84 REPORT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



for tihere are instances on record of this fisih having been •served in hotels 

 and restaurants under other designations, such as bluefish, without 

 apparently being detected by the majority of the guests, while on one 

 occasion, under the title of Red Snapper, it was served at a dinner of a 

 well-known American Fish and Game Club and Avas acknowledged to 

 be a moist palatable dish. Moreover, Germans will frequently select this 

 fish by choice in preference to the finer American varieties, while, as 

 already noted, the Jews are particularly partial to it. Experiments have 

 been made in smoking the flesh of the larger fish and preparing them after 

 the manner of sturgeon meat, and in this form it is claimed that they 

 are also exceedingly palatable. 



Finally, as sport for anglers, the carp can, it would seem, lay some 

 claims to distinction, although it is doubtful whether such will be 

 admitted in this Province to any large extent so long as the black bass, 

 the speckled and lake trouts and other sporting fishes are to be found in 

 abundance. In Germany carp fishing is a popular sport and the Father 

 of Fishing, the redoubtable Isaac Walton, devotes a whole chapter to 

 this fish. That in certain localities of this continent its merits in this 

 respect are already winning recognition, the following extracts from 

 remarks by Dr. S. P. Bartlett, of Illinois, will sufficiently prove: — 



" The carp when hooked is a vigorous fighter and care must be taken 

 that he does not break the hook, or break out the hook from his mouth. 

 I would advise the use of a landing net. I have found the best bait to 

 be a dough ball, made by boiling cornmeal to a good stiff mush and then 

 working the ordinary cotten batten into it until it becomes hard and 

 stiff, rolling it into little round pellets about the size of a marble. Fried 

 potatoes, sliced raw and fried until they become stiff, not brittle, is also 

 a good bait. I have seen as many as 200 people fishing along the shores 

 and nearly all of them get fair strings. One day, within a distance of three 

 miles on the Illinois River, I counted 1,103 people fishing with hook and 

 line, and on investigation it developed that a large per cent, of them were 

 taking carp. The majority of those caught weighed a pound, and as 

 heavy as five pounds, all of them probably used as food." 



Dr. Bartlett also quoted from the letter of a prominent sportsman 

 of the State, Mr. D. M. Hurley, of Peoria, 111. 



" Carp fishing with hook and line has now taken its place with bass 

 and other kinds of fishing. All along the river in this locality carp are 

 being caught freely with hook and line this year, and to say that they 

 are gamey is not half expressing it. I have talked with no less than 25 

 persons who were busy catching carp and in every instance I was told 

 that it was rare sport to hook a carp, as it Avas quite as much a trick to 

 land one as it was to land a bass. Dip nets were used generally to land 

 the carp, as the activity of the fisih when jerked out of the water would 

 tear the gills and free the fish quite often. The bait used when fishing 

 for carp is dough balls and partly boiled potatoes, the latter being the 

 best in the opinion of the majority. The carp will bite on worms also 



