FISHING REPORT: One good use for carp
JOE MOSBY
Cabin Columnist
Published Thursday, November 25, 2004
Nobody around here loves a carp. Practically nobody - there are some strange folks in our community.
Carp are the ugliest fish, resulting in expressions of disgust and disappointment when anglers catch one. But they are used, sometimes. Folks skin 'em and smoke 'em.
Others skin them, pressure cook 'em and can 'em for fish cakes.
My personal practice is to not waste fish that are caught. Catch a carp? Make use of it somehow.
One spring some years back, a spell of trotlining occupied much of April and May. The catfish were reasonably cooperative, and channel catfish fillets were at the center of a number of meals.
But carp also grabbed a baited hook from time to time.
Many anglers simply take a carp off their hook and toss it on to a bank, "getting that nasty thing out of the lake or river."
But there is a use for carp, at least at our place. Plant 'em between the tomato vines. A fellow named Squanto came up with this gimmick a long time ago. History doesn't tell us what kind of fish Squanto taught the Pilgrims to plant with their hills of squash and corn, but carp serves this purpose nicely in the Conway area.
This summer, the one following the serious trotlining, we had some wonderful tomatoes. And I still use this practice. Clean some fish, then take the scraps and bury them in the garden - not the compost pile, but the garden itself.
Doesn't matter if it's winter and nothing is growing. Something will be growing in a few months.
Just bury the fish, carp especially.
