The Much-Maligned Carp

I recently read an interesting essay in Jerry Dennis’ Up North in Michigan: A Portrait of Place in Four Seasons (2021) which dredged up an old memory of my youthful obsession with fishing.

I still love to fish although I find so little time or opportunity for it these days.  One thing I have recognized over the years, however, has been a more mature and conservation-oriented ethic.  As a young boy I wanted to catch as many fish as I could and to keep the ones I caught.  Only then could I prove my angling prowess.  It was not a successful outing unless I came home with a stringer or a cooler full of fish.  It did not seem wasteful at the time as my family ate what I caught.  But as I grew older, I realized what I liked most about fishing was the time spent on a favorite piece of water . . . alone with my thoughts in a nature filled with water sounds, a breeze shifting through trees saturated with birdsong.  This is not to say I no longer kept the fish I caught.  I did, but only one or two which very soon found their way to the dinner table.   Otherwise, I was satisfied with the thrill of the hunt in beautiful surroundings.  I became a firm believer in catch and release and the fish I did not intend to eat were returned safely to the water.

When I was in junior high school and living on the shores of Madison, Wisconsin’s Lake Mendota, I snuck off every chance I had to ride my bike down to the Tenney Park lock and breakwater to fish for bluegills, perch and sheepshead although I would occasionally score a larger northern pike.  I took fishing seriously and I fished worms, minnows, and crankbaits, and I targeted fish I knew tasted good.  Not all of my piscatorial comrades shared my discriminating tastes, however.  I would often find a group of kids – some of them my classmates – sitting on a wall next to the lighthouse and locks fishing for carp that seemed to congregate near the boathouse.  Some of these anglers had bamboo pole and others spinning rods and all of them were supplied with bags of white sandwich bread from which they crafted dough balls for bait fished under a bobber.  Hot dog pieces were also a very effective bait for carp.  Most carp anglers fish their bait on the bottom but will often use a bobber to detect subtle takes.  Carp are constantly moving and feeding during the warmer seasons, so it can take them a while to find an offered bait.  They also have relatively small mouths and will often toy with a bait before consuming it.  So, it is important to use the right size hook.

Unlike me, these kids were not interested in catching food for the table; they were keen only in the sport of catching a large fish that would put up a good fight when hooked.  They had no interested in keeping their catch.  "The Carp is the queen of rivers and lakes; a stately, a good, and a very subtle fish,” wrote Izaak Walton in The Compleat Angler (1653), yet in this country carp are often classified as an invasive rough fish potentially disrupting entire ecosystems by out-competing more desirable local game fish and variable in terms of angling value.  Instead of releasing their catch these kids threw them into a pile next to the wall where they quickly died.  There was an older fellow whom I often saw fishing on 

the breakwater, and he would occasionally gather up a few to take home.  I don’t know if he ate them or used them to fertilize his garden, but at least they did not go to waste.  The rest would become a stinking mess until someone from the park came along to dispose of them properly.

It seemed such a waste to me.  I could certainly understand the thrill of catching such a fish.  I would occasionally hook a carp, and I enjoyed the fight it offered, but I usually returned it to the water.  I guess the catch and release ethic caught on earlier than I thought.  Sometimes I would take it home and give it to our elderly Norwegian neighbors who very much enjoyed them.  They also taught me the proper way to fillet a fish, a talent that has served me well in the many years since.  And hell, if they eat lutefisk, why not take a chance on carp? [https://lookingtowardportugal.blogspot.com/2012/06/when-lutefisk-is-outlawed-only-outlaws.html]

Carp remains a popular holiday dish in Central Europe dating back to the Middle Ages, particularly as a traditional Christmas Eve dinner in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.  It is also frequently found on holiday tables in Hungary, Austria, Germany and Croatia. 

Today, many states are beginning to view the carp as a game fish instead of a maligned pest.  If you enjoy fishing, what are you obliged to do if you catch a carp?   You can certainly keep them for the table as they are purported to be quite tasty when properly prepared.  Although frequently served throughout Asia, many in the United States and Europe do not favor it claiming its flesh has an oily, or “muddy” flavor, or it’s too 'bony.  Nevertheless, if taken from clean waters, carp can have a subtle and delicious flavor.  It is also a great source of lean proteins and omega-3 fatty acids that promote healthy cardiac functions while exhibiting only trace amounts of mercury or lead.

Had those young boys understood what they were catching more than the simple act of catching, perhaps more of their catch would have been put to better use or returned to the water.