190 American Fisheries Society 



After its first rush the fish usually comes to the surface, 

 but almost immediately goes off again and just as rapidly, 

 with a steady pull which is almost impossible to stop. This 

 it will repeat several times; after which it will come directly 

 to the bank, usually at the top of the water, and sometimes 

 upon its side. Reaching the bank, if the angler permits it 

 to do so, it will lie with its head almost out of water and 

 this is one of its fine tricks. Apparently it is ready to be 

 pulled out "like an old boot," as is expressed by men who do 

 not know, but the instant a move is made to secure it there 

 is a tremendous splash, the tail of the fish strikes the bank 

 and the chances are that something breaks and the man with 

 the rod wonders why. At this point in the game many a 

 man will carefully lay down his rod and catch the line — 

 another fatal error — -for this seems to be just the move the 

 carp desires and it works its game. The only thing to be 

 done, if it is a large carp, is to keep it away from the bank 

 and this I have done by using a piece of stick, driving the 

 fish away as soon as it gets to the bank and gradually play- 

 ing it out. A big one may be finally landed with the light 

 tackle by simply playing it until it can make no more rushes 

 and lies helpless at the edge of the water. 



As to the claim that the carp destroys game fish by eat- 

 ing the young, I failed utterly to prove tins by making an 

 examination, with assistance of Benjamin Cohen, a chemist, 

 of the stomachs of a hundred carp, all over five pounds in 

 weight. AW- found roots of many kinds, wild oats, grains 

 of corn, wheat and almost all kinds of vegetable matter 

 that grows along the stream, but no sign of fish or meat, 

 except earthworms and waterworms, with an occasional 

 crayfish or helgramite. 



The most peculiar circumstance noted was the presence 

 of fresh water mussels in at least ninety per cent of the fish, 

 which seems to me to explain the disappearance of these 

 shellfish from many streams. In the Brandywine, from 

 which the carp were taken, were formerly millions of mus- 

 sels, while at the present time few can be found on any por- 



