JMC wrote:

As any real fisherman knows, Common Carp and Grass Carp are two totally
different species. One is destructive, the other is not.

And they're different from the most destructive "Carp" of all: the
Bighead and Silver Carp who destroy the building blocks of the food
chain by gobbling up all the plankton.

The fish many anglers target are Common Carp. They are not strict
vegetarians, they do not damage ecosystems unless they are *severely*
overpopulated. But then again, what fish doesn't mess up it's ecosystem
if it overpopulates.

Carp overpopulation is usually short-term. In the rivers near where I
live, there was a big Carp population surge in the mid 1990s. They
bred in overflow waters in floods (mostly 1993, also 1994-1995).
Within a few years, Carp populations stabilized and have gone down to
pre-flood levels.

Assholes such as Rodney Long hate Carp because they're too smart to
bite the horrible lures for which he continually spams illegal
advertisements on r.o.f. (take your sales pitches to
rec.outdoors.marketplace where such posts are allowed).

I do give the spammers credit for being up-front about their bigotry,
so good people know to boycott them. Better to be honest about being a
scumbag than to put on a false image of good attitudes. Therefore
Rodney Long is better than the closet liberal bigots.

Note how ALL the anti-Carp people approve the dams which cause the Carp
proliferation in the fist place. The main places there are lots of
Carp are impoundments which warm the water and have fluctuating levels
that allow many Carp to breed. If the dams were removed and reverted
to natural rivers, Carp populations would fall to near zero.

In addition, if MEATHOGS didn't keep most of the Catfish, Bass,
Crappie, etc, there would be more native fish and fewer non-native
ones. Release huge Cat, and they'll eat some of the Carp.

Nearly 100% of the people who hate Carp also murder Gar. Filthy KKK
Confederate redneck scum (and the Yankee scum equivalents in northern
states) throw Gar on the bank and shoot them with guns. Fact: Gar are
the best predator in terms of keeping Carp populations in check. Every
time you kill a Gar, you're creating countless Carp and large Gizzard
Shad.

Look at the Dorsal Fin, Common Carp have a dorsal that runs down their
back behind its "point". Grass Carp have a small triangular dorsal fin.

Common Carp of course can be legally returned to the water anywhere you
catch them. In fact in most places it's illegal to kill a Common Carp
and leave it on the bank or in a trash can just as it is illegal to do
so with any other edible species of fish. There are laws and very steep
fines against wasting aquatic wildlife resources in that way, and yes,
they apply to common carp as well.

True. There's a law against wanton waste. However, with Bighead and
Silver Carp, it's better to throw them on the bank (where they'll be
utilized by critters and the maggots will serve in the food chain) than
to release them, because Bighead and Silver Carp threaten the entire
ecosystem.

The wanton waste laws need better enforcement. In filthy states such
as Minnesota and Wisconsin, palefaces usually throw ALL fish on the
bank that aren't Walleye. They consider Northern Pike and Smallmouth
Bass trash fish and kill them without eating them. They murder all
good fish that are considered prize gamefish in the South: Catfish,
Drum, Smallmouth, etc. Of course they murder so-called "rough fish"
such as Bowfin. In addition, Yankees waste the vast majority of the
meat on the fish they do eat, using a lame technique called
"filleting", and Yankees never eat rib meat and other edible portions.
In the south, people tend to scale fish and cook them so it's easy to
peel off the skin, not wasting meat.

Ideally you know someone who has the good taste/ability to eat Asian
minnows. I'm thinking of pickling some bony "rough fish": Carp,
Buffalo, Bighead/Silver Carp, Suckers, etc. The pickling should
dissolve the bones over time.

My main concern with keeping Carp is buildup of toxic chemicals. Note
once again, the Bu****e Republican scum such as Rodney Long condone
pollution. If laws were enacted against pollution, people would be
more likely to keep and eat Carp, reducing their populations. Once
again Rodney Long is the main reason there are so many Carp (the other
reasons being his support of dams and his tolerance of meathogging
keeping of large Catfish and Largemouth).

They are great sportfish.

Yes they are, but you won't hear that in fishing magazines or TV shows
because those shows exist for only one reason: ADVERTISING. Carp are
too intelligent to get caught on the silly lures utilized for
less-intelligent Bass and Crappie. In addition, Carp anglers usually
fish from shore instead of using the fancy boats used by Largemouth and
Walleye anglers. Carp anglers (and Catfish anglers) utilize simple
tackle that doesn't break the pocketbook.

In addition, Carp are so tough, they're the one species where it's not
unethical to use light line for more challenging fights. For most
species, using light line is a death sentence for the fish. Anyone who
uses ultralite for big fish is probably killing the fish if released
(IGFA record chases are a major cause of death of fish). Carp are so
tough, they'll probably survive even if you spend 45 minutes to land a
10 pounder on 6 pound line.

Too bad that Texas-based Rough Fish Angler Forum seems to have been
discontinued; that was a great site. People often posted about the
great times they had fishing for Carp, Buffalo, and other so-called
"rough" species.