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Sport & Leisure Fisheries Ltd. Tel: 01952 585002 For more information contact |
Carp We grow fish at the Farm from one week up to three years of age, which translates into fish from 2 inches up to about three pounds. Typically, one year fish are up to six inches, two year fish are 6-10" and three year fish from 10" up to three pounds. To keep things simple we grade fish into a number of sizes, 2-4", 4-6", 6-8", 8-10" and 10 " plus by weight. These fish are measured from nose to tip of the tail. To help you select the right size for your needs typical samples of each size are shown in the pictures below.
The smaller sizes are all sold by the hundred with discounts for larger numbers. For example, the price per hundred fish for five hundred fish is less than if you are buying 100 but more than if you were buying a thousand. The 10” plus fish are sold on a weight basis. Typically we have a range of 10” plus carp, which will weigh from 1-3lbs depending on the stocking rate at which we have grown them. If you have a preference for size then we can grade them accordingly. We still have excellent stocks of carp, which we can quite happily to move to you now.
Big Carp The main thrust of our business for the last eight years has been to supply carp of up to three years old to clubs and commercial fisheries for both match and pleasure angling and we now believe we are the biggest supplier of fish of this size in the UK. We regularly get calls from folk wanting to buy specimen carp but apart from ex brood fish and a few fish that we have grown on as an experiment, we haven’t really been able to help. However, that has now changed.
The two fish in the picture were hatched on the same day from the same parents and have both been grown in the same pond. The smaller fish is the average size for the batch whilst the larger one is clearly a fast growing genetic exception. In any event, we are now growing these on in substantial numbers and are currently trying to develop a second farm specifically for growing even more big fish. If you are looking for fish either to grow on for your own big carp fishery or are looking for specimen fish to stock directly into your lake, we believe these are the fish for you.
Why the break point at 9 and 19lb? When we harvest these fish, they tend to lose up to 10% of their weight within the first day or two, so that a fish harvested at ten pounds today, will weigh 9 lbs when we deliver it in a couple of days time. Partly this is because they empty their stomachs and we don’t like to transport fish with full stomachs and partly we believe they lose some fluids. They then appear to put that weight back on within a few days of being stocked into a pond again. How frustrating is that? Why should you buy these fish? They are stunningly attractive English fish, literally selected from thousands, from a CEFAS registered and tested farm, grown in our lakes on a diet that doesn’t depend on trout pellets. This means that you get fish which are strong, healthy, attractive, going to live for a very long time and which have never seen a hook before. And of course, when we bring them to you, they will be accompanied by the correct Environment Agency consents. What they are not is illegally (or legally) imported fish laundered to look like English fish (and please believe me, you wouldn’t know). They are not force fed on trout foods with attendant risks to their health and longevity. They are not fish that have grown too big in intensive match fisheries, that have already been caught and mauled around a hundred times with scars and damaged mouths to prove it. And they are not fish harvested from the wild, which are already twenty years old. For any of the above, which will probably be a pound or two cheaper than our fish (if he has actually got any) you will need to speak to a dealer. We will start to harvest these fish in late November of 2008 and anticipate having plenty of fish in single figures, lots of low doubles, quite a few mid teens and a small number of twenties. As time goes on, we will have more and more big fish. If you are interested in these fish, then we need to hear from you as they are delivered on a first come first served basis and we role orders up for these bigger fish throughout the year. We will up load pictures of these fish in due course (when we start harvesting them). Meanwhile, if any of our existing customers have pictures of our fish which have been delivered in the last three years and have grown on, we would be really please to have them e mailed to us at info@slf.uk.net please. I am regularly asked what strain of fish our carp are. They are actually a strain that I have developed over the last fifteen years and we call them Rushbury Carp.
F1’s Do you want all the benefits of a fishery full of small carp but without the hassle of them growing too big? And fish that feed well in the winter? Then F1’s could be the fish for you. These fish are a hybrid between a carp and a crucian carp or brown goldfish and have the reputation in match fishing circles as the ideal alternative to intensive carp fisheries. Not only are they free feeding but they don’t grow as big as a carp rarely growing much more than 2-3lbs which makes them ideal for match fisheries. Crucially, they are reputed to feed better in the winter than carp. They are all fully scaled and look very much like a common carp. Customers that have had them have reported that they are as tough as old boots. Being hybrids, they cannot breed successfully. As they are a hybrid they also appear to be immune to Koi Herpes Virus (KHV) which is useful if this is a problem in your area. We can sell you three sizes of F1’s. We have 4-6” fish which will only be available from May 2012. For immediate delivery we have 6-8” fish which are available now and a mixed bag of fish which will range from 7-10” which average about three fish to the pound and which we sell on a weight basis. The mixed bag are an excellent batch of fish which I would recommend to you.
Please not that the Environment Agency has some curious policies regarding F1s and won't allow them to be stocked into lakes that are on line or are in a flood plain. If you are not sure how this affects you then please give me a call and we will work out whether you are affected or not.
Green Tench My Favourite Fish. We started growing these three years ago and are pleased to have a good crop of these little beauties for sale. There can't be many sights more pleasing than a net full of tench. We have 4-6", 6-8" and some 8-10" fish available.
All prices are exclusive of delivery and VAT.
Crucian Carp We started producing a stunning line of pure Crucian Carp which were initially slow to sell but once customers saw them, they soon came back for more in such quantities that we have completely sold out! We will have more 6-8” fish available from the Autumn of 2012 and will sell them on a first come first served basis.
How far can we deliver? Every year we deliver fish from the South Coast all the way up to Scotland. Because we have all the right kit and twenty years of experience at successfully moving fish around, the fact that we might not be local to your fishery is really not an issue. Not at all. To Order Fish To order fish all we need is a phone call. We will take your contact details and discuss the fish you require and confirm their availability. I will need some information about the water so that we can apply for a Stocking Consent on your behalf (please look at the section regarding EA Consents). We will also agree a day and rough time for your delivery about two weeks ahead and then all you have to do is sit back and wait. We will call you the day before delivery to confirm that the EA paperwork has arrived, check directions and agree a time to meet. The driver will bring an invoice and a copy of the EA Consent with him and once you are satisfied with the fish, we simply ask you to pay the driver. Simple and straight forward. All our fish are sold subject to our normal Conditions of Sale, which can be found HERE, on the rear of your invoice or in advance on request by snail mail. Grading and Counting Fish All our fish are graded for size and quality by hand before they are delivered to you. The numbers are also counted by hand. We do not test weigh a batch and hope the numbers are about right. You are more than welcome to check count the fish when they are delivered to you. If you are buying fish by weight, your fish will be weighed on certified scales here at High Farm before we load them onto the delivery vehicle, not when they are harvested from the growing ponds ( they can lose 10-15% in weight between harvesting and delivery a couple of days later). If you are interested enough and you are buying more than a thousand pounds worth of fish, you are also welcome to see your fish at High Farm, before we deliver them to you. Cormorants These birds have largely changed the nature of coarse fisheries in the UK. In my experience, they will happily eat anything less than a pound in weight. Certainly fish up to 10” are a bit like one bite size mars bars. I don’t think cormorants will take carp of 2lb plus. If you have a real, rather than an occasional problem, then we suggest you spend your money on less but bigger fish. Minimum Order Size We do get a surprising number of calls from folk wanting a few fish for garden ponds and so on, often from the other end of the country. The smallest order so far was for two 2-4" carp. When you take into consideration the work and logistics for harvesting and delivering these fish, it will become apparent that this really isn't viable business. To avoid disappointment, we are introducing a minimum order size of £250 in the Midlands rising to £350 plus delivery and VAT elsewhere. If you wish to collect fish from us, the minimum order is £150. For smaller numbers of fish, particularly for garden ponds, we suggest you contact Ripples Waterlife who specialise in small quantities on 01952 200199.
Thousand weights for Carp We are often asked how much these fish weigh to help with planning stocking rates. Once carp, in particular, get to a few inches in length, a one inch increase in length can result in a much heavier fish because for every inch increase in length, they grow upwards and outwards as well! As a result the thousand weights of different batches are bound to vary but for guidance only, the weight per thousand of these carp are approximately as follows:
What's yer price, mate? We do get a lot of calls along the the lines of "What's yer price, mate?" Which isn't perhaps, the brightest approach for buying fish that you are going to have in your pond for many years to come. If you buy from our farm, we have complete control over the selection and genetics of the parents we spawn. We control the feeding, water quality, harvesting, grading and transport of these fish with a team of full time professional staff and a business that has been growing and selling coarse fish for the last twenty years. None of these facilities or expertise comes cheap and after spending up to three years getting the end result ready for you, it can be very frustrating when the only thing folk are interested in is the price. If you are looking for the cheapest then you will be looking for some wild caught fish, probably from a pond where they have outgrown their welcome, almost certainly stunted and well fished for so that they know what the inside of a net looks like and have all the scars and damaged mouths to prove it. You will almost certainly be buying from a dealer who won't actually have the fish you want when he takes your order (he won't tell you that, though) but will hope that he can find them. He may actually demand money up front ( so that he can afford to buy them if he does find them but once he has your money, hell, it doesn't matter anyway) and if they actually turn up and are accompanied by any paperwork, it will probably actually refer to a different batch of fish but nobody will know (least of all you). And Hey! You just saved a few pence per fish over buying those fish from a reputable source farm..... All joking aside (and actually there wasn't much), as the largest producer of carp in the country, we have so many fish to sell each year, we have to price our fish competitively if we are to sell the quantities we need to sell to make the farm work. Our fish are great value and fantastic quality. They cannot be compared with wild caught fish. Just like Chalk and Cheese. Remember also that carp live for a very long time. What you buy now, you will have to live with for a very long time. If you are buying on behalf of a Club think about your reputation and all the hassle you will get if you get stuck with some rubbish. Make life simple for yourself and buy the Best. Carp for the Table We are receiving increasing numbers of calls from folk wanting to eat our fish. I am afraid we will not sell these fish for consumption.
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For some time we have
been skimming off all of the fast growing carp from our main production
pools and putting these fish out to grow on. It is astonishing
that for every few thousand ordinary individuals, there are a handful
that are as much as ten times the weight of the average. We can’t
really explain why they grow so much faster and bigger than the
rest but presume that they just have exceptional genetics. 
