History on the Distain of Carp

[MoCarp]

History on the Distain of Carp

I wrote this in 2005 

 

In the 1880’s Federal stockings of Common Carp were intended for the masses-To replace depleted native fishes once relied on for food. The tide of public opinion Started turning against carp starting in the United States around late 1900’s about 30 years after the first federal stockings, of common carp.

 

Carp remained popular in Europe to this day, why? Reputations are shaped by public views-- just as the Carps reputation was shaped by events 135 years ago in the USA, then why was the carp not held in distain 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 from any walk of life, but Carp are still king by a wide margin with billions spent across the EU. Why? 
 

Carp became a metaphor for all things poor—carp introductions was not meant as a federal institutionalization of fish farming per say but more like the Brits planting of breadfruit trees as a cheap food source for slave populations of the Caribbean. Or like the potato in Ireland, particularly in the old confederate states during the years of reconstruction carp stockings were considered a food for blacks stocked by the occupying federals to feed the newly freed slaves.

The growing animosity that developed over time toward African Americans & immigrants around the time of carp introductions-is well documented. 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. 

 

Unwanted items, became "poor mans fodder" chitins--fatback--possum--coon--and carp-- plentiful and cheap---any people that ate them, where looked at in the same light--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. 

 

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 old south 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 or immigrants fish with all the distain that comes with associated politics. In the northeast a flood of immigration from Eastern Europe where carp had been part of there diet for centuries. In many ways public opinion on immigration today mirror those at the turn of the century. 

 

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 took many decades before the average southerner was living as well as they did pre-civil war--carp where 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 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. 

Many lakes & streams where still distressed well into the 1950’s & bass, crappies and catfish were unable to compete the way carp and gar can in contaminated waters because of the ability to take oxygen from the surface in low in oxygen environments due to pollution. Carp and catfish feeding in bottom silts can release nutrients that can cause algal blooms. When the concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus increase in a water body, the right combination of temperature, sunlight and low flow can trigger an algal blooms that can reduce Oxygen concentrations. That with fishing removing predators that could consume baby carp produced waters out of control. 

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 dominate or take over distressed aquatic environments, was an uncomfortable metaphor for the northern business folk swooping down on the south to take advantage of new business opportunities (carpet baggers) or the huge wave of emigrants entering the northeast. it’s not surprising how the view of carp happened the way that it did 

The Brown Trout also once 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, primarily African Americans and eastern European or poor whites -- ---Even 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--which is one reason browns never sank to the level of distain 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. Into 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 expencive. 

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 dominate view of those fishing today In the past you fished to eat, not for the sport, that idea 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 establish many National parks as we know them today. 

Still you hear people say to you " why the heck would you want to fish for carp--bony things aren’t worth eating fish.” Old attitudes diehard. As you develop as an angler eventually the logic of why you fish kicks in with years of personal catch experience, even average size carp give the fight of a lifetime with many long drag smoking runs, isn’t that the point of fishing? 

Enter the growth of Euro-Carping over the last 20 years in the US , since 1990’s the rod and reel euro style carp fishing world has grown exponentially here in the USA.

Quote

 from the US Park Service website:   "Standing on clear-cut hillsides with a bucket of garbage in each hand, they looked down on the rivers, saw carp swirling happily in the mess humans had created, and made a correlation - albeit the wrong one - between the rise of carp and the fall of game fish. Either ignorant of or blind to the damages they themselves had wrought on the landscape, people looked past the dredged and straightened channels, drained wetlands, eroded riverbanks, and waters laden with human and industrial waste, saw carp roiling in the shallows, and accused them of wrecking the water."                                   (Buffler and Dickson, p. 74)

 Forward thinking State fisheries agencies have become more understanding on management of common carp In Texas some waters have slot limits to maintain trophy carp fisheries. Arizona stocked 70,000 Mirror carp in a lake to control insect populations and give anglers sport. People even have carp tourneys that release carp, one man won $250,000 at a big carp contest in Texas.

 

,

[fishinwrench]

Carp are just Carp.  Anytime you have to work so hard to convince people how great something is.... there is a problem.

Folks that are into chasing carp are always working to convince others why they should too. It's as if they'd feel more at ease with their passion if more folks felt the same about it.   

Given the choices I have in fish species to persue I place carp only a notch above gar, who are also plentiful, tasty, and fight like hell.

[MoCarp]

when I started euro style carp fishing, couldn't find much gear like they use.......now you can.....so somebody is listening 

[MoCarp]

Pictures of early stocking of carp By the Feds

[fishinwrench]

The top pic is actually a rail car being loaded with SHAD FRY, and in the bottom pic they are filling cans with fresh water during a PALID STURGEON transport......but hey, if you want it to be about CARP that's fine. 

https://reefs.com/2014/09/15/history-fish-transport-neosho-national-fish-hatchery/

[MoCarp]

Its about HOW carp were stocked,  in the mid 1800s, when fish were imported from Germany  in 1877, the U.S. Fish Commission was stocking carp in lakes and rivers across the country to serve as a food source.

"Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, a Democratic congressmen from New York's 4th Congressional District, originated the bill to create the U.S. Fish Commission in the United States House of Representatives. It was established by a joint resolution (16 Stat. 593) of the United States Congress on February 9, 1871,[1] as an independent commission with a mandate to investigate the causes for the decrease of commercial fish and other aquatic animals in the coastal and inland waters of the United States, to recommend remedies to the U.S. Congress and the states, and to oversee restoration efforts.

the U.S. Fish Commission carried out extensive investigations of the fishes in the rivers, lakes, and marine waters of the United States.

The National Fish Hatchery System (NFHS) was established by the U.S. Congress in 1871 through the creation of a U.S. Commissioner for Fish and Fisheries.

President Ulysses S. Grant was chiefly responsible for the first official government action to conserve U.S. fishery resources for future generations. President Grant established the U.S. Fish Commission in 1871. The Commission was the forerunner of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Fisheries Program.

By 1885, the U.S. Fish Commission was actively stocking lakes and rivers ....(source the National Biological Service, Environmental Management)

Perhaps the Commission's greatest success, was the introduction of carp. A popular food fish over a great part of Europe, it was introduced because of a desire to provide a cheap source of high quality food for rural dwellers in the South and Midwest. In an effort to provide wide distribution of the fish, Baird even had rearing ponds constructed on the grounds of the Washington Monument and other nearby locations. Enthusiasm for the program soon developed and the carp were introduced into every imaginable stream or body of water. usually by rail car."

[Flysmallie]

It's hard to correct this disdain that you speak of when you post alternative facts. 

[fishinwrench]

Man, the attire of that era always cracks me up.  By the time you could get one of them gals out of all that clothing you'd be too tired to do anything.  It's no wonder why the sheep and pigs got harassed as much as they did. 😀

[MoCarp]

the skill of people who made there own cloths prob wasn't that good...lol

26 minutes ago, Flysmallie said:

It's hard to correct this disdain that you speak of when you post alternative facts. 

I bet if you saw a guy toss a 6 pound brown under a bush back in the day, because they ate all the trout (not that the anglers kept all the brookies to eat)

you would understand the why, my comments are to caution those not to repeat the past "Bison are everywhere can't kill them all"

[snagged in outlet 3]

2 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Man, the attire of that era always cracks me up.  By the time you could get one of them gals out of all that clothing you'd be too tired to do anything.  It's no wonder why the sheep and pigs got harassed as much as they did. 😀

Speak for yourself.  Or maybe you did