How big do carp get?
I’ll admit, this is one of my more fun blogs I’ve put together because of the information I found.
Even being a carp enthusiast, and someone who loves fishing, researching and learning more about them…
I was still shocked at some of my findings to say the least. Carp get pretty massive in certain areas of the world.
The biggest reason I’m writing this blog is that I noticed it was asked on dozens of fishing forums. Not just common and grass carp but all other species of carp as well.
People are very curious about how big carp can get and I naturally want to dive into the topic a bit more as well.
The answer is. They get BIG. Silver carp get up to 110lb and almost 4 feet long.
Crazy right?
That’s nearly 4x the weight of my son at 2 years old.
I personally have never caught a fish nearly close to even 80lbs. My biggest carp catch to date still falls under 40lbs.
Barely even 1/3 of how big some of the related carp species can grow at full capacity.
Let’s have a little fun with this blog and dive into some other fun information about all species of carp.
Table of Contents
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The Size of All Carp
How big do BigHead Carp Get?
- Fun Facts: Illegal to Use as Live Bait!
- Max Weight: 90.0 pounds
- Max Length: 146CM
- Life Span: 20 Years
What do bighead carp eat? Bighead carp eat large plankton, zooplankton and algae.
How Big do Black Carp Get?
- Fun Facts: Also referred to as the Black Chinese Roach. It’s also used for as the main cuisine and Chinese Medicine advancement.
- Max Weight: 80 LBS
- Max Length: 122CM
- Life Span: 10-13 Years
What do Black Carp Eat? Black Carp compete for the good stuff at the bottom of the water. They favor mussel, snails, crawfish, maggots and other forms of earthworms.
How Big do Silver Carp Get?
- Fun Facts: Currently considered a threatened species
- Max Weight: 110LBS
- Max Length: 105CM
- Life Span: 20 Years
What do Silver Carp Eat? Silver carp is much like black carp. They eat plankton and mussels and are considered an annoyance for many bodies of water due to the damage they can cause shoreline vegetation.
How Big do Grass Carp Get?
- Fun Facts: Grass carp is often used as a method to control vegetation and aquatic plant problems for pond owners. In addition, Grass carp has become a very widely targeted trophy fish that many anglers are adapting towards learning to fish for.
- Max Weight: 100LBS
- Max Length: 5 Foot
- Life Span: 21 Years
What do Grass Carp Eat? Grass carp are the plant eaters. They don’t consume the typical mussels and mollusks you have seen in the other species up to this point.
How Big do Common Carp Get?
- Fun Facts: The “Savage” The bigger a common carp gets, the less social they become. They travel in schools, but often larger carp prefer to isolate.
- Max Weight: 100 LBS
- Max Length – 44 Inches
- Life Span- 20 Years
What do common carp eat? Common carp are not picky. They will eat it all. It’s like Kevin James from King of Queens. Doesn’t matter if it’s plants, algae, and vegetation or your delicious lineups of lake bottom insects.
How Big Do Mud Carp Get?
- Fun Facts: Primarily found in China and sold in the masses.
- It holds a major appeal to low-medium income families.
- Max Weight: 31LBS
- Max Length: 31 Inches
- Life Span: 20 years
What do Mud Carp Eat? Mud carp are very similar to common carp in this respect. Plants and insects are on the dinner menu for mud carp. Unless they farm raised than they are fed pellets.
How Big do Prussian Carp Get?
- Fun Facts: Prussian Carp are capable of reproducing from unfertilized eggs and spawn in shallow warm waters.
- Max Weight: 7LBS
- Max Length:18 Inches
- Life Span: 10 Years
How Big do Asian Carp Get?
- Fun Facts: Crazy jumping abilities. Extremely low mercury levels are found in Asian carp since they don’t eat any other fish species.
- Max Weight: 100LBS
- Max Length: 32 Inches
- Life Span: 20 years
What do Asian Carp Eat? Asian carp eat mussels, plankton. Asian carp do not eat plants.
How Big do Catla Carp Get?
- Fun Facts: Catla Carp must be artificially spawned. Most frequently Catla Carp are artificially spawned in Asia.
- Max Weight: 85LBS
- Max Length: 6 Feet Long
- Life Span: 22 Years
What do Catla Carp Eat? Catla Carp are midwater and bottom feeders. Most Catla Carp stick to forms of zooplankton for the food of choice.
How to Catch These Massive Fish?
Unfortunately, I didn’t structure this blog post to dive deep into how to catch carp.
If that’s what you wanted to know, the information is right above on the link for you. It’s a full guide to catching carp with ease.
This post, however, was more to simply illustrate some key facts about carp.
I personally haven’t fished for any species of carp except grass and common carp thus far into my young carp fishing journey.
You can always visit my other blog post to see different and creative ways to begin carp fishing yourself.
I can assure you, it’s a ton of fun and a hobby worth giving a chance.
The Biggest Carp Recorded
The biggest carp recorded being caught was a British man named Tim Webb who landed a 222 LB Siamese Carp after a nice long 90-minute fight.
All it took was a hook with some bread and bran rice.
Man, could you imagine?
Makes my record look pathetic.
Wrapping Things Up
I wrote this blog purely for fun and realize it doesn’t necessarily give any useful tips for ways to catch more carp or any great ways to cook them.
You can however see how to cook carp here if that’s another area of interest that you have.
I just figured if I was that curious about the facts, others might be too so figured I’d jot down the findings for everyone to view.
If you feel I missed any carp species or have anything to add, make sure to drop a comment below. As soon as one of you break one of those weight records, we will be sure to update it!
Just make sure to send a picture in with your comment.
Till Next Time!