THE CARP & CARP FISHING 



CYPRINUS CARPIO 



French, Carpe; German, Der Karpfen 



By R. B. MARSTON 



I HE carp is said to have a bigger brain than any other fish — 

 Walton calls him the water fox. 



Formerly, before railways and good roads made it possible 

 to bring our wealth of fine sea fish into all parts of the country, 

 carp, tench, and other fish were much more highly valued as 

 food than they are now, and were regularly cultivated in all parts 

 of the country. This doubtless accoimts for the fact that this handsome, 

 strong and cunning fish is found in so many of the lakes and ornamental 

 waters in parks throughout the country. Almost every sheet of water of 

 any extent in Midland and Southern England which has existed for any 

 considerable length of time probably holds carp; they are so easily trans- 

 ported from one water to another, and, once established, are so difficult to 

 fish out by any fair means. Although found in many of our rivers and 

 canals, it cannot be considered as affording regular sport like pike, roach, 

 bream, perch, or even tench. There are doubtless many fine carp in the 

 Thames, for thousands have been netted out of reservoirs and other 

 waters and put into the Thames by the Thames AngUng Preservation 

 Society and other angling societies, and yet the capture of a Thames carp 

 is an imcommon event. Occasionally a fine fellow is caught by an angler 

 ledgering for barbel, bream, or tench, but very few anglers lay themselves 

 out to catch river carp as they do those in ponds and lakes. I forget the 

 exact weight of a splendid Thames carp caught by my old friend, the late 

 Mr Alfred Mackrill, near Kingston Bridge, over twenty years ago, but it 

 was about twelve pounds; I know he looked upon it as the greatest 

 achievement of his long angling career. 



In his excellent work, "British Fresh Water Fishes,"* Mr C. Tate 

 Regan says the carp fomily {Cyprinid<e) is probably richer in species than 

 any other family of fishes, considerably more than a thousand having 

 been described from the lakes and rivers of Europe, Asia, Africa, and 

 North America. Fortunately I am only concerned here with one of the 



* London : Methuea& Co., Ltd. " 



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