622 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISHERIES. 



done, an I have the names of the parties who caught the fish. An old German who 

 Uves here goes daily to the river with a regular fly casting pole and reel to fish for 

 carp. Of course he exchanges the fly for the regulation hook, but he used his reel 

 in landing the carp, and says there is no finer sport than fishing for carp. This man 

 uses partly boiled potatoes altogether and is very successful in taking carp in num- 

 bers daily. I have caught a great many carp myself with hook and line, using pota- 

 toes, dough balls and worms, and found that the partly boiled potatoes worked 

 best, as the carp seemed to take that particular bait when they would not bite any 

 other. As for the sport of catching carp with hook and line, I consider it equal to 

 anything in the way of pleasure fishing, as the fish is gamey and will fight as hard 

 against being landed as bass or other game fish and is to be handled with precaution 

 on account of the tender gills, which will often tear when hooked by an inexperi- 

 enced angler. In the past two years carp have become popular where they were 

 unpopular, because of the wearing away of the prejudice that they were of no bene- 

 fit to the angler on account of the belief that they would not take a hook. Now it is 

 different, as the very ones who were so loud in their protest against the carp, have 

 found great sport in taking them with hook and line, and it is wonderful to hear the 

 change of sentiment as to the carp for food purposes. They are a good fish now and 

 fit for a king in comparison to what was said of them while the prejudice still existed. 

 To my mind the carp is a good fish for food purposes and is fast finding favor in the 

 west in every way, now that the angler has found it is the coming fish for sport. 

 Just at present, in the Illinois river, we have a world of all kinds of game fish and 

 no end of carp, which insures the angler his full measure of sport until the end of 

 time." 



At Detroit and at Put-in Bay I have seen numbers of persons fish- 

 ing from the wharves with hand lines for carp. The bait in most gen- 

 eral use was a piece of ])oiled potato wrapped in mosquito netting to 

 keep it on the hook. On the 25th of July, 1901, with this bait, I saw 

 taken from the steamboat wharf at Put-in Bay a carp which measured 

 31.5 inches in length and the weight of which was estimated at about 

 16 pounds. This fish made a vigorous fight, and would have taxed 

 the ingenuity of an expert angler if he had hooked it on a trout line 

 and a light rod. 



There is a tendency among sportsmen to deny the title of game fish 

 to any that will not rise to a bait, either real or artificial. In such a 

 category the carp certain 1}^ can not be included; it must be classed 

 rather with those fishes that reward the quiet, "contemplative" 

 angler, who must wait patiently until the fish bites, but who then has 

 the same problem and must exercise the same skill in landing his 

 game that he would have to display had he hooked one of those 

 species generally acknowledged to be game fishes. 



CARP CULTURE. 



Carp ponds and pens ma^^ be divided primarily into classes accord- 

 ing to the purposes for which they are used: (1) Permanent ponds or 

 complements of ponds, used for breeding, rearing, and retaining the 

 fish until such time as they are large enough to dispose of in the 

 market; and (2) temporary ponds or other inclosures used only for 

 holding carp from times when they are easily obtained until, on 



