Photo by Jay Zimmerman

The weather is starting to warm up and carp guys are getting restless. Erin Block of Mysteries Internal gives you the history and hysteria of Carp Fishing in America.

Many things seem like great ideas at the time, yet most are only figments of a hopeful imagination or intoxicated faculties. Few actually take off with the vengeance of sprinters after the start gun. Few actually work or have legs to stand on. And although they are there if you look hard and long enough, success stories are few and far between. We cheer them on, those long shots. And I’ve always been partial to the underdog.

So had I been around in the late 1800s, I would have cheered on the carp. Facing pressured fisheries and depletion of native stocks, the U.S. Fish Commission (just as English monks had done in the 1300s) made the decision to import what they thought to be the most economical food source for their country’s growing population, the best return on investment: the carp. Having proved their worth over centuries in Asia and Europe, it seemed the most logical move to make.

However, what was not foreseen was the success of that idea; or rather, success of the carp and failure of the idea. ( Read Full Article Here )