Hello everybody:

My ponds:

My ponds are in NW Indiana. Both are new and approximately 1 acre large and up to 14 feet deep. Both are fed from ground water, which is not unusual for NW Indiana ponds. But they therefore fluctuate in depth – 6 feet this year alone. Both ponds are made mostly of sand with some clay and gravel. Also both ponds will have air diffusers powered by windmills and/or Koenders EL compressors, all supplied by Superior Windmill in Regina, Canada.

My goal with these ponds is the following:

Swimming for the kids
Providing dinner for the family
Making a dent in the mosquito population

Some of you have suggested Common Carp, in earlier posts.



I have eaten Common Carp numerous times in Europe, and I liked it.

As Common Carp is quite prolific, could one have a Common Carp/Largemouth Bass only pond?

I would start the new pond with Fathead Minnows/Golden Shiner/Redear Sunfish in spring 2010.

When and how many Common Carp & Largemouth Bass should I stock?

I do not want to get Common Carp from a local lake as I am scared of importing diseases into my ponds. Where could I get healthy Common Carp?

All competent advice and suggestions are most welcome.
Thank you very much.
Regards,
FRIZ

I would not put carp in a pond with swimming as a primary goal.

They stir up the mud/bottom , get big and take up to much space. Some types can be dangerous when in shallow water (large flying objects) when spooked.

Providing dinner for the family...

Friz:

Here are a few places that is listed as producing common carp. I have absolutely no personal experience with them, nor do I think I know anybody who does. I know Rex (Rainman) hauls into this area, he might have a source. Currently he's away on a hunting trip in Texas but he should be back towards the middle of the week.

A1 Aquatics
Matthew Hogan
6225 South Willms Knob Rd.
Pekin, IN 47165
(812) 967-5092
A1Aquatics@yahoo.com

Aquascape
Jim Croucher
2750 E. 62nd St.
Indianapolis, IN 46220
(317) 722-0905
thepondguys2006@yahoo.com

Fin Farm LLC
Ann Hesterman 20543 Co. Rd.
Ridgeville Corners, OH 43555
(419) 267-3612 finfarm@rtecexpress.net http://www.finfarm.com

Lewis Farms
James Lewis 8084 Whitcomb Rd.
Brookville, IN 47012
(465) 647-1640

Live Fish of Indiana
Howard Spiehler III RR 1 Box 83DD
Bloomfield, IN 47424
(82) 876-3031

Omega 3 Aquaculture LLC
Trent Jones
3411 East Wabash Road
Peru, IN 46970
(765) 327-1016
drtjones@comcast.net

Westfork Fish Farm
Zondra Trivett
2885 E. CR 800 South
Clayton, IN 46118
(317) 539-4423
zondra73@aol.com


I have absolutely no idea on a stocking rate.

I know you are still a year away from stocking any fish other than minnows, and my offer still stands for getting you some for the table when the weather warms up. Live Fish of Indiana lists having (producing) Buffalo. I've had Buffalo and Common Carp and prefer the Buffalo. You'll have to show me how to cook the carp, I've tried and haven't found a recipe that I like.

Thank you.
Regards,
FRIZ

Fritz,

I've had some time to think about your goals and options and here is what I would do. Keep in mind this is my opinion only and I welcome criticism from others on the site. No doubt you're getting more confused with every post though!

For one of the two ponds if you determine the local carp taste as good as the same carp in Europe go for it! That one pond may become more turbid than the other one but so what? Additionally just one good size fast growing carp will feed the family quite well vs. our other so called smaller panfish. As Bill Cody says they have excellent conversion rates from the bottom of the food chain, and catching carp for dinner would be a blast as they are probably one of the hardest fighting fish I know of. They are also excellent smoked! I've fished for them in local lakes with mashed Wheaties cereal mixed with vanilla extract as they are really into scents. And if you pressure them they can be quite a challenge. I believe they are actually smarter than many of our so called gamefish.

I personally wouldn't be concerned with disease with introducing carp if you harvest some large ones out of local waters for planting, if the fish you plant appear healthy with no lesions or reddened areas on their skin. However, to prevent any possible introduction of parasites, dip them with a net into a barrel or tub of pond water at your ponds edge mixed with a 3 percent salt solution (1 1/2 cups of uniodized table salt per 10 gallons of water for maximum time of 5 minutes or until fish rolls over or appears to lose it's balance. Then immediately plant the fish into the pond. External parasites can't handle the salt water and implode on the fish's body surface effectively eliminating them. It's stressful to the fish too but if you keep the dip limited in time as in the above directions they should be fine.

HOWEVER!

I would seriously do some Internet searching as with Google or some other search engine in German or English for the UK for advise on planting carp in small ponds for recreation and food. Ignore the aquaculture stocking rates as they are a whole different ball game. Don't be afraid to email people for advise even if getting fish from them overseas is out of the question as many are happy to respond.

I can't imagine there isn't anything in the German language on that, considering how popular they are in Europe. In this country there is such a mind block against carp you probably won't find anything useful though. BTW one of my probable ancestors was responsible for introducing them into this country.

Make your stocking rates dependent on that information and if you may need to add a predator fish to keep their numbers down probably largemouth bass would be the choice as long as the water does not get too turbid. Being your pond bottom is mostly sand vs. clay or silt I'm not so sure turbidity would be that much of a problem.

As far as the other pond since you have your mind set on smallmouth bass, I would plant fatheads in the spring with added spawning habitat such as pallets due to your lack of weed cover in the new pond. You will probably have to move them farther out into the pond as your water level recedes. In the fall I would plant 100 smallmouth bass fingerlings and 100 juvenile perch 4 to 6 inches.

The mixed sex perch will be necessary to produce forage for the smallmouth bass once smallmouth and yellow perch wipe out the fathead minnnows.

Essentially my biggest pond is now a yellow perch smallmouth pond with the addition of male only bluegills.

If fish growth and productivity is not as high as you want, you might have to consider adding an automatic feeder to one or both ponds to feed them when you're not there.

If you get smallmouth from Dan Laggis in Michigan they will be feed trained as will be the yellow perch if you get them from me. Carp shouldn't be a problem to get them to adapt to pellets if the natural pond feed is not enough to produce the numbers and size you want.

Feeding doesn't have to be that expensive.

Carp/LMB is an interesting idea.

Here is an article discussing the combination of goldfish and LMB in a small pond, which would be similar to Carp/LMB. One of the major problems was that goldfish got too large quickly. If you're removing fish for eating, this problem would probably be mitigated.

frix, we have worked probably 10 jobs in last 15 years where carp have taken over the pond. I literally have filled the shock boat with carp dumped and went out for more. If kept in balance I think you might satisfy your goals. How hard this is not sure?? If left unmanaged it will go carp heavy they destroy the repro of bass then the numbers of carp sky rocket then they run out of food and what resutls is a few monster bass, tons of carp and a muddy pond. I wish I had better advice if you want some carp come to GA i can get you plenty from lakes that pay me to remove them.

Greg.

Fritz wouldn't care about the largemouth bass in the second pond. He would only add them to control the carp. If he had just oodles of carp in one of his two ponds -- as long as they are large enough to eat -- he would be happy.

Right Harry? (aka Fritz)

+1

Thank you.
Regards,
FRIZ

My dad's friend who raises carp to eat originally stocked 8 adult carp he caught from a local lake. All were 20"-28" in size. They were more than enough to produce all the carp he could ever want to eat! His carp pond is just under an acre in size. The pond is only carp, no other fish. He catches the carp mostly by seine, but will use a hook and line if he is looking for entertainment. I would guess he uses about 5 adult carp per week between him and all his family members. At that rate, he seems to keep the carp numbers in check. He usually harvests carp in the 16"-22" range. He says when they get much bigger than that their taste goes down.

CJ:

How big is his pond, and do you know if there are underwater plants in the pond? I think Friz's ponds are pretty barren right now, they were just dug this past summer and have no fish in them yet.

His carp pond is just under an acre in size.

Scot you'd be amazed at the invertebrates that show up in a pond bottom fairly quickly. Common carp are not strictly plant eaters.

He does supplementally feed them, but not regularly. The pond is barren of aquatic vegetation other than some arrow weed, pickerel weed, cattails and rushes along the edges. The carp seem to spawn in the rushes in the spring. They go nuts splashing and rolling in that area. Best time of year to bow fish for them.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention he does use carp to fertilize his gardens. I does the old school Native American way of using fish as fertilizer.

Guess my point is bass can be your freind in attempts to keep them in check. The topic was carp/bass. In most cases we talk abotu bass taking over in this case I have seen carp takeover so more bass I feel is in order with none it might be difficult to control.

CJ good point with seine if hook and line only tough chore. Anyone ever been to broadway on the beach mrytle beach, sc? If so you have seen the thousands of carp. We removed over 8 tons in two nights, my suggestion add bass in adult size to get them established no idea what they did.

Is that Broadway at Myrtle Beach the pond that has the plank that leads out into the middle of it where you can buy fish food from the machines to toss to the fish surrounded by all the shopping? They have the water dyed a funky light blue and there are literally 1,000's of carp and goldfish? They also claimed there are HSB in there but I never saw any through all the carp! My fiancee's parents don't live too far from there in Ocean Isle Beach, NC.

Yes CJ that is it, http://www.broadwayatthebeach.com/propertymap.aspx
Probably should not put this in public forum but they clear over $5,000/month in the summer in fish food profits from the 20 gumball fish feeders. So they do nto want to rid of the carp b/c it is attraction and money maker but wanted to rid of the muddy water. They never followed up with me back in 2001 so I guess they continue to use dye. Cool job shocking at night with the wife dipping up 10-20 lb carp, we were both sore for a week.

Good point Greg. You are more knowledgable than I and manage waters for a living, so I take what you say seriously even if you it many not seem I do. Fritz may have to add more bass than I suggested and/or monitor the situation to see if he needs to add even more.

I just thought you didn't realize at first the Fritz doesn't really care about the bass in a second pond and they would only be a tool to manage the carp numbers.

What would you say the stocking rate would be for 5 to 6 inch bass in the fall after planting about 6 mixed sex large spring prespawn adult carp? Maybe more like 200?

If all you care about is the carp then limit the # and feed them pellets. Forget the LMB and use non-reproducing HSB and HBG. Trap , seine ect any offspring and takeout the big ones and eat them.

Eric this is shocking suggestion to me. I find it hard to believe HSB could control carp populaiton.

Cecil really no idea I would put in more bass than normal and pull bass out if you had basically no carp repro OR just add more bass later as you are getting too many carp might be better suggestion. OR maybe do as Eric mentions (probably knows something I do not) if does not to keep carp in check add bass then as adults.

Fritz is new to all this and actually grew up in a very large city in Germany. He's still learning to fish let alone seine. However I have no doubt he will learn fast. And at the same time he does not live at the pond so hands on management time is at a premium.

HSB + HBG + HUMAN control of the carp offspring in a small pond. Like a put and take fishery. The key is human control and low numbers.

I wish I was paying more attention when I was growing up in South Bohemia (Czech Republic). Majority of the carp raising ponds or Europe are there, and in Austria. Here is a webpage of the main city, Trebon. Unfortunately, there is no English version, but you get the idea from the pictures. They have a trademarked strain of carp, named after the city. Notice the biggest carp in the world, made up of the residents in the town square, lol.

http://www.trebonsko.cz/kategorie/trebonsky-kapr/

Most of what I can tell you from the webpage, and from my youth, has already been said here: The food carp get raised in large ponds with very little vegetation, save for the cattails, and some occasionally hydrila, with no other fish stocked with them. They love to splash between the cattails in the shallow water, when they spawn in the spring. Majority of their food is natural from the ponds, but they are supplementally fed pellets - and if I remember correctly, corn. Like with most fish feeding, you have to be careful how much you feed, because overfeeding can have detrimental effect on your water quality. In Czech Rep. these ponds are hundreds of years old and considered historical objects, so maintenance can get expensive.

Carp get harvested around November (for the Christmas table), at between 3-4 yrs of age. They are kept in clean water until Christmas and then sold live at grocery stores. "Generational" breeder carp are babied in separate ponds under very good conditions and artificially inseminated to increase yield. It seems like the ponds were emptied and harvested every 2-3 yrs. Many people come to watch the occasion, and warm themselves with liquor while they watch. The whole thing is firmly ingrained in the history and traditions of the region.

Carp are very strong fighting fish, but also very smart. I read an article about the biggest carp caught in the UK. It went into some public aquarium, where the fisherman who donated him came to feed him every day. The carp learned to recognize him and ate all kinds of food, but till his death he never again ate the bait that he got caught on. If you think about it, the same happens with other kinds of fish. After a while certain types of lures stop working. Most carp remember where and on what they got caught, but I remember a few that got caught in the same spot on the same bait. Their version of Darwin awards, I guess.

I read somewhere that the meat is comparable to salmon, except with those fine bones. I don't like salmon that much, except smoked, but I love smoked carp, fried carp with lemon juice and mashed potatoes, carp fish soup made from the heads, eggs, etc.

I hope some of this helped.

Thanks Ed, great info!

Yes, great info!

Up here, carp is an ethnic thing. I have had smoked carp, and it is somewhat like smoked suckers.

Not to get anyone's split shots in a tangled mess, but carp, up here, usually hit the shore, or become plant food.

Just the way it is!

The only good carp is one with an arrow stuck in it... JMHO

Ed, thanks for the great post. I come from a very mixed up heritage.

My father's family was from Bialystock, Poland. My grandmother's sister (my great aunt) would somewhere find a big fat live carp before Christmas each year. She'd keep it in her bathtub for several days, and then serve it a number of ways on Christmas Eve. The old Polish generation seemed to enjoy it. On a 1 to 10 comparison with salmon, I'd generally rate it at -10, except for smoked carp, which might rate a +2.

My mother's family was from Oulu, Finland. For Christmas Eve we had "sylte" (pork headcheese) and smoked salmon or trout. They'd wait until Christmas day to torture the family with lutefisk.

Both sides of the family also prepared many wonderful home-baked crackers, breads, sausage treats, hams, pastries, milk cheeses, etc.

I loved the headcheese and the smoked fish. The carp had few redeeming values. The lutefisk -- or "lye-dyed fish jello," was even worse than the carp in its many forms.

If it was my pond, I'd hope that the bass won the population contest. Then I'd stock with good tasting fish.

Yes. Thank you.
Regards,
FRIZ

CJ:

It's hard to get the carp to live long enough to clean them out in clear water once you've skewered them!

I stuck somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 carp one day in a couple of hours last Spring. The smaller Males would be chasing a larger female in the shallows. I always tried for the biggest target.....

Mid May is usually when the carp come into the shallows to spawn on the Potomac. One guy runs the trolling motor while the other is in the front of the boat with the bow ready to shoot. You can hammer them pretty good when they are in the shallows spawning. From clean waters I enjoy carp. Problem is, not many places I catch carp are clean.

That reminds me, I have to buy a couple of points for the bowfishing arrow. I lost one, and had to rob another arrow that I had.

I'll just sneak along the shore of the local BOW, sans boat.

Hey Ed, it's been awhile.

I have never eaten carp, but I have rarely heard good things about the taste. Can anyone pinpoint what it is about carp that is not tasty?

Go to Europe and Asian and people love it... But since it has the word carp in its name, us Americans hate it. Their certainly are bones in the fillets which can be a pain, and the flakes of flesh are big and sometimes it's a bit oily depending on where they were caught. It can have an off taste if caught from nasty waters. This is why most carp farmers purge their fish is clean water for a week or two before preparing them for market.

If my memory is right, the flesh is a bit softer than most of the normal freshwater fish that are caught for the table.

They are good pickled too. When they are spawning in the spring and shallow we use a treble hook spoon with ultru sharp hooks and cast to the shoreline and snag them. Great fun on a flippin' stick. You know there is some serious stuff going on when you get a big one. It is also kind of fun to just beach the boat and watch them wallow around. A big female travels slowly along with a male or two swimming with them and rubbing together in some sort of spawning ritual. Ugly, but a great fight on a rod and reel

It seems like depending on your country, palatable fish change. When I fish off the piers here in So Cal there is a lot of mackerel caught. I always throw them back, but there are always Asian families that ask for them.

Yes, I think a lot of it has to do with what you grew up eating... My early childhood was on Long Island, NY eating oysters, herring, and other things a country boy probably wouldn't much like...

I hear Mackerel is good on the grill, but we used them for Tuna bait.

I wouldn't mind having a nice fresh dozen of oysters on the half shell. That's the problem with living in the MidWest - no good fresh saltwater seafood.

What about stocking tiger musky? Would that help keep the carp population under control?

Generally carp will reproduce faster than musky, pike or sometimes even LMB can eat them -as Greg suggests. The more carp a water body has the more turbid the water generally becomes and the harder it is for the predators to see the carp to eat them. Also with more turbid water spawning success of LMB is less and plankton is fewer reducing recruitment of LMB. IMO the best long term control for common carp is rotenone.

But when carp are wanted then that becomes a different story.
CJ probably has the most experience here with this topic since his acquaintence raises pond carp. Meybe he can check on more carp raising details for us.

Generally what happens normally in waters is the predators are harvested and carp are ignored. In theory and IMO opinion if Fritz regularly harvests carp (30-60?/yr) the LMB should be able to pretty well control the carp recruitment - maybe control too well. If there are not enough carp, then harvest a few bass. Fritz may have to implement a slot limit for carp. (I never thought I would ever utter those words - "slot limit for carp"! LOL). It gets better - read on.

Another option would be to limit the amount of spawning sites (shoreline vegetation / structure) which should also help reduce the amount of recruitment. Since he lives offsite, Fritz should watch that poachers do not harvest his LMB. Doubtful poachers will take his carp. Too many carp will result in slow growth and overcrowding.

Question - At what point (numbers/ac) are carp too abundant in a 1 ac pond without supplimental feed that growth rates suffer? Implement Wr and body condition factors for carp - that is new for me! Is Dr Dave following this thread?

I will check with my dad's friend and get a better idea how many pounds of carp and/or number of carp he harvests per year. What I do know is, he has no other fish in the pond, that he does harvest a large number of carp per year. He harvests most by seining them, but I know he catches some on hook and line as I have caught carp is his pond with him using this method. If I had to guess, he probably harvests 50-100 and they are in the 3-6 pound range generally. As I said, he occasionally fishes for them, but the ones caught are almost always kept. He smokes them in a smoker and does eat some fresh. He also pickles them as well. This is a guy who lives completely off the grid and raises 90% of his own food. He chose carp because of the large amount of fish protein they can produce... He lives on 300+ acres down a 4 mile dirt road, pretty much in the middle of nowhere... The last I remember there was 16 family members living on the property, so there are a lot of mouths to feed. So their need for fish is substantially higher than the average pond owner.

Thank you,
Regards,
FRIZ

CJ also check on the feeding of carp. What type, how much, and how often?. I am pretty sure carp will eat softened field corn which is fairly cheap now at abt $3.50-4.50/bushel shelled (56 lbs) from farmers or grain elevators.
So far from CJ's information, if one wants mainly carp, maybe no or very few predators are needed if harvest of carp is adequate and a regular. Adequate annual harvest is key to the success. Why put a fox in the pen with chickens, if one wants lots of chickens? This is a fairly new concept for us on Pond Boss.

How many carp, can a carp pond produce, if one wants carp,carp,carp?

If anyone put a common carp in one of my ponds he would be sleeping with them if I had my way. Two things you never see in the same sentence, common carp, clear high quality water. Those things are turbidity machines. Bass nest raiders, and I don't have to think about raising them because I can catch them whenever I want, as many as I want. Or shoot them, or spear them, or bow and arrow them, or blow them up with dynomite. They sure make great fertilizer. Decent crawdad trap bait. Clean landfill? Now for the virtues of common carp...

What good is clear water if one wants to raise a lot of fish pounds per acre? The two ecosystems are contradictory and on opposite ends of the ecological / limnological spectrum.

OK. I'll have to put some thought into this. Turbid, muddy carp farm or clear water LMB, bg fishing pond. I'll get back to you on that.

Carp don't wear sweaters, and if you take them to the movies you don't have to pay to get them in.

Nothing better than pickled carp on a Ritz. Eat them up yum.

I am sure I have seen them drinking cappucino in Italian restaurants with Oriental women, however.

In the morning laughing happy in thier turbid muddy carp pond. In the evening floating in Friz's soup.

Focus on the goals, and not ones preferences.

Great advice Bill, Thanks

I think there should be a common carp in every Christmas stocking. Carp and zurek for all.

http://www.fishingfury.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/carp-love.jpg

I remember the first carp I caught as a kid, it was huge & I wanted to keep & eat it, my brother inlaw said no it's junk fish! So I whined until he said ok. I cleaned the fish & he was fryin them, mostly BG, he handed me the large fillet on a plate with a smile, I found out why they call them junk fish!!! tasted nasty! I took two bites then threw it away. He just laughed at me.
I love to catch them, good stong fight, I have been catching them with my fly rod & it's a great battle. they are spooky if you have heavy feet, or slap the water too hard, so it's a challenge as well to get them to take a fly. I wanted to add one to our pond to target with a fly rod & design flies.

I spoke to my dad's friend the other day and talked to him about some of the details of his carp raising operation.

He made it very clear he chose carp because of their ease in rearing and the fact that they produce a large amount of fish protein for use by him and his family. He uses carp for a number of things. He feeds them to his pigs when he has too many, he uses them as fertilizer for his crops and he uses them as people food.

He utilizes a monoculture method of raising carp. He does not have any other fish in his carp pond. He has considered using tilapia but they are illegal to stock in open waters in Virginia so that is not an option for him.

His carp pond is approximately 1.5 acres and has a maximum depth of 6 feet with a "seining shelf" that is between 3 and 4 feet deep and the bank of the pond is a 3:1 slope. The pond is spring fed, but the water quality of this spring is very nutrient rich as it contains run off from his barnyard area where he raises livestock. This makes the water very fertile. He chose this pond to be his carp pond because of this run off issue. His other ponds are also spring fed, but are more pristine and are capable of supporting trout year round.

He typically maintains a brood stock of about 50 adult carp in the 4-8 pound range. These fish are allowed to naturally spawn in a shallow cove area of the pond that contains aquatic vegetation. According to him, the pond typically produces around 20,000 1"-3" YOY carp. He seines out about half of these fish to feed to his pigs and use as fertilizer. He then focuses on the remaining fish. By the end of the first growing season, the carp are in the 6" range and weigh around 6 oz. More fish are seined out during the following growing season as 1 year old fish. These fish are in the 10" range and are just under 1 pound and are also used for feeding his hogs and fertilizer. By the end of the second growing season, the fish are pushing 14" and are between 1 and 1 and half pounds. It is this size range he begin using them for food. Most fish are smoked and pickled and some are eaten fresh. Brooder fish that get over the 8 pound range are harvested as they have outgrown the manageable size. Often times the harvest of these fish are done in a more recreational manner such as fishing or bow fishing...

He estimates he produces around 400 pounds of carp per year for human consumption and another 2000 pounds are used to feed livestock and as fertilizer. He says the pond is very fertile because of the watershed being affected by the barnyard with lots of chickens, turkeys, goats, pigs and cows leaving their waste behind. He does use some supplemental feeding of field corn but he said the carp generally do fine on a diet of mostly natural feed. He did say about 2 weeks before harvest for human consumption, he feeds them heavily with corn as he says it makes them taste better.

I think his operation is a bit much for the average pond owner. 400 pounds of carp! Another 2000 pounds for other uses. That's a lot of fish!!! He has a few other ponds that he raises other species in including CC, LMB, BG and trout. He is an off the grid type of guy and provides almost everything he uses on his property.

Hopefully this gives you an idea what can be done with carp... I think if you put LMB into a carp pond, some of those YOY carp could be turned into LMB biomass. But I am not sure if LMB can even keep up with carp reproduction. Surprisingly, even with the numbers of carp kept in this 1.5 acre pond, it is not overly muddy. Perhaps it is the soil type the pond is on. It does typically have low clarity, but that is because of the fertility.

I hope this helps...

If things ever go real bad in the country this guy will be in good shape.

Never ate carp, how do they taste? are they better than GSF.

It's easy to laugh and joke about carp but they are the number #1 fish farmed in the entire world and one of the oldest if not the oldest species ever farmed. The real experts go with 4 different species in one pond to take advantage of different feeding habits. If you flush them out, keep them in a bathtub of clean water for a week to 10 days they taste way better, then you are just fighting the bones.

They are one of the smartest, most adaptable fish ever. It's just a cultural difference. So much so I can go to many freshwater resevoirs around me and catch a ton, no kidding, 2,000 pounds. But you have to flush them, I do the same with crawdads. Then you smoke them, put them in mason jars and pressure cook them, the bones just vanish. Even here in the states in Asian markets, #1 species is carp.

CJBS - Good info about raising carp. Thanks for taking time to gather more details from your dads' friend. If one is primarily interested in fish protein carp can fill that need. If you ever catch a 5-8 lb carp on light tackle you think you've hooked onto a slow moving lawn tractor.

Yes! I think this is way out of my league.
Thank you very much.
Regards,
FRIZ

Bill, if you think light tackle is fun, try it with a fly rod! I had to upgrade the equipment last year because I was afraid that I would break the rod. It was bending all the way down in the grip area. The new one has a drag system in the reel, so I won't have to be palming the spool now.

Thanks to George for suggesting what to buy - he was spot on.

No joke... He is preparing for the end literally. He's got more ammo than most 3rd world countries and enough guns to outfit a brigade. He actually has a waterwheel he has hooked up to a generator too. He uses no electricity other than what he produces. He produces what I would say would be 90-95% of the goods he uses. Visiting his place is pretty cool... 4 miles down a dirt road and surrounded by the Skyline Drive National park on 3 sides. About as remote as you can get east of the Mississippi.

IIRC, carp don't have the ability to store food as most fish do, so they have to feed more or less continually. Would this impact how they should be fed if on artificial feed, perhaps feeding multiple times during the day to prevent them from rooting and eating algae?

What about stocking some nice size Flatheads or Bluecats, they seem to enjoy goldfish and carp when they are on a jug line.

Just a thought.