BIGHEAD CARP (CHINESE BIGHEAD CARP)

The Bighead carp is a hard fish to deliberately target and catch.  As filter feeders their diet consists mainly of zoo and phyto plankton and detritus and quite often can be seen in small groups of 3-4 feeding near the surface, especially with the inducement of lam.  As their name suggests, the fish has a large head for its body with its eyes very low on the head and a protruding lower jaw.  It has very small scales on the body covered in a slimy mucus, similar to bream, with a silver/grey colouring.

All the Bighead carp caught at Hookers have been taken on fruit flavoured pop-ups and despite being able to draw them into the swim with “little and often” balls of lam they seem unwilling to take a float fished bait in the top 2m of water where they are visibly feeding in groups of 3-5.  Given that they are not really targeted by our anglers a focused float session using banana or paste might yield results.