I was considering a pilgrimage to California’s Carp Mecca when my brother gleefully informed me that Clear Lake is suffering from some unknown malady and carp are dying by the bushel.
Great.
I was hoping it was some hunger strike wherein I could render assistance with Darth Clam or some such gaudy worm-based substance, wind up with blisters on my “palming” hand, and rescue the environment in the same breath.
Apparently it’s plant decomposition robbing the water of oxygen, an as yet unidentified virus, or pesticides – and Lake County is digging trenches for disposal of numerous carcasses, hoping to minimize the bouquet. It’s enough to make a brownliner cry – first the local fish serve up a extra helping of extended digit, followed by mass depopulation of the Holy Water…
This year’s Clear Lake Bow Fishing Tournament killed 5 tons of Carp (10,104 pounds), and all I was looking for was a couple confirmed nibbles, it don’t seem hardly fair.
I suppose I could fish for trout, but there’s not enough frustration involved…
It would seem the carp would be the last to go in the case of low oxygen.
Maybe they are just choosing to die rather than get hit with a bow?
Those bow hunters…they have a recipe for carp?
So far no other species are affected.
Based on their finicky reaction to my flies, I think they’re simple starving to death. The recipe is a bass boat with a large transom and lots of cold beverage.
All the fish wind up in a couple of industrial size dumpsters, which are whisked away before they can color the atmosphere.
As someone who’s fished more than a few bass tournaments at Clear Lake, I have to say the lake’s name probably qualifies as false advertising – the product of a lot of houses ringing the thing.
The annual carp shoot was always a “thrilling” time for us non-lethal types, and every tournament, we always found a few big bass with holes in their heads floating in the weeds.
The carp were all tossed into trash cans, and god knows what happened after that.
Carp have always been thought of as junk fish here on the east coast. Sounds like it’s no different on the west coast!
There are a few species of humans on the west coast that like to fry up a carp or two. As for not so Clear Lake, back when I fished tournaments we hooked into a monster carp on a top water bait and had the fight of a life time. 10 minutes later we landed and released about a 12 – 15 pounds carp.
Junk fish or no junk fish, it seems pretty fricken sad, at least on the surface. Carp are becoming quite the target for sportfishing, particularly on fly, and particularly since fuel price started their rise. Unless their populations are causing some type of ‘invasive damage’ this eat-what-you-kill-or-do-not kill type doesn’t see the point.
The prevailing sentiment was always fewer carp = more bass, conveniently ignoring the bass tournaments held specifically to coincide with spawning time, where the flats would largely get picked clean of bass.