How carp react to noises
Having watched, tracked and caught the odd carp, Ben Gratwicke shares his experiences on how carp react to noise…
My fishery in Devon, Diggerlakes, is the classic small intimate fishery and the carp within its depths are very tuned into noise. Bankside noise such as walking down the pathways can, and is, the kiss of death if you are pretending to be the Stig with your super-duper carp barrow as the fish will hear you a mile off. Casting a three-ounce lead here, there and anywhere can also kill the swim and send the fish to the far end. Fire in some boilies or a pouchful of Mixers and this can sometimes provoke a different reaction altogether and on some waters it’s like banging a dinner bell. Once a carp knows something is going on it reacts in a completely different way and this can often mean your chance is lost or worse, the fish exits the swim not to return.
Sudden noises will spook a fish straightaway, whereas minimal careful bankside noise can often merely make the fish aware of your presence but not enough to have it doing the 100 metres faster than Usain Bolt! Ambush is often a good strategy instead of setting up right on the fish and this will allow for a little more than expectable noise.
We chipped a carp!
CARPology, along with Ben Gratwicke (the author of this article) and Mr. William (Bill) Beaumont who works for Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, chipped a carp (we named him Billy) at Diggerlakes so we could study its movements and understand what affects its behaviour. Here’s the result…
1: Sluices; 2: 2nd Sluice; 3: 3; 4: Sedges; 5: Sedges; 6: Brambles; 7: Small Steps; 8: Inlet; 9: Back Bay; 10: Middle Bay; 11: Middle Bay 2; 12: Cut off; 13: Cut Through; 14: Cut Through 2; 15: Tyre Bay; 16: Big Steps; 17: Tyre Island; 18: Narrows; 19: Narrows; 20: Big Junction; 21: Behind Island; 22: Small Junction
How our chipped carp reacted to noise and effect of a fish getting caught nearby
Weather conditions
Pressure: 1018mb
Temperature: 17 degrees
Wind direction and strength: Light southwesterly winds
General: Cloudy with sunny spells
Angling pressure:
Swims occupied: 15 (after midday) with 8 and 20 all day
7:30am: Billie was out in front of Swim 20 (Movement 1) first thing but didn’t hang around and moved around into the channel to Tyre Bay yet again (Movement 2).
Midday onwards: We tracked Billie back in Tyre Bay where she was with a number of other fish. Ben, our fishery manager, was fishing so he set-up in the bay and very quickly hooked and landed a double. Billie then moved into the area between Swims 13 and 14 (Movement 3) and then moved into the Tyre Island Swim, Peg 17 (Movement 4). The rest of the day Billie moved around this area. As it’s narrow here, she was easily spooked and a little unsettled after what may have been a close call!
Comments
Many fish remained in the Tyre Bay area after the capture of the fish and were still happy to feed in there. Billie, however, may have been close to the captured fish as her behaviour changed and she went from slowly moving around the lake and hanging in areas to feed and sun herself to quickly moving from one area to another. Maybe the fish which was captured was with her after its return and this put our Billie off any further feeding?
