Common carp. The fish we as Americans seem to have a love hate relationship with. As a kid the older people I knew would catch them and use them for fertilizer. They’d take a still breathing fish and drop it in a hole they dug specifically for this fish. It kind of creeped me out as a child to watch what I thought was a well adjusted adult gleefully kill a fish that had the misfortune of picking up his baited hook. I’m glad I know now as an adult that no adult is well adjusted and most are children who sport gray hair and can vote.
I’ve always enjoyed carp. Growing up, a lake near my house was full of them. The first one I hooked into was on corn picked from the field next to the lake hung under a red and white bobber attached to an old Zebco rod and reel from K-Mart. I say hooked because that’s all I did. The carp decided it didn’t like being hooked and ran my line out of that reel. Twenty some years later I still love that feeling. Getting a fish that runs you into your backing, drag screaming, and you holding onto that rod for dear life is one of the small perks that fly fishing offers.
If you want to learn about the Carp Breakfast, it’s a pattern by Kevin Morlock of Indigo Guide Service. Check it out on their site.
The cat, he’s a bit special.