Since I am on extended vacation of sorts, I have mostly been doing whatever I want whenever I want – within reason. This week it has been even more Carp fishing. If you fish and can not understand why anyone would want to fish for and catch Carp, maybe this will help?

I love to catch Northern Pike. They are not much fun to eat because they have so many bones, but they are great fighters and a challenge to catch. Bass are the same way. However any Bass over a few pounds starts dropping swiftly on the taste scale. I love Trout, but they suffer a few problems of their own. Firstly, there are no wild Trout left that the average person has any real access to. The second problem with Trout is taste. Once a Trout goes over about twelve inches the taste starts to go south pretty quickly. Not to mention that trout are fed pellets in hatcheries until the day before when it was released into the pond or stream it was caught in.

For freshwater game fish that leaves Crappie which are outstanding, both catching and eating, but not available to everyone. Other panfish taste really good, or not so great depending on where they are caught.

Carp on the other hand are rarely eaten unless one is really hungry, or when I lived in Minnesota the springtime before they once again became mushy and their taste goes off. Most people, myself included fish for the sport rather than the eating, so does it really matter what fish is being caught as long as it is fun to catch?

I don’t think the type of fish caught really matters that much. I watched a lot of Bass fisherman fish hard all day long this week and land maybe one or two small Bass that really were not worth keeping. I watched a group of three people tonight Cat-fishing. Between the three of them they had two fish, perhaps eight pounds of Catfish. Not bad, but they had been fishing almost four hours, or twelve man hours of fishing time.

I on the other hand was able to measure my fish today by tens of pounds. I landed seven Carp, the largest of which was around ten pounds. The other six Carp were around or over five pounds each. Not bad for an afternoon of fishing. Leaving out the other seventeen people I counted fishing and catching nothing, who do you think had most fun today, the group of three or myself?

I think fishing for Carp wins hands down! Carp fishing takes a skill level equal to any one showing up at a lake with a fishing rod and reel can master. Carp fishing is cheap when you compare the cost of Carp fishing with the cost of catching other fish. Today I spent $0.86 for a can of whole kernel corn. I damaged or lost four hooks, for $0.60 (ten hooks for $1.46). I almost forgot the sinkers. One sinker, at about $0.17 (when I bought it years ago).

A Bass fisherman fishing from shore, is using some type of artificial lure, at $5.00 or more per lure. The Bass Fisherman needs many different types and colors because of the nature of Bass fishing. To be a productive Bass fisherman means that someone fishing from shore is casting into underwater cover, ie, stumps, brush, and weeds, or a combination of those. I have lost many dollars worth of lures on a day of Bass fishing and had nothing to show for my losses.

So for cheap fishing entertainment, with the biggest bang for each dollar spent, you can’t go wrong with Carp fishing. It is cheaper than Bass fishing and much more fun than catching hatchery trout the state planted in the pond or stream two days earlier.

Happy fishing!