Cheap Carp Farmer.......................

Britain’s fisheries look set to be swamped with even more carp this week after a fish farmer revealed plans to spark a price war in the industry.

Businessman Robert Foreman has built a new giant fish farm on the site of his Willowcroft Fishery in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire and has begun selling to fisheries now that he has finished stocking his 10 self-sufficient fishing lakes.

Robert plans to cut the price of his fish, which include common, mirror and ghost carp to 20lb as well as F1s, by around 50% in a bid to ‘shake things up a bit’.
He has built up a fenland empire spanning two fisheries - Willowcroft and Pentney Lakes , plus the hatchery ponds on the 14-acre site - and regularly spawns a million fish fry, although less than 50% of these survive.

The news will come as a shock to the rest of the fishing world, in light of last week’s story about overstocking and this week’s revelation that people might be getting fed up of commercial carp fisheries.

“It costs me virtually nothing to produce fish - the only limiting factor I have is the amount of water I’ve got. I’m growing on 350,000 fish this year and specialise in carp from 10lb to 30lb. Home-grown carp to 48lb and catfish to 60lb currently reside in my Six Islands Specimen Lake,” said Robert.

Neil Grantham, owner of one of the biggest match fisheries in the country, Lindholme Lakes near Doncaster, has spent over £250,000 on stocking fish in the last 5 years and thinks that carp are getting cheaper anyway.

“It’s good for business that somebody is prepared to undercut the rest of the market but I get lots of offers of cheap fish, such as 6 – 8ins carp for £1.10 for example. His original price is £2.00 for the same fish so he needs to chop prices to compete. I only stock fish bred in Britain and prefer to stick to one supplier,” said Neil.

White Acres holiday park contains an estimated £500,000 worth of fish and fishery manager Clint Elliot is also happy with the current price of carp.

“In our area it has remained at £4.50 - £5 per pound for the last five years, not rising with inflation. If you get a mix of parasites and bacteria from transferring fish straight into venues you can get problems such as Spring Mortality Syndrome so we buy the smallest C1 carp and grow them on in ponds to acclimatise them to our waters,” said Clint.

Carp size Willowcroft Prices (per lb) Average Fish Farm Prices (per lb)
2” – 4” £0.30 £0.50
6” – 8” £1.00 £1.60
10’’ – 2lb £2.92 £5.00
20– 25lb £16.25 £25.00
35 – 40lb £50 £100

Sounds to me like this guy has a point to prove what next carp on ebay????

We get them through the system at work all the time. I don't know who wants to buy battered Carp though!

HHHHMMM 2” – 4” CARP FOR £0.30 £0.50 might just have a use for some that size


regards
kevin

I used to but Goldfish by the bag full to feed to my breeding pair of Oscars and my Catfish! They used to work out about 10p each.

I suppose they would make good Zed bait?

oh yes indeed

regards
kevin

sounds interesting, i am a total novice when it comes to buying stock,if anyone can help in the Norfok area i'd appreciate it.
we have a a enclosed lake (water inlet) and it is stocked with a lot of roach and perch,a few bream only a small handful of extremely shy carp.the lake needs cut back, old pegs fixed and new pegs made.
it was very popular when it was a RAF base years n years ago, i dread to think what is in the bottom as it is quite deep in areas.
if i can seek funding from the bosses then i hope to stock it correctly with some reasonable size carp, all going well then it might pay an expert to come out and look at the lake, any suggestions? getting manpower to clean up the lake are isn't a drama.
any help would be fantastic.
many thanks,
Brian

Thats an interesting post Gaz

I'm actually working on something at the moment with ryan and that price list may come in hand.

Cheers for the info

You gunna start your own fishery up ,whack some pike in there aswell.and Ill be down

nixon wrote:You gunna start your own fishery up ,whack some pike in there aswell.and Ill be down

well i don't want to say too much just in case it don't happen, but me and ryan have found some water which belongs to a friend of his.

There is a lot more to it other than having some water to put fish into! You have to have all the right permits, licenses and insurance. It's not just a case of find some water and put some fish in. But good luck with it all the same!

dan u will put fish in and still not catch

todd123 wrote:dan u will put fish in and still not catch

your not invited now !!!

Badger wrote:There is a lot more to it other than having some water to put fish into! You have to have all the right permits, licenses and insurance. It's not just a case of find some water and put some fish in. But good luck with it all the same!

yes i know i've been looking into it we have also public liability insurance covered too, like i said were still just talking about it at the moment, the guy may even say no yet.