A little Fish History

[MoCarp]

Carp History

“The Carp is the queen of rivers; a stately, a good, and a very subtil fish; that was not at first bred, nor hath been long in England, but is now naturalized”. Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler,

Common carp (Cyprinus carpio L) is one of the oldest cultured and most domesticated fish in the world. References can be found to its appearance in Europe during the Hellenic and Roman Empires mention is made to the keeping and storing of common carp as a particularly favorite dish By roman aristocrats

Its is thought that carp where brought to Britain in the first century. Where in medieval times, monks kept Carp in "stew" ponds for their own consumption.

During the term of president Ulysses S. Grant (1877) U.S. Fisheries Commission receives 345 adult carp as brood stock from Germany. Carp fingerlings from the original adults were distributed to 38 states in the fall of 1879 including Missouri. For the next 15 years, the Missouri Fish Commission raised 80,000 carp for distribution for stocking purposes in Missouri waters.

Missouri's first official fisheries action occurred in 1878, when the first State Fish Commissioner, Col. John Reid, was appointed. 1879 the Missouri Fish Commission was formed when two additional commissioners were appointed.

At that time, the primary function of the Fish Commission was to oversee the distribution of carp received from federal hatcheries and the construction of Missouri's first state hatcheries. In 1882, the Fish Commission obtained the first Missouri Fish Car, a specially outfitted, used railroad car. Between 1880 and 1887, the Commission stocked their first fish.

Around 1890, the Missouri Legislature enacted two of Missouri’s first fishing regulations. One banned gillnetting and seining during the month of April, and the other required that no person be allowed to prevent the free passage of fish in Missouri Rivers and streams.

In 1895, Fish Commissioner J.T. Crisp wrote: "Let it be known and appreciated that if we would have our glorious rivers and streams and creeks swarm once more, as in the earlier days. That planting (fish stocking) and protection must go hand in hand." Commissioner Crisp also lamented the woes caused by the "trammel-netters and dynamiters."

Around late 1890’s, about 20 years after the first federal stockings, Common Carp started to have a negative public view. Carp were a fish intended for the masses to provide sport and food from our depleted waters. Why did the reputation change in the USA, while carp remained popular in Europe?

Reputations are shaped by public views-- just as the Carp’s reputation was shaped by events 125 years ago in the USA, then why was the carp not despised in the UK or Europe?

It is a myth that Europeans do not have anything else to catch or have few places to fish, Northern Pike, many trout species (even our own rainbows and brookies)--Zander--"a walleye like fish"—even a mega Predator called the Wels Catfish, are available to fisherman, but Carp are still king by a wide margin with millions spent across the EU each year on carp gear. Why?

Carp in North America became a metaphor for being poor.

With the advent of powered boats and trawl nets around 1900, a more bony carp were supplanted as a commercially viable fish with more marketable near shore saltwater species

Carp introductions were not meant as a federal institutionalization of fish farming per say but more like the British planting of breadfruit trees as a cheap food source for slave populations of the Caribbean. Or like the potato in Ireland. These were foods the wealthy considered low class.

Growing animosity developed after the civil war toward African Americans & European immigrants. Naturally, any low income population subsists to some degree on hunted and gathered food sources to supplement more modern ways of working and earning wages to put food on the table. We see that still today.

Hunger was an issue in post civil war south and its boarder states--the complete dismantling of the old south plantation cotton economy and the poor food crop production from played out old cotton fields, and hundreds of Thousands of men never came back to the family farms. It took many decades before the average person was living as well as they did pre-civil war.

In the USA stocking Carp was intended to supplement traditional food fishes as a sustainable food source in many lakes & streams to augment fish stocks. At the time of the first carp stockings many states did not like the idea of the federal government telling them what to do—the confederate civil war veterans, most who would have been in their late 30’s to early 50’s with all the resentments of reconstruction, many viewed the carp as carpet bagger’s or immigrant’s fish with all the distain that comes with associated politics. Similarly in the northeast a flood of immigration from Eastern Europe where carp had been part of the diet for centuries, were quickly utilized by newly American. In many ways public opinion on immigration today mirror those at the turn of the century.

Carp where meant as an abundant food possibility--that could be harvested with no more than a trot line an a bit of cotton seed cake--- a rational way to catch carp in southern rivers--many an African American or European immigrant family ate carp, and why not? Considering how little cost was involved and the poundage of quality protein that would feed the large families at that time.

Unwanted items, became "poor mans fodder" chitins, fat-back, possum, coon & carp were plentiful and cheap---Any family that ate them at least in the pubic eye were unsophisticated poor. Back then you fished to catch and eat--and if your a middle class man and caught some carp the proper thing was to give them to “that poor family down the street” a still pervasive attitude even today.

Common carp quickly became considered a "poor mans fish" that’s was given to the states as a means to feed the poor minorities and immigrants. That along with the ability of the carp to out compete bass, trout & catfish in polluted aquatic environments, became an uncomfortable metaphor it’s not surprising how the view of carp developed the way that it did.

Even government eradication of common carp came into vogue, It can be argued in many ways parallel to the native Indian pacification a decade or so earlier, where hunters were hired to kill buffalo, thus eliminating the ability of some Indian tribes to subsist without help.

Early on The German Brown Trout also had a negative public reputation, but seemed to weather the negativity, were as the carp elsewhere did not--possibly because the numbers of browns where not as wide spread as carp--and as trout were not a major food source for those who subsisted to some degree on wild caught foods in areas where they where stocked.

Today trout fishing in most areas of the USA if not the world are demographically upscale " meaning trout fisherman on the average have a higher income level " just look at an Orvis catalog and you can see what I mean.

One reason browns never sank to the level of hate as the carp. A proper game fish for wealthy Victorians was trout and the early rise of sport fishing was about the fly and the fish that could be caught on a fly. Then later-in the south’s warm waters--the bass--which was the southern equivalent –in fact southern old timers called largemouth bass "green trout" and the fish where much less available and rarer than carp at that time, remember this is before many large man made lakes that where built after 1930 many streams and rivers were nothing more than sewers.

The boom years of lake building 1950---1975 where almost billion surface acres of new largemouth and also carp habitat where constructed which coincided with the exploding sport fishing movement aided by the advent of spinning reels with monofilament fishing line. Up until post WW2 early sport fishing gear was generally expensive.

Only now in the history of fishing in the United States has an atmosphere of fishing just for the thrill of the fight has become the dominant public view. In the past you fished to eat, not for the sport, that idea became popular with turn of the century era President and avid sportsman Teddy Roosevelt, who was keen to enjoy the outdoors this was well written about in the press and generated much interest in search of sport. He so loved the outdoors he established many National parks so treasured today.

As you mature as an angler eventually the logic of why you fish kicks in with years of personal catch experience, most have memories of a carp giving the fight of a lifetime with many long drag smoking runs, usually followed by the disappointment that it’s a carp, not a world record bass or trout! Further adding to the dislike of common carp.

Carp pull harder and longer than anything in fresh water, reach a size rarely attained by a bass or trout…isn’t that the point of fishing?

Give it a try sometime see what you have been missing

[Phil Lilley]

Very good- thanks for sharing this. I'll leave it here for awhile and then pin it to the Carp Forum.

[gonefishin]

I never have underswtood why we thought we had to introduce wildlife from other countries. Why introduce carp or for that matter German Brown Trout. We already had Catfish, Bass, Several species of Trout and Salmon just to mention a few. The way carp populations exploded the eco impact and damage had to be somewhat equivelant to Zebra Mussels. I think the big problem with Carp is their low table quality. They are just to bony and strong flavored which is to bad because they are so overpopulated. It would be nice if people could find a useful purpose for them, maybe garden fertilizer or something. Dont get me wrong, I dont mind catching them. They can be a blast to catch but way to few are kept and the populations are out of control.

[motroutbum]

They didnt have that in mind when they started to stock them. The old timers wanted food.... and i dont think that they were as conservation minded as we are today.

[Phil Lilley]

I beg to differ. Cooked properly, carp is just as good if not better tasting than most freshwater fish. With any fish, it depends on their diet, water quality and the way they are prepared and cooked.

Case in point- my dad. He was raised in TX and had the same attitude about carp, although he never was a fisherman. I smoked some carp once and he loved it- and was very surprised when I told him what it was. He eats all the sucker and carp I've ever prepared and loves it.

[gonefishin]

I beg to differ. Cooked properly, carp is just as good if not better tasting than most freshwater fish. With any fish, it depends on their diet, water quality and the way they are prepared and cooked.

Case in point- my dad. He was raised in TX and had the same attitude about carp, although he never was a fisherman. I smoked some carp once and he loved it- and was very surprised when I told him what it was. He eats all the sucker and carp I've ever prepared and loves it.

You may be right Phil. My culinary skills may be lacking. My experince is that I have eaten carp and various kinds of sucker on several occasions. Most kinds of sucker have been tasty but I have only ate carp on one occasion when it was good. They were prepared first by trimming all the red meat then soaking them overnight in salt water then soaking in clean water and finally rince well before being cooked. Unfortunatly the process took a long time and was a lot of work for no more edible meat than there was. Of course the same argument is made for eating possum; if cooked properly it can be edible. In the immortal words of Crocodile Dundee "You can live on it but it tastes like $*&^"

Seriously I just don't care for the taste of carp. Too strong for my taste. I am sure there are people out there who like them and to them I say more power. The problem I have with carp is that they are way over populated in our rivers, streams and lakes. Their population has been unchecked and they compete directly with some of our native species such as suckers and Sturgeon. Carp need to be thinned out so our rivers, lakes, streams and natural fish populations can start returning to a more natural balance.

[Phil Lilley]

Mocarp - we have our work cut out for us... gonna have to come up with some gormet recipes and have everyone over my house!

[Bill Babler]

Instead of going to Alaska and Salmon fishing maby I can get you a guided carp trip on the Missouri River. I hear the shore lunches are marvelious.

I prefer the mudbank baked carp, guaranteed to quench the pallot of even the most discriminating fish eater.

[MoCarp]

The way carp populations exploded the eco impact and damage had to be somewhat equivelant to Zebra Mussels. I think the big problem with Carp is their low table quality. They are just to bony and strong flavored which is to bad because they are so overpopulated. It would be nice if people could find a useful purpose for them, maybe garden fertilizer or something. Dont get me wrong, I dont mind catching them. They can be a blast to catch but way to few are kept and the populations are out of control.

The problem I have with carp is that they are way over populated in our rivers, streams and lakes. Their population has been unchecked and they compete directly with some of our native species such as suckers and Sturgeon. Carp need to be thinned out so our rivers, lakes, streams and natural fish populations can start returning to a more natural balance.

It is a Myth that common carp are a problem in every water they inhabit, most waters that are overpopulated with carp at the expense of gamefish are ether A) have some water quality issues that allow carp to survive and reproduce beyond the capability of predators to control them or larger predator fish get fish down and allow carp to over populate

Many other fish over populate like crappie & bluegills for example

Carp are not some superfish that go from egg to 5 pounder in a summer, and big fish are NOT common a 20 pounder is a rare fish.

If one has carp issues, its because not enought preditors are eating them, a avg flathead can and does take carp up to at least 5 pounds, who knows what size a 50 pounder can eat!--another reason to release those larger fish.

In the fishes of Missouri by William L Pflieger;

“carp adults AVERAGE are from 1lbs @12” long to 8lbs @ 25 “ long. The grow rates are listed as 6.5” by the end of 12 months life, 11” at the end of 2years, 14.2” @3 years, 16.7”@ 4years 18”@ 5years.Typical weights are a 12inch carp will average 1lbs and a 21.5” will average 5 lbs Few live longer than 12 years in the wild”]

Many reports of lots of 20 pound common carp usually are from big eyed reports that do not weigh the fish, ask a person who does not commonly weigh fish what the carp you caught weighs—I would bet the avg non carp angler would guess over double the actual weight of the fish selective harvest would help get more big fish

Tossing them in the garden is a waste of a great resource and after decades of eradication attempts the only thing accomplished is to turn a single 20 pound carp into four 5 pound carp in the prime of reproductive efficiency--further exacerbating overpopulation issues.

As far as eating carp, The trick on carp for the table is remove the skin along with the blood line, THATS where the strong fishy taste is--also eat small fish those under 6-7 pounds, many folk catch a big carp that might be 25 years old and drag it around all day and then feel guilty to waste fish and clean it for the table, and wonder why it tastes bad!

[gonefishin]

Instead of going to Alaska and Salmon fishing maby I can get you a guided carp trip on the Missouri River. I hear the shore lunches are marvelious.

I prefer the mudbank baked carp, guaranteed to quench the pallot of even the most discriminating fish eater.

Yeah. I would trade an Alaskan Salmon Fishing Trip for a Missouri River Carp Fishing trip any day.