Carp

Here is another illustration to go along with the Channel Cat in my last post...another image that once colored, will go to Riverlink for their signage plans along the French Broad River.

I have not succumbed to the current rage of catching these guys on a fly rod, but in my misspent youth I confess to impaling a few with arrows.  After all, to my mind these guys were just muddying the waters of my favorite bass coves.  What did I know!

Anyway, according to McClane's Standard Fishing Encyclopedia, this Old-World minnow was first successfully introduced into this country in 1876 from Germany.  Indigenous to Asia, carp were so abundant on the European continent that that they were mentioned by Aristotle as early as 350 BC.

Wonder what old Ari would think of landing one on a modern fly rod...