Carp-Talk Magazine – The Weekly That Changed Carp Fishing Forever
For many carp anglers, there will never be another magazine quite like Carp-Talk.
Long before Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and forums became the places to share catches, Carp-Talk was where the carp fishing world went every single week to find out what had been caught, where it had come from and what was happening across the country.
For 24 years it was the heartbeat of UK carp fishing.
The Beginning
Carp-Talk was launched in June 1994, becoming the world’s first dedicated weekly carp fishing newspaper. At the time this was a revolutionary concept, with most carp magazines being monthly or bi-monthly publications.
The magazine was founded by three well-known names in carp fishing:
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Tim Paisley
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Chris Ball
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Kevin Clifford
Tim Paisley has since revealed that the idea for a weekly carp newspaper was his, believing the rapidly growing carp scene had become large enough to justify dedicated weekly coverage.
The first issue hit the shelves during the close season in June 1994, just ahead of the traditional June 16th start on many waters.
The Editors
Over its 24-year history, several respected anglers took the editor’s chair, including:
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Joe Bucher (launch editor)
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Steve Broad
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Simon Crow (long-serving editor during the magazine’s later years)
Simon Crow became closely associated with the publication and helped steer it through the 2000s until its final years.
What Made Carp-Talk Different?
Unlike traditional glossy magazines that focused on long features, Carp-Talk concentrated on news.
Every week you’d find:
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The latest catches from around the UK
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Exclusive big fish reports
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Lake records
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Industry news
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New tackle launches
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Bait releases
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Match and event coverage
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Fishery news
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Opinion columns
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Tactical articles from some of the country’s best anglers
Many anglers would buy it simply to see if anyone had caught one of the country’s famous carp that week.
Before social media, this was often the quickest way to hear about captures from venues like Wraysbury, Yateley, Burghfield, Linear, Bluebell, Farlows and countless others.
Weekly Publication
One of Carp-Talk’s biggest achievements was maintaining a weekly publishing schedule.
Instead of waiting a month for news, anglers received fresh reports every week.
Over its lifetime the magazine published an incredible:
1,231 issues
…making it one of the longest-running specialist angling publications ever produced.
Famous Contributors
Over the years, countless well-known anglers wrote for Carp-Talk, including names such as:
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Julian Cundiff
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Danny Fairbrass
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Ian Macmillan
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Ali Hamidi
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Darrell Peck
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Steve Briggs
Alongside these were hundreds of catch reports submitted by everyday anglers from waters all over the UK.
The End of an Era
Sadly, after 24 years, Carp-Talk published its final issue (#1231**)** on 26 June 2018, bringing an end to one of the most influential publications the carp world has ever seen.
By then, the landscape had changed dramatically.
Facebook pages were publishing captures within minutes.
Instagram had become the place for trophy shots.
YouTube channels were replacing written features.
Many anglers no longer waited until Thursday to discover what had been caught—they already knew from their phones.
Did You Read Carp-Talk?
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Do you still have old copies?
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What was the first issue you bought?
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Did you ever appear in the catch reports?
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Who was your favourite columnist?
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Would a printed weekly carp newspaper still work today, or has social media completely replaced it?
Let’s hear your memories of one of carp fishing’s most iconic publications.