“I am one man with limited resources, spawning a tiny batch of fish each spring in search of the perfect carp”

How are you today mate?

I’m good man, thank you. I’ve been looking forward to this!

I’ve been really looking forward to this one too mate. 

I have a genuine interest in what you do, and although I love to read big carp stories, today we are going to be talking about much smaller carp.

Can you explain a little bit about The Carp Collection?

Well, I think at the outset it’s important to say that the Carp Collection is not a commercial venture, nor is it a fish farm. I am a hobby breeder; an enthusiastic amateur if you will. 

I have always kept fish, in fact, I remember having carp in an aquarium in my bedroom at the age of 11, a mere 28 years ago now! 

As someone that has been forever obsessed with carp, I always dreamt of being able to produce my own fish and The Carp Collection project is me doing just that. 

I am one man with limited resources, spawning a tiny batch of fish each spring in search of the “perfect carp”.

So when did you decide to start breeding rather than just keeping carp?

In 2012, whilst working in the tackle industry, my paths crossed with Ross from Lower Berryfield Fisheries, who at the time was breeding the most incredible carp from Leney brood stock on his farm in Oxfordshire.

Ross and I became good mates, and I was fortunate to spend lots time on the farm over the years that followed. With hindsight, I was an absolute punisher, but I wanted to learn everything I could about the breeding and rearing process. 

My memories of days spent at Lower Berryfield are amongst my fondest. Not only was I able to hang out with a mate and play with baby Leney’s, but I was also getting a crash course in how to breed carp at the same time. I even managed to twist his arm into letting me have some fish that were so ridiculously special, I’m confident they would have never been for sale – I’ve a lot to thank him for. 

It wasn’t until 2018 that I decided to give my first batch of babies a go. I had an incredible collection of both Leney and Dinton fish that had reached sexual maturity. I knew they would spawn naturally come the spring, so I set up a makeshift hatchery and a couple of swimming pools to enable me to rear my first batch of babies.

That summer was a steep learning curve. I made lots of mistakes, but at the end of the year I was left with a handful of incredible Leney X Dinton mirrors that truly were the fruits of my labour. 

I guess mistakes are inevitable with livestock and potentially even more so without formal qualifications. Describing yourself as an “enthusiastic amateur”, can I assume you didn’t go to Sparsholt or similar? 

I didn’t unfortunately and to be honest, I wasn’t even made aware that such courses were available at the time. My school were busy banging the Business Studies drum, the fish husbandry course was never spoken about.

You know what it’s like though, if you are passionate about any subject, you suck up information like a sponge. Everything I’ve ever been told or observed about the production of fish, seems to have gone to a special bank in my brain. 

I am lucky to have great relationships with a several properly qualified and hugely experienced fish farmers too, so often the answers are only a phone call away. 

You say you are hoping to breed the “perfect carp” but what is that in your mind? Are you looking for size, shape, colour?

I am looking for the special ones – Great body shapes, unique scale patterns and beautiful colours, you know, the kind of carp you just can’t stop staring at. 

In a typical batch of fry from any decent parent set you should get a good number of lovely carp, but there are always a handful that just stand out , you know, the “f*** me” fish. 

The reality of breeding fish is, the more you breed, the more of truly special ones you discover – It’s a numbers game. 

The spectacular and obscure ones are really rare though and hatching such small numbers of fry make them even rarer in my world. 

Size has to be a consideration, as they need to achieve certain benchmarks, but as a hobbiest and not a commercial breeder, I am able to give the small ones a good old chance. Sometimes they catch up, often they dont!

So do you have certain parent fish that are more likely to produce the special offspring you are looking for? 

Traditionally, fish farms select their parent fish and conduct a controlled spawning stripping eggs from their selected females and milt from their chosen males. 

Due to space constraints, I am forced to do things slightly differently. 

I have spent the last 5 years, selecting and refining my collection of brood fish, to the point that I am happy to let them spawn naturally in their pond. As a result of this, each year class is entirely different and I get a wonderful variety of scale patterns, body styles and colouration. In fact, it is the unpredictability that makes spawning time so exciting for me.

It is frustrating though, as it is purely lack of space which means I have to do things this way. In the early days, I would even film the fish spawning and recap the footage in slow motion so I could try to identify which characteristics were coming from specific parent fish. It certainly isn’t as precise or as clinical as the methods used in commercial fish farming, but it seems to work for me. 

“Not everything in life is motivated purely by financial gain. I wasn’t trying to become Rockefeller, I just wanted to produce some beautiful fish in the forrest.”  

Ok, so the fish spawn semi-naturally. How many eggs do you hatch and how many fish does that typically result in each year? 

Generally speaking, I aim to hatch about 4,000 eggs. I know I can successfully accommodate and rear this number of fry to the point at which I am able to grade them. I will grade them as soon as scale patterns become visible. When space is limited, time is of the essence!

After the first grading, the numbers will be reduced considerably as I aim to keep just 200 fish to grow on for the remainder of the season.

You’ve mentioned the fact that space is limited and in some instances dictates what is possible –  Do you have ambitions to expand the project and would you ever enter the restocking market?

Space has an impact on every move I make currently, the amount of eggs I hatch, the number of fry I am able to keep, the number of fish I can get through to first grading and even the growth rates that are physically achievable in the volume of water I I have at my disposal. 

I am fortunate to have a couple of small private stock ponds, but yes, I am always on the look our for a suitable site to either rent or purchase. 

I am not looking for a colossal agricultural site with the intention of producing thousands of large fish and entering what is already a hugely competitive market, but I would love a space that allowed me to expand slightly, formalise my operation and sell a handful of incredible carp each year.

I thought I had found the perfect site at the end of last year. A site of huge historical importance and a truly magical place, but unfortunately for a couple of reasons, I was unable to get it across the line. 

Was that site of Donald Leney’s Surrey Trout Farm? 

It was indeed. I couldn’t believe it when a friend of mine told me it was for sale. Rather conveniently the site is only 25 minutes from my house, so I immediately called the agent handling the sale and headed straight over there.

It is a truly special place, nestled in a hillside woodland, with a gentle trickle of fresh water flowing through a series ponds that once upon a time held some of the most revered carp this country has ever seen. 

I spent a lot of time on the farm over the following days trying to formulate a plan that made sense. It was immediately apparent just how small the site was, Ideal for my modest project perhaps, but certainly nowhere near large enough to facilitate commercial production in the modern world. 

My business head knew that it wasn’t a commercially suitable site, but my heart loved it, and I felt deeply that it deserved to be saved, restored, and used once again as a rearing facility.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, after lengthy discussions with the agent, and a couple of rejected offers, I was forced to walk away from that dream. 

I was quite public with my plans at the time and uploaded a couple of videos to my Instagram letting the angling public know my hopes and intentions. I’m glad I did, the messages of support I received were incredible and have given me all the motivation I need to continue my search. 

I also received messages from several fish farmers, highlighting (and confirming) the unsuitability of the site and in one instance warning me that I was about to commit “financial suicide”. They meant it in the nicest possible way, but I think its important to remember that not everything in life is motivated purely by financial gain. I wasn’t trying to become Rockefeller, I just wanted to produce some beautiful fish in the forrest.  

You’ve referenced Donald Leney and the incredible carp that he spread across the country. Do you think the carp being bred today will still be around in fifty years time?

I love the romantic idea of the carp being stocked today still being around for our grandchildren to fish for, but I just don’t think it’s realistic in the modern world.

How can we pursue a creature relentlessly every day of its life and expect it to truly prosper. 

But I guess it depends on what one considers “prospering” – Is it that a carp lived to fifty years old, or is it that it grew to sixty pounds, because I think you can have one or the other, but i’m not convinced you can have both. Only time will tell! 

As an angler too, I am conflicted at times. I’m not saying what we do as anglers is either right or wrong, but It is just important to acknowledge that the landscape had changed and it will almost certainly affect the life expectancy of our quarry. 

Thanks for taking the time to chat to us mate. If people want to check out some of your fish, where can they find you? 

No worries man, i’m flattered that people take an interest in what I’m trying to do. 

I’m most active on Instagram @CarpCollection – Spawning time is just around the corner, so there will be lots of content and lovely carps to look at. 

Catch you soon.