# A True Fish Story



## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

While visiting Shedd Aquarium many years ago I learned a little about the common Carp. I don't know if they still do, but at that time they had a little (about 4 foot wide) creek that ran right along where you walked and there were Carp in that Creek. To my surprise the Carp seemed to enjoy racing and playing with the children on the path. They would even let the Kids pet them. I decided that maybe a fish was not quite as dumb as I had thought.
Then years later like many others, I liked to fish below a dam that had a tail race. There was a very large Mirror Carp that lived there. He was huge and seemed to like to play in the tail race. Sometimes he would just swim up on it and lay there for a few seconds. 
Everybody saw him and a lot of fishermen wanted to catch him. I would guess that he weighed close to 40 pounds. Although many tried no one got him on a line. To my pleasure it was illegal to bow fish at that spot. I would have hated to see him taken that way. 
Then one day while I was fly fishing from a sand bar for Crappie, I discovered why no one had got a hook into him. He chased a crayfish right up on the sand bar a few feet away. I mean he got about 1/3 out of the water himself trying to catch that Crayfish and the Crayfish got about 3 foot out of the water. They were using the wrong bait. He liked Crayfish and there were plenty of them below the dam there. I never told anybody what I discovered. - Tex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_carp


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## treefork (Feb 1, 2010)

Interesting story indeed. I was never aware of the pet like nature of the carp or the fact they would feed on crayfish.Knowing this now I may never be able to bow fish again!Used to think I was helping balance an invasive species to help game fish. Well I can stick to catch and release fishing and still have fun.


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## newconvert (Dec 12, 2011)

pretty sweet Tex, god for you for not telling, its nice to have the old ones stick around


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## ifix (Jun 11, 2012)

~15 years ago i had a neighbor that got a black eye when one of these jumped out of the water. he was romanian and the only one that would eat them.


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## Tex-Shooter (Dec 17, 2009)

*That is a different type of Carp and it is becoming a real pest. -- Tex*


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