live in London but will travel wherever. I need to any help or advice you can give me would be great. Many thanks. PS I'm a big fan of your show and hope it lasts for years. Roy Chapman

KEITH SAYS: Thanks Roy, the production team and I join you in wishing Tight Lines a long and healthy lifespan. Haha. Grayling used to be virtually unavailable to the average coarse angler because they tended to be on exclusive trout syndicates or day ticket river sections where the trout anglers didn't want them! Now that it has been discovered that coarse anglers will actually pay to fish for them when the trout season is closed the people that control some fisheries realise it helps pay the river-keeper's wages.

Fisheries such as Timsbury on the River Test (http://www.timsburyfishing.com/coarsefishing.htm) offer day tickets - even a guide should you so desire - in surroundings that most coarse anglers would never see were it not for grayling. There is also potential on some club waters: the London Anglers' Association Britford Fishery has grayling although, to be fair, in nowhere near the numbers as on the Test. It is dirt cheap though! (http://www.londonanglers.net)

Annual Associate Membership is under £50 and gives you a massive portfolio of waters, as well as best part of four miles of prime River Avon. Many of the biggest fish from the Avon go unreported to keep it quiet. 3lb+ roach, 1lb+ dace and huge chub and barbel are landed, on the QT!

One thing is for certain: when grayling are there they have a go. Watch this Friday and see Charles Jardine and me sharing the same swim and both catching: he on fly, me on maggot.

Hi there, I am fishing a few matches starting in April. Venue is stacked full of F1's, just wondering what would be the best way to target these as I only ever seem to catch roach and chubb no matter what I use. I am fishing the pole, what would be the best baits to use also? Thanks, keep up the good work, Craig, from Dalbeattie.

Hi Craig, F1s, or as I prefer to call them 'Champagne carp' because of their pale gold colouration, are hybrids from king carp (common or mirror) and brown goldfish (carrassio as they are known in Europe) or crucian carp. The 'F1' tag was given them by a fish dealer to indicate that they don't, or at least, shouldn't be able to reproduce, like F1 runner bean or tomato varieties. The jury is out on whether they will, in the same way as the 'maximum size' growth limit that was given them of 4lb. I've weighed one at 5.11!

Anyway, these fish are happy to feed in all conditions, even ice-overs, but need to be fished for carefully. Most days they will eat pellets: expanders in 3 or 4mm sizes that have been pumped to sink, maybe with salt (keep that quiet!) or betaine added to the water. In both instances 1 tsp per pint of liquid is the amount to use. They are great as hookbait but feed VERY few, maybe one at a time! I like to feed 2 or 3mm coarse fish pellets (NO trout, salmon or halibuts, WAY too oily) which I soften by covering in water for 15 minutes then drain, place in a bait box and shake. Try to shake every 10 minutes for an hour or so to ensure the pellets are equally wet; they will soften evenly then.

Feed 6-8 pellets each cast through a feed pot, assuming you are pole fishing, preferably not all at once. Try and tip a few over your float when you first ship out, then a few more a minute later. Make sure the float is dotted right down and lift at any sign of a bite, even little 'dinks' on the float tip.

For waggler fishing, feed half a dozen after casting and 3 or 4 every minute or so. Again use the slimmest float tip possible, REALLY dotted down. Again, strike even if you only think it's a bite!

Use hooklengths of 0.10mm diameter, I prefer fluorocarbon, and have a no 8 shot or two VERY close to the hook, maybe even 1-1.5cm close and try to fish with that JUST on bottom. Some bites will be tiny lifts.

Change baits of red maggot or corn (try popping the 'meat' out of the corn and just fishing the skin, HONEST!) or small cubes of meat, small enough for an 18 hook. My choice of hook would be the new Drennan Maggot Hook (Silver Fish version) or Kamasan B611. If you're pole fishing, use no 8 elastic, or latex, blue Hydrolastic or Green Bungee, fished as slack as possible, so it JUST creeps back into the pole. And wear a hat so you don't resort to pulling your hair out!