Hello my name is Ross Osborne and I am Iheartcarp.com

 

My love of fish started at the age of ten, when the local chalk pit carp got me interested in fishing. 

 

A few years later nearing the end of my schooldays I was looking at starting a course  studying  garden design and landscaping, when my  career adviser, mentioned that her son was studying fishing at college, I liked the sound of that and inevitably I too ended up at Sparsholt College, Hampshire.  Whilst there I worked at many different fisheries, fish farms, Koi centers, Aquatic shops, river keepers etc.

 

Over that period of time I started to notice there was a gap in the market, no one seemed to be producing any truly stunning "English Carp", we could all see that Carp was the main selling point in all fisheries, but growth rates had become the main key feature, in other words , don't worry what they look like!  We just want large fish, which at that time were very French looking fish.

 

Idea’s started to shape in my mind, at Koi farms their fish are graded several times, and only keep the best colours and perfect body shaped fish, nothing about size!

I decided to follow suit, but with the humble Mirror Carp, but not just looking for the two key points.

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The main points I look for are: scale pattern, body shape, fin size, head and body shape, colouring and lastly growth rates.

 

I really want to create the finest Carp money can buy, using these Japanese Koi farming methods and  including some of my own.

I guess it helps that I have always been very artistic and a perfectionist.   For a living I do landscape and interior design, so you could say I've got a good eye for something special.

 

Basically this whole eureka moment, actually occurred in Simon Scott’s lounge at college, where we were looking at some of his prize baby carp in his aquarium, “what do you think of these Ross” he asked, I replied “ I’ve seen better”.  His reply was “ I doubt it”. But I knew I had four stunning little mirror carp in my dad’s pond at home, so if Simon the "Carp King" thought they were some of the best he’d seen.   What was I sitting on at home!  

That was it, the idea was born!

 

What I see myself doing at IHEARTCARP is different than what anyone else is doing at this time.

Fair enough there is some stunning fish being breed out there, but for me whenever I look at netting shots or stocking photo’s, out of every 40 fish, which for me would be C & B grade fish there is only one show stopper, 1 fish you can’t stop looking at. I want to give that customer or fishery 10 or 20 of them fish! I want them to pick their own top fish which I’ve already graded many, many times.