For a public relations manager for carp I would suggest anyone who has had a
frontal lobotomy as a good choice.
Whilst I agree that they are good fun to catch the problem is that they
will indeed wipe out all the native fish and leave nothing but a third or
forth or fifth rate table fish to eat.
If you are happy to eat **** then I guess you would be happy to eat carp
and more power to you.
Recently I have been told that a fish we call black bream were
introduced into the Murray River in Australia and it is now very rare to
catch carp in the largest river in the country. Apparently black bream
predate the eggs and fry of carp. It is normally a sal****er fish but lives
happily in freshwater as well and its table and fighting qualities are
renown. I would suggest that this is a far better direction to drive your
carp than promoting it as a fishery.

--
High Country Houseboats
www.ahch.com.au
ph: (03) 5777 3899
"JMC" wrote in message
ink.net...
http://www.tpwmagazine.com/archive/2006/mar/ed_3/


The World According to Carp

The state's love/hate relationship with this not-so-gentle giant stretches
back to 1881 when the first hatchery was created in Austin.

By Mukhtar Farooqi

Someone once told me that the best way to cook common carp (Cyprinus
carpio L.) is by a technique known as planking. This works best with carp
in the 2- to 10-pound range. The carp is attached to a plank, basted with
olive oil and cooked over a slow-burning fire for about 50 minutes. After
applying the seasoning of your choice, throw away the carp and eat the
plank. Carp cuisine may have a long way to go, but there are a growing
number of people who believe carp fishing is poised to hit the big time.
All it needs is a good public relations manager to revamp its image.

The carp belongs to the minnow family, a name that tends to conjure up an
image of baitfish, but that’s better than some of the other choice terms
that are often used to describe it. Don’t be fooled by such talk, because
there’s more to this fish than meets the eye. In terms of the size to
which it can grow (world record is 82.3 pounds), its general level of
awareness and its fighting ability, it would perhaps be more fitting to
recognize this much-maligned fish for what it really is — an intelligent
and powerful game fish. Would you believe that European anglers are
traveling to the United States in the quest of our largely untapped carp
resource and that guide services are springing up to cater to them? What
do they know that we don’t? If you need an endorsement, here’s one from
Izaak Walton, a guy who’s in a league of his own: “The carp is a queen of
rivers; a stately, a good and a very subtle fish; that was not at first
bred, nor hath been long in England, but is now naturalized.” OK, so the
man considered the father of angling (author of The Compleat Angler), who
is the inspiration for the conservation group known as the Izaak Walton
League, was British, and they like carp anyway. Well, how about this quote
from In-Fisherman magazine: “Carp — one of the toughest, most intelligent,
and most powerful pure pullers in fresh water”?

Would you believe that European anglers are traveling to the United
States in the quest of our largely untapped carp resource and that guide
services are springing up to cater to them? What do they know that we don’t?

Right, but what has all this talk about carp got to do with Texas? Well,
for one thing we have been “blessed” with what is considered to be a
world-class carp fishery right in the middle of our capital city. It would
be churlish not to recognize it. Austin’s Town Lake is a standard bearer
for carp fishing in the U.S.

The carp is indigenous to Asia, being introduced to Europe by the 13th
century, the east coast of the United States by 1877 and to Texas by 1881.
Surprisingly, the introduction of carp to the United States was not
illegal or unintentional, but was federal government policy at the time.

Under the auspices of the Republican administration of Ulysses S. Grant,
the idea of distributing carp throughout the United States was envisioned
and subsequently carried out under successive Republican administrations
(Rutherford B. Hayes and Chester A. Arthur). It was reasoned that the
introduction of carp would provide a cheap and readily available food
source for the country’s growing population. In carrying out this plan,
Republican leaders inadvertently laid the foundations for an exciting new
fishery. Future generations of carp anglers will remain forever indebted
to these founding fathers of America’s carp fishery. As for the carp, it
had no say in the matter and probably deserves a presidential pardon for
any impact it may have on our ecosystem as a result of its introduction.
On the plus side, it could be argued that the common carp spawned Texas’
freshwater fish hatchery program, because the first hatchery in Texas was
the carp hatchery established at Barton Springs in Austin in 1881. Also,
it should be remembered that it’s in times of adversity that you really
find out who and what you can depend on. During World War II, the smoked
carp stepped up to the (dinner) plate and served our nation well — helping
to lower the country’s wartime food bill.

Jerome Moisand of the Carp Anglers Group points out that “many of our
grandfathers have a lot to owe to this introduction of carp as a food
source — 36 million pounds of fish every year at peak time. That’s a lot
of meals.” Even so, the popularity of carp as a food fish began to wane,
and it started to acquire a reputation as an undesirable species. Two main
reasons have been cited for this. The first was the negative effect that
large numbers of carp can have on a fishery by churning up the bottom in
search of food. The result can be reduced water clarity and a reduction in
light penetration, which restricts plant growth and generally makes
conditions less favorable for bass and sunfish. As a consequence,
biologists do not recommend stocking common carp if a quality bass and
sunfish fishery is desired. Having said that, problems can occur when any
species overpopulates a fishery. The second reason was more
circumstantial. As America became more industrialized and pollution of the
waterways increased, the carp was able to tolerate these conditions better
than most other fish and hence was able to do reasonably well.
Unfortunately, carp soon became synonymous with pollution in the minds of
many people.

In contrast to some of their cousins across the Atlantic, the angling
communities in the United Kingdom and other European countries have a
tremendous respect for carp. Carp anglers always bring in a fish using a
knotless landing net and invariably place it on a moist mat while removing
the hook. Etiquette dictates that if an angler wants to have his
photograph taken with the fish, the angler should kneel or crouch to
lessen the fall, in case the fish is dropped. Carp aficionados might
consider kneeling to be an appropriate gesture of respect for the “queen
of rivers.” American carp anglers use similar carp care practices, and
some even apply a dab of antiseptic to the hook wound.

Carp fishing in the United Kingdom is traditionally catch-and-release. Any
attempt to market carp as food is looked upon with disdain. By contrast,
in other parts of Europe anglers routinely harvest the fish; e.g., in the
Czech Republic people enjoy eating carp and some even believe that it
helps them live longer. In fact, in some Czech homes you may be surprised
to find that carp is part of the Christmas dinner. Similarly, Germans are
known to serve up carp as a traditional holiday food. In South Africa they
prefer to bake or barbecue their carp. In many Asian countries, carp is
revered as a food fish and is considered a symbol of strength. Carp are
still commercially exploited in the United States, but on a limited scale,
primarily for restaurants of the central and midwestern states, where a
cold beer and a carp sandwich are local delicacies.

In the United States, there is a growing interest in carp fishing. Two of
the early key players promoting carp fishing were Bud Yancey of the Carp
Angler’s Group (CAG) and Bob Williamson of the Illinois Department of
Natural Resources. According to Williamson, “The common carp is the most
popular freshwater sport fish in the world. It is also cultured and eaten
in more areas of the world than any other freshwater fish.” CAG holds carp
fishing tournaments (in the Chicago River and the tidal basin of the
Potomac River in Washington, D.C.), organizes special events (the First
Fishing Folly and CAG Invitational) and disseminates a wealth of
information about carp fishing. Ray Scott, founder of the Bass Anglers
Sportsman Society, supports these efforts and believes that carp fishing
is a thrilling way of introducing youngsters to the sport of fishing. Just
ask any kid who’s participated in the carp fishing event at Joe Pool
Reservoir in Cedar Hill State Park near Dallas.

According to Bud Yancey, traditional American tackle and fishing
techniques are adequate for catching carp of 8 to 12 pounds, but to
consistently catch big carp (20 to 40 pounds), specialized “English style”
tackle is required. David Moore of the American Carp Society indicated
that if you were to buy new tackle specifically for carp fishing, you
could get all the equipment you need for about $400. For the best gear,
you could spend $500 for a rod, $400 for a reel, $450 for a rod holder,
and more than $1,000 for the state-of-the-art bite alarm/pager/flashlight
system.

Last year was an eventful one for carp fishing in the United States and is
indicative of the growing interest in carp. In Texas, we had the Austin
Team Championship, and, for the first time in this country, we had the
World Carp Championship (St. Lawrence River, New York) with a $100,000 top
prize package (two Chevy Colorado pickup trucks and the remainder in
cash). In addition, $1,000,000 was available to anyone who broke the New
York state record for carp (50 pounds, 4 ounces). Even The Wall Street
Journal took notice and published a front-page story about carp fishing
and the World Championship. Finally, there was the St. Lawrence
International Junior Carp Tournament ($20,000 minimum in cash and
merchandise).

The 4th Annual Austin Team Championship at Town Lake was coordinated by
Brian Nordberg and Neil Stern of the Carp Anglers Group. Twenty-nine
two-person teams competed at this event. The average cost to participate
in the tournament was about $700 for each competitor (including travel,
lodging, food and equipment). In addition to the representatives from
Texas, there were anglers from 12 other states taking part in the
tournament: California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana,
Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma and
Wisconsin. On this occasion, carp anglers from overseas did not attend,
probably because they were busy preparing for the World Carp Championship.
However, it is not uncommon for British carp anglers to come to Austin
specifically for this tournament.

Many of the anglers at the tournament had been carp fishing since they
were children, being introduced to carp by relatives or friends, while
others saw people carp fishing and became interested that way. Among this
group were Frank and Narda Walters, who have accomplished the feat of
fishing for and catching a carp in each of the 50 states. It took them 12
years to do it. Another competitor honed his carp-0fishing techniques in
the pay lakes of the southeast. At these privately operated facilities,
anglers are charged a fee to fish for carp and enter money jackpots that
are paid on an hourly or half-hourly basis.

All these anglers rated Town Lake and the St. Lawrence River as the two
best trophy carp fisheries in the country, and both are considered
world-class waters. Town Lake has been mentioned in dispatches to the
world’s carp fishing community on a number of occasions. The chance of
catching a carp that weighs more than 40 pounds is the main reason for
drawing anglers from such great distances.

By the end of the two-day tournament, the top three teams had netted 890
pounds of carp. Jim Kirkman and Moses Lopez from Dallas took the top
honors with 18 fish and a total weight of 350 pounds. Vaughan Osmond broke
the Texas state record with a 41.5-pound carp. The spectacle of such large
fish being caught was enough to stop cyclists, joggers and passers-by in
their tracks.

As you can see, carp fishing has the potential to add a new dimension to
the sport of angling in the United States. The carp is worthy enough to be
included in the repertoire of The Compleat Angler. Why not give it a
chance? You may be surprised to learn how rewarding it can be. Does anyone
know of a good public relations manager?

The 5th Annual Austin Team Championship (March 24-25) will be followed by
the Texas Carp Challenge (March 26-31). Anyone lucky enough to break the
state record for carp at the Texas Carp Challenge will pocket $250,000.
For additional information about carp fishing, check out the following Web
sites: Carp Anglers Group www.carpanglers group.com, Texas Carp Anglers
Group www.texascag.com, the American Carp Society
www.americancarpsociety.com, Carp Fishing Network www.carp.net.

Fishing Euro-Style Many anglers at carp tournaments use European-style
tackle. The typical setup consists of a rod holder (rodpod) that allows
for three rods with a “swinger” and a bite alarm on each rod. The swinger
and the alarm are located between the reel and the rod tip. David Moore of
the American Carp Society explains that the swinger “keeps the line on the
roller part of the alarm, and if a fish picks the bait up and swims back
towards you (sometimes referred to as a drop-back bite) it will take the
slack out of the line and set off the alarm.”

Carp Facts The carp is an omnivore that can feed at any depth, but prefers
the bottom. It can be found in most major ponds, lakes and rivers
throughout the contiguous United States. There are a number of varieties
of common carp, i.e. mirror carp, linear carp, leather carp, Israeli carp
and koi carp, but they are all the same species. Spawning occurs in
shallow water from late March to September. The eggs hatch in a week or
so, and the fry are planktivorous. The life expectancy of carp can be in
excess of 40 years.