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Angler's Guide

How to use Carp Army

Everything you can do as a member — from logging your first catch to going live, joining syndicates, booking a swim, and earning as you fish. Step by step.

New here? Start with these three

Create your account, add a profile photo, and log your first catch. That's enough to appear on the map, show up on leaderboards, and start following other anglers. Everything else below you can pick up as you go.

1 Create your account

You'll need to be 13 or over. Signing up takes about a minute.

  1. Open the app and tap Register. Enter your full name, choose a username (the app checks availability as you type), your email, and a password.
  2. Pick your country, set your date of birth, and accept the terms. Opt in to updates if you'd like them.
  3. Prefer a one-tap sign-up? Use Sign in with Apple or Sign in with Google instead, then complete the short profile step.
  4. After your first login you'll be offered Face ID / biometric login — turn it on to skip typing your password next time.
Lock it down: You can add two-factor authentication (2FA) at any time from Settings → Security. Scan the QR code with an authenticator app and save your backup codes somewhere safe — they'll get you back in if you lose your phone.

2 Set up your profile

Your profile is your angling home — captures, personal bests, followers and badges all live here.

Edit your details

  1. Go to the Profile tab and tap Edit profile.
  2. Add a profile photo and cover image, write a short bio, and add your location and website.
  3. Set your weight unit to lbs or kg — every catch you log will use it, and the app converts automatically.

Privacy & account

  • Turn on a private account so only approved followers can see your posts.
  • Manage blocked users, and set your push and email preferences so you only hear about what matters.
  • Under My Data & Privacy you can export your data or request account deletion. Deletion is scheduled for 30 days — just log back in within that window to cancel it.
  • Switch between light and dark themes, and view your earned badges and yearly "Your Year" Wrapped recap.

3 Log a catch (Capture)

This is the heart of Carp Army. A capture puts your fish on the map, your profile, and the leaderboards.

  1. Tap the + button in the middle of the tab bar and choose Record a Catch.
  2. Add a photo (required) — take one now or pick from your library. You can also add a video up to 60 seconds.
  3. Edit it if you like: filters, brightness/contrast/saturation, text overlays and a music track.
  4. Fill in the details — species, the fish's name, weight (in your chosen unit), length, rig type, and bait. For bait you can search a manufacturer's products or just type your own.
  5. Set the location — use GPS, search for a fishery, or drop a pin. The app pulls in weather and conditions (temperature, wind, pressure, moon phase) automatically.
  6. Choose whether the capture is public or private, then post.
Let the AI help: Tap AI Fish Identify and Carp Army will suggest the species and an estimated weight from your photo. After posting, Catch Insights compares your catch against the venue's history.
Tag your gear: If you keep a tackle list, you can tag the exact rods, reels or rigs you used onto the catch.

4 Fish a session with Session Mode

For a day or night on the bank, Session Mode is the fastest way to log multiple fish.

  1. Open Session Mode from the capture menu, or start it from a venue's page with Start Session Here.
  2. Log each fish with a single tap — pick the species chip, enter the weight, add a photo if you want.
  3. The screen stays awake and a live conditions strip shows the weather while you fish.
No signal? No problem. Session Mode works offline. Your catches are saved as drafts and sync automatically once you're back in range.

5 Browse the Feed & Discover

Keep up with the anglers and venues you care about, and find new ones.

The Feed

  • Switch between Following, Posts, Captures and Pro tabs, or flip on local only to see catches from your country.
  • On any post you can like, comment, react with an emoji, share, send it to a friend in a DM, or bookmark it to find later.
  • Tap the Stories ring at the top to watch 24-hour clips from people you follow.

Discover

Open Discover to search across people, fisheries, products and posts in one place. You'll also see trending anglers, popular fisheries, trending hashtags and what's new in the shop.

6 Follow anglers & send messages

Following

  1. Open someone's profile and tap Follow. Public accounts follow instantly; private accounts show Requested until they approve you.
  2. If your own account is private, incoming requests appear on your Follow Requests screen where you can accept or decline.

Direct messages

  • Open Messages to start a conversation, send photos, and see unread badges.
  • To keep things friendly, you can usually only message someone once they follow you back.
  • Want someone's full history of fish? Open their Catch Book from their profile.

7 Syndicates & social sessions

Fish together — whether that's a private syndicate or a live group session on the bank.

Syndicates

  1. Go to Syndicates to discover existing syndicates or tap Create to start your own (public or private).
  2. Post into your syndicate's feed, chat with members, and organise meetings.
  3. For private syndicates, members request to join and you approve them.

Social Sessions

  1. Start a Social Session and share the invite code with your mates, or join theirs with a code.
  2. Everyone's captures feed into a shared session leaderboard, and you can set your on-the-bank status so the group knows who's fishing.
Find someone to fish with: Use Fishing Buddy matching — set your target species, experience level, fishing style (day ticket, syndicate, overnight) and how often you're available, then browse match cards of anglers with compatible profiles. Send a buddy request and if they accept, you're connected. It's how a lot of solo anglers on the platform find their regular fishing partner.

8 Map, venues, bookings & conditions

Explore the map

The Map tab shows recent captures and fisheries near you. Scrub through the date history to see what's been coming out, and jump to the weather or moon calendar from here.

Find a fishery

Search for a venue to see its lakes and swims, contact details, biggest fish, top catches and recent captures.

Book a swim

  1. On a booking-enabled venue, tap Book and choose your dates and swim.
  2. Check availability and pay securely in-app.
  3. Find your reservations any time under My Bookings.

Plan your session

Use Plan a Session for a pre-trip checklist, and check the Weather and the 7-day Solunar feeding forecast to pick your window.

Reading the Solunar forecast: The 7-day chart shows Major and Minor feeding periods calculated from the moon's position relative to your location. Major periods (typically 1–2 hours long) are the highest-activity windows; Minors are shorter bursts. A Major that overlaps with sunrise or sunset and a rising barometer is as good as it gets — that combination historically accounts for a disproportionate share of big fish captures on the platform.

9 Leaderboards & records

See where you rank and chase a place in the record books.

Leaderboards

  • Check the Leaderboards — Season, All Time, Most Active anglers and Bait Stats, filtered by species.
  • Every public capture you log counts, so keep your catches coming in to climb the table.

Records & personal bests

  • Your profile tracks your Personal Best for each species automatically.
  • Browse the platform's verified Records — record status is verified by the Carp Army team.

10 Go live, watch, and post reels & stories

Watch & go live

  1. Open Lives to see who's streaming. Tap in to watch, comment and tap-to-like.
  2. To broadcast yourself, tap Go Live — add a title, flip the camera, and interact with viewers in real time.
  3. Missed one? Watch the replay afterwards.

Send a gift

While watching a stream you can send a gift to the broadcaster — gifts are bought with coins. If you're out of coins the app will offer to top up. More on coins below.

Reels & stories

  • Reels — swipe through short vertical clips, or tap Create to make your own.
  • Stories — post a photo or video that disappears after 24 hours. It shows in the ring at the top of the feed.

11 Shop & Classifieds

Buy from trusted tackle brands, or sell your own second-hand gear.

The Shop

  1. Open the Market tab and browse products, flash deals and voucher offers.
  2. Add items to your cart (choose variants and quantity), then check out securely.
  3. Track your orders, raise a dispute or open a support ticket if something's not right, and keep favourites in your wishlist.
Shop Live: Some sellers stream live — you can buy a pinned product or bid in an auction without leaving the stream.

Offers & vouchers

Brands and fisheries on Carp Army regularly push exclusive voucher offers — discount codes, early-access deals, and bundle offers — to the Offers screen in the Market tab. Tap Claim on any offer to save the code to your account, then it applies automatically at checkout when the qualifying products are in your cart. Pro members often get access to offers before they go public, so it's worth checking the Offers screen before you buy from any brand that's on the platform.

Classifieds (sell your own gear)

  1. In the Market tab, switch to Classifieds and tap List an item.
  2. Add photos, a description and a price, then publish. Manage everything under My Listings.
  3. Buyers can make offers — accept, decline or counter them from your listing.
Good to know: Classifieds are for members selling personal gear. Selling as a business (a shop, brand or fishery) uses a Business account — see the separate Business guide.

12 Coins, wallet & gifting

Coins power gifting during live streams — and if you're a broadcaster, they're how you earn.

Buy coins

Open Buy Coins and choose a pack. Coins are purchased through the App Store or Google Play and land in your wallet instantly.

Your wallet & earnings

  • Your Wallet shows your coin balance and your earnings from gifts received.
  • Broadcasters keep 50% of gift value (coins are valued at £0.01 each).
  • Withdraw your earnings to PayPal or your bank once you reach the £5 minimum.

Boost your posts

Want more eyes on a catch or your profile? Boost it from as little as £0.99 and track how it's performing.

13 Carp Army Pro PRO

An optional subscription (£2.99/month) that unlocks deeper tools and the ability to earn from tackle you love.

Subscribe from the Pro screen in the app. Pro includes:

  • Post Analytics & Capture Viewer Insights — see who's viewing and how your posts perform.
  • Export your catch data to CSV — your whole log, downloadable.
  • Ask Bailiff — the AI rig & bait advisor, found in the Labs tab.
  • Fishery Intelligence Reports — catch trends, seasonal patterns and top anglers for a venue.
  • The Affiliate programme — promote tackle you use and earn commission (browse the catalogue, pin products in your live streams, and get paid out via Stripe once you reach £50).
  • A Pro badge, a Pro-only feed, priority in Discover, and early access to new features.
How "Ask Bailiff" works: Open the Labs tab and tap Ask Bailiff. Describe your situation — the venue, current conditions (temperature, pressure, wind), your target fish and how the session has been going — and it gives you specific rig and bait recommendations based on what's actually been working at that venue. It draws on the capture history logged by anglers on the platform, so the advice is grounded in real results from the water you're fishing, not generic textbook advice. Ask it follow-ups, tell it what hasn't worked, and it adjusts. Think of it as having a very well-read bailiff on call at 3am when the bites dry up.

14 Notifications

Stay on top of likes, comments, follows and live streams — without the noise.

  • Your Notifications feed collects likes, comments, follows and follow requests, reactions, mentions and live-started alerts.
  • Tap any notification to jump straight to the post, profile or request.
  • Tidy up with multi-select delete, and fine-tune what you receive under notification and email preferences in Settings.

Coming soon to the app: a Session Tracker and a Gear Locker for managing your tackle collection. Keep an eye on the Labs tab.