heaven is in your mind

carp diem

wow some people are making a such a fuss over a fish...the carp....the Great Lakes region is in a panic that the Asian carp will destroy the fishing industry by competing with sport fish...what is it about the carp that evokes such irrational fear?? hmmmmmm

as a child in Illinois we had a lake nearby and skated on it in the winter, and fished in the summer.....it was an awesome lake....we'd go down there and spend hours fishing...impaling worms on hooks while they writhed and bled.....I felt a tinge of sadness for those worms....but there's plenty worms and they serve many useful purposes....chief among them was to instill wonder in a boy...Diamond Lake...I loved that lake and I always will...

so we'd go down in the morning and hang out at the shore..the water was clear as baby drool and the perch like to hang by the banks....you could see them..we'd drop our lines and catch about five and take them home, clean them and cook them for dinner..it was a blast....

but there was a dark side to the lake, too..stories of big black fish called a carp that only lurked in the deeper waters...we'd go out on little row boats and see them..they looked like little dolphins the way they swam..and they were big....and occasionally the bigger guys would catch one while us little guys stuck with the perch...the point being, the carp were not evil..they just existed and they always will..they didn't kill off the perch..there's plenty of fish to go around...there's carp in the local lakes and now they are using arrows to shoot them....

I got no problem with arrows or hooks, but I do have a problem with the county parks guy demonizing the carp saying they are not good for the lakes because they compete with the "native" fish or eat their eggs which is a myth....all I have to do is go back to 1964 and remember Diamond Lake...and all the fun we had...

go ahead and fish for the carp..but make sure you harvest them for a good reason and realize what they are good for...they are bottom feeders....good bottom feeders...

Bud Ramer, a longtime carp advocate, also displays carp on beds of crushed ice in Ramer's Fish Market, in Winona. Customers can buy smoked carp, which is as tasty as any and better than most smoked fish found hereabouts; pickled carp, which easily passes for herring; or fresh fillets, which can be fried, baked, frozen or dried.

"Carp is the universal fish," said Ramer. "Carp have gotten very bad press for some reason. But they're not going to go away. We might as well start eating them."

other bottom feeders are bad like DUI lawyers, anti-worker lawyers, Lance looking for olives at the bottle (sic) of a martini glass...oh, his hearing resumes today....maybe I'll check it out....although I might go fishing instead...