# Carptown USA



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

One of my brothers in Illinois called me last night to tell me the carp were spawning and the bowfishing's been super........and to whine about his smoker breaking down in the middle of smoking 25 lbs of carp steaks. Boy, ya gotta hate that...but really, I wish I could fly down there and give him a hand. (besides, the morel mushrooms are lousy this year)

I grew up there, Geneseo Illinois, a sleepy little farm town not far from where the Mississippi River, Rock River, Green River, and the Hennepin Canal all come together, lots of water, lots of carp.

The town was settled by hearty Europeans in the 1830s. One of the first things they did was introduce German Carp to the area. There were already carp there: Buffalo Carp, Quillback Carp, others, but that's what Europeans did when they settled America, stock carp. They loved to eat carp.

As soon as I could walk my dad drug me out on the canal during the spawn to spear carp. Spearing carp, suckers catfish and turtles was the "in" thing to do back them and the locals would drive out to the canal or river in the morning darkness to get a good spot. It was the busiest time of the year on the farm but dad would somehow find time to spear spawning carp for a couple hours in the morning before work. You'd just sit on the bank and wait for the love-sick fish to swim by and then throw a fish spear at them. Watching dad clean a 20-lb carp with a machete was something to behold. The whole thing was a blast, an adventure.

For years the top of Geneseo's water tower sported a large metal fish, kind of a weather vane thingie. It was mounted there around 1919 and was a city landmark until they tore the water tower down 70 years later. The local yokels said the fish was a carp although it didn't look like a carp. The 10-foot long sculpture was soldered together, fabricated well before electric welding. It was taken down several times for repair and painting. At one time, in the early 70s, it was in my father's garage being "worked over"

The carp now sits in front of the Community Center, a reminder of years gone by, days when carp fishing and carp eating were popular:


Not a good pic, but if you look close you can see the fish on top of the water tower in this 1919 pic:


City employee working on the fish:


Besides farming my dad worked for the city. Here's a picture he took of the fish at the Geneseo Light Plant (electrical generating plant), 1950s:


After they took the water tower down the fish was spruced up and then hung on an old swing set frame in the city park. Kinda odd really:


Carp is not as popular now as it was when I was a kid but you can still find smoked carp, and occasionally fresh carp, at the local smoke shops and butcher shops.

Carptown USA.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)




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## sawsman (Sep 13, 2007)

Boy, I thought only real carp were good survivalists.

Nice story!

I support spear fishing for carp.


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## longbow (Mar 31, 2009)

Good memories!


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## Ifish (Aug 22, 2008)

Cool pics and a great story! Thanks Goob!


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

By the way, "Buffalo Carp" is a colloquialism. There is no such fish. They are actually Buffalo fish...Bigmouth, Smallmouth or Black Buffalo fish...very good eating. The fish sculpture looks more like a Buffalo fish than a Common Carp.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Finished carp "weathervane" 1919: 


Going up on top of the water tower:


Hail to the carp!

.


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

wyogoob said:


> By the way, "Buffalo Carp" is a colloquialism. There is no such fish. They are actually Buffalo fish...Bigmouth, Smallmouth or Black Buffalo fish...very good eating. The fish sculpture looks more like a Buffalo fish than a Common Carp.


I caught a buffalo fish my first month living in Alabama. Not knowing what it was I asked a guy fishing close by what it was and if it was good to eat. He told me it was a buffalo fish but they were trash fish and no good to eat.

It wasn't till a couple of weeks later when I began researching the lesser know (at least to someone new to the area) species of fish in the area that I realized I should have slapped the guy in the face for spewing ignorance. ;-)


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

willfish4food said:


> I caught a buffalo fish my first month living in Alabama. Not knowing what it was I asked a guy fishing close by what it was and if it was good to eat. He told me it was a buffalo fish but they were trash fish and no good to eat.
> 
> It wasn't till a couple of weeks later when I began researching the lesser know (at least to someone new to the area) species of fish in the area that I realized I should have slapped the guy in the face for spewing ignorance. ;-)


Wow, that's too bad.

Back where I come Buffalofish caught by commercial fisherman are usually smoked. Buffalofish require cleaner water than carp and their numbers are declining in many drainages, especially the Mississippi River system.

Some of the best freshwater fish I ever ate was buffalofish from the White River in Arkansas.

.


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

willfish4food said:


> I caught a buffalo fish my first month living in Alabama. Not knowing what it was I asked a guy fishing close by what it was and if it was good to eat. He told me it was a buffalo fish but they were trash fish and no good to eat.
> 
> It wasn't till a couple of weeks later when I began researching the lesser know (at least to someone new to the area) species of fish in the area that I realized I should have slapped the guy in the face for spewing ignorance. ;-)


I see what your problem was right off the bat....you lived in Alabama !!!! The collective IQ of the whole state of Alabama is a single digit number.

Geaux Tigers...!!!!!!!! :grin:


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

LostLouisianian said:


> I see what your problem was right off the bat....you lived in Alabama !!!! The collective IQ of the whole state of Alabama is a single digit number.
> 
> Geaux Tigers...!!!!!!!! :grin:


Easy now. I'm still living down here. *(u)*


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## massmanute (Apr 23, 2012)

Some interesting biology: Buffalo fish are members of the sucker family. The sucker family it related to the minnow family, also known as the carp family, but is different enough that the biologists consider them to be different families.

The bigmouth buffalo and smallmouth buffalo look quite a bit like carp, but they lack the barbels that carp have.

Here are a couple of links.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/sucker/
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/smallmouthbuffalo/


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

My dad was a carp guy; something embedded in his psyche during the Great Depression when carp were used to feed a hungry family. He loved to cook them; smoked mostly but baked and canned like salmon often too.

Besides working the family farm he worked for the city that had the carp on top of the water tower. Eventually he became the Superintendent of Utilities there and kinda had an attachment to that old tin fish weather vane. I worked part time for the city one summer and he had the fish taken down and gave me the job of buffing it clean and making solder repairs (well, actually, he taught me how to make the solder repairs) After the refinish job I helped mount the thing back on top of the water tower....good grief, scary. That was 1966.

Dad retired from the city and eventually became the mayor. A few years into his tenure as mayor the metal fish showed up in his back yard. Some city employees decided it was an eye sore, took it down and gave it to my father as a "present". I don't think he was very happy. He made them put it back up. :smile:

The old water tower was demolished in the summer of 1994. They took the well worn fish down, cleaned it up, painted it, and the city employees presented it to my dad at his last city council meeting before he died:



Dad died 20 years ago today, November 4th. Our family gifted the fish back to the city and it is permanently mounted in front of the City Community Center.

Carptown USA.

.


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

That's some pretty cool family history right there Goob.


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## swbuckmaster (Sep 14, 2007)

awesome story
thanks goob


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Wow, some really miss that old water tower:



I think the tat is for real.

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