Our fish are hatched from Holme Fen broodstock, fish that have grown in the UK to over 60lb with three fish reaching or exceeding 70lb. Given the right conditions these fish will readily grow to become members of your A team adding value to your fishery whilst readily attracting anglers for the challenge. Please note that in any strain of fish not all of them will grow at the same pace and that there are always shooters which become that special investment. There are many factors which will slow down growth, which in itself is not a bad thing unless you are looking for instant results, from the simplest of things like being fished for, to stock levels, water quality and food availability
The original Dor-70 strain of carp resulted from program of genetic improvement (controlled inter and cross breading) conducted from 1965 to 1970. Eventually the selection of a Nasic Strain (Yugoslavian) and Dor-70 (Israeli) was selected which appeared to possess the most suitable genetic combination for carp fry exported to Europe, in addition to fast growth rate, the fish retain much of the high-backed shape of the Yugoslavian parent and held excellent performance of its cross bred Pogenies (immediate descendant or descendants).
Over the past 40 years descendants of this selected strain has been sent to various locations around the world, including Hong Kong, Brazil, Panama, and South Africa, for use as brood stock as well as cross breed with many of the traditional European strains throughout Europe.
Examples of this remarkable strain closer to Home include Captain Jack 69-10 in Sept 2018 from Holme Fen, Big Rig 71-04 Nov 2016 from the Avenue, Marshall 73-08 in June 2021 from Holme Fen and Pashley 72lb April 2024 from Holme Fen
Our C1’s are generally hatched late may / early June from Holme Fen broodstock. These fry are sorted and grown on in fry ponds for up to 7 months when they will range from 6 to 9 inch in length. At this stage they are netted, sorted and moved on to larger ponds
Fish are next graded at C2’s when they are typically 18 months old. We would expect the majority of fish to be between 1 to 2lb with the shooters reaching 3lb having had two growing seasons to pile on the weight. Fish are again moved into larger sterile ponds.
C3’s are graded at about 30 months old when they could have increased their weight by over 400% from the previous year. At this stage we would expect the fish to average 7lb with the shooters maybe around 9lb. These fish are moved to 2 to 3 acre ponds in which they grow on for a further 3 years ready to be sold.
Our C4’s are now in the larger ponds serviced by automated feeders filled high protein pellets (during the growing season) and left for a couple of years to do thier own thing. The number of fish in each pond is determined to ensure sufficient space to efficiently grow on until ready for sale.
Fish are sold at C5 and sometimes C6 between Nov and Feb
