What is commercial carp fishing exactly? How does this style of fishing differ from other styles of carp fishing? In this post, we will take an in-depth look at what carp fishing is and how it differs or compares to other types of carp fishing.
What is Commercial Carp Fishing Exactly?
Commercial carp fishing is done on commercial fisheries and ponds. To fish these fisheries, you have to purchase a pass or ticket to access the fishery. Most commercial fisheries offer passes for the day or for a 24 hour period.
The reason that anglers are willing to pay to fish these ponds and lakes is simply due to the sheer number of carp that reside in them, while they may not be large in many cases, the action can be incredible with the opportunity to catch large quantities of carp in a single session.
Differences between Commercial, Match, and Specimen Fishing
Commercial fishing, match fishing, and specimen fishing are the three most common styles of fishing in the carp fishing world. Let’s dissect each style or tactic of carp fishing, so you know the difference if you’re not already aware of them.
Commercial Fishing
Commercial fishing, as described above, is a private fishery that you can pay to fish and typically has amazing action due to large numbers of carp in managed waters to provide exceptional fishing experiences.
Even know these lakes are private, they do still host match fishing events that you can join. Match fishing will be the next style of fishing we will take a look at.
Match Fishing
Match fishing is a style of tournament fishing and simply a type of fishing in which most anglers fish even if not fishing in a tournament.
Match fishing in a tournament setting is determined by the overall amount of weight caught by a competitor, and whoever catches the largest amount of carp in terms of weight wins.
There is no set amount of fish that can be caught in a match tournament. This is typical of how the average carp angler approaches fishing as well, with most anglers wanting to catch as many fish as they can for enjoyment.
Specimen Fishing
Specimen fishing is the art of fishing for a specific fish or multiple targeted individual fish in a single body of water.
These fishing can be targeted for reasons that make them special in some way, whether that reason is due to the fish being a particularly large specimen putting it in a trophy class, or a physical defect or unique physical attribute. Scarring, wounds, whether it’s a mirror carp, or has interesting scale patterns, there can be any reason that a carp angler would want to target a specific fish, and the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Fishing for a specific fish can be very challenging and can take a large amount of time and effort to be successful, and this is why it is so alluring to many anglers, simply due to the challenge it presents.
We have an entire article dedicated to specimen fishing if you would like to learn more about what targeting a specific carp entails.
What Rigs work Best for Commercial Fishing?
One of the most popular rigs used when fishing a commercial fishery is the float rig.
Float rigs are great for indicating a fish as picked up your bait, allowing you to fish quickly and efficiently to catch as many fish as possible in a commercial fishery where the action can be fast and furious.
Method feeders can also be quite effective, at times, and can hold numbers of carp around your hooked bait as you wait for one to snatch it up.
Bait options can be whatever you feel like using, as long as you follow the rules of the commercial fishery you choose to fish at.
Tips For Commercial Fishing
Keep it Simple
There is no reason to overcomplicate your baiting or rigs when fishing in a commercial setting. The smaller carp typically found in a commercial fishery is typically not as wise as a large old carp that would be targeted by a specimen angler.
These carp are easier to fool and do not spook nearly as easily as their wise and old counterparts that have seen every trick in the book.
If you get information from other anglers who regularly fish the lake in terms of bait selection or rigs, be sure to use it because it most likely will work very well.
Create a Swim
When you arrive at your spot on your chosen commercial fishery, it would be a great idea to start baiting up a swim. Groundbait can be very effective at this and can really draw in large numbers of fish and hold them for an extended period of time.
Keep your baiting area to about 3×3 meters, and allow plenty of room for fish to freely swim around the baiting area. On a commercial fishery that’s plump full of carp, you will get tons of feeding activity and bites, leading to a day with large catch rates.
More Than Just Carp
Many commercial fisheries boast large populations of other species as well. Don’t be shocked to find great numbers of fish like Tench, Bream, Rud, Roach, Perch and more. So if you want to take a break from carp, you may have many different species that you can fish for depending on the fishery!
Some commercial fisheries also have multiple lakes that are tailored towards a specific style of fishing or species. With some lakes dedicated to specimen fishing, with lower numbers of quality fish, while others may have high populations of pike, tench, and bream, or catfish.
Commercial fisheries that have multiple lakes dedicated to different species or to specimen fishing is great, as it allows anglers of all types to fish them, and you can even bring gear for multiple species with you on a given day and change up your fishing.
Suppose you want to know what species are available in any given commercial fishery. In that case, most fisheries have websites that allow you to get information on the number of lakes and species present, along with galleries to show the quality of fish you could potentially catch on your day trips.
Know the Rules
Be sure you know the rules for the fishery that you intend to fish. Printing off the rules from the fisheries website and keeping them with you is a great idea.
Some of the rules may require you to tailor your gear selections, with many fisheries allowing only barbless hooks to be used and a cap on the size of hook you can use as well.
Some fisheries may only allow you to use bait provided by the fishery as well, banning other bait such as boilies, liquids, or tiger nuts.
Some fisheries will not allow even other items such as braided lines and disallowing fishing tactics like surface fishing.
That’s All!
Despite some rules at commercial fisheries seeming restrictive, it’s really not an issue. It actually helps with the “keeping things simple” advice we gave earlier. With the amount of fish present in these fisheries, you will have little issue catching numbers of fish even with the restrictions in place, which are there to benefit the health of the fish and lake in general.
