JohnF

I'm okay with a natural culling of the herd, but this is the first time I've seen young carp diseased and dying, and two in one day to top it off. If it's just nature's way of leveling off then so be it. I've lived on the Thames since the late 40's, and carp are a pretty natural part of that environment to me. Seems to me the biggest changes in the species in that water are there are more smallmouths and fewer pike in the river above St.Marys. There are lots of rock bass but fewer sunfish than we used to have. Suckers and carp have always been present in large numbers, and generally they don't seem to be present in large numbers in exactly the same areas as the bass these days. I see an occasional carp or sucker in my bass pools when I'm wading, but not the herd we see below the dam in St.Marys. There was a sizable school of suckers in the pool I was in today, but I also saw lots of bass there and it's a big pool, relatively deep for that part of the river. As I said, it may have been just a coincidence that I saw two young dying carp today, and plenty of healthy other fish and huge numbers of bait fish, perhaps even more than usual. I hope there's no carp specific disease making the rounds here, if only for the practical reason that with all the carp we have, it sure will get stinky. JF

This may mean nothing except that I saw a couple of carp dying. I spent a few hours wading the upper Thames today till about 4 pm. I had to work this morning but I thought it was such a nice day that a walk in the river would be great, with or without fish. Turns out it was without any caught fish but I saw a number of smallmouths in the usual spots, huge schools of suckers gliding around and lots of baitfish so the river looks healthy. One alarming sight was two young carp obviously near death. One swam past me on the river bottom looking pretty scabby and mottled. I'm pretty sure it was the same one that soon came plowing back along the surface obviously in distress. He gave up right in front of me and floated by on his side. His scales were a mess and his eye was all white. Then a half hour later but in the same area I spotted one resting on the bottom. When I got within 10' of him he swam toward me and looked like the first one. He stopped right at my feet. Neither showed any signs of injury and neither was more than 12" long. We occasionally spot dead carp along the river but I've always chalked them up to careless fishermen. I can't remember ever seeing two on the same day in the same stretch of river and not such young ones looking so near death. Perhaps just a coincidence but the other threads about carp die-offs came to mind. JF

My dad sold those things. There was an old Speedster sitting in a local junk yard back in the mid 60's, but the old guy who owned it wouldn't sell. Dunno what ever happened to it. JF

Jeez. Ya brought back a memory. I had one car before the Sprite. A bunch of us in high school pooled our money and bought a '53 Chrysler Something with a Red Ram Hemi in it. It was a very pedestrian sedan with the bottoms of the door posts rusted through. When we went around corners the bottom of the doors splayed out like wings (sorta). The driver's seat was a coke crate (the old wooden ones). We parked it in an alley and we met at the car every morning, drove it to school, then went touring at lunch time and after school. Our folks woulda killed us if they'd found out. Gas was $0.35/gallon then. We'd split on a gallon or two and drive till it was running low. The muffler was shot so we used to wire a metal oil can to the end of the pipe after we'd punched a bunch of holes in it. They usually lasted for a day or so. It sufficed. When the car finally appeared to be on the verge of total collapse we drove it to the town dump one day and abandoned it. Our folks never found out. Life was so much simpler then. JF

Then why do we try to "match the hatch"? JF

If a Great White or a few other flavours of shark came snooping around, I'd be outa the water pdq. Fortunately, we don't see them regularly where I've done most of my diving. Diving is a great way to see the fish in their natural environment unstressed by a fisherman stalking them or tempting them with flashy fishy delicacies. I think it helps to imagine what's going on down below the boat when you're in the boat targeting the little guys. In a sense you learn to almost think like a fish - at least a pretty stupid fish. As for the panic attacks, that's kinda s.o.p. for most new divers. I think we all have them to some degree at first. I can still remember when the realization hit me that I was swimming along the bottom of Georgian Bay all by myself about 80' from the surface. I became very determined to find my buddy. A bigger one was when it sunk in, very suddenly, that I was about 1,000' back in a limestone cave under the Yucatan jungle with about 20' of rock between me and air if I could go the short way. The long way was to swim back those 1,000' to open water. It's very very very black in those caves. That was a moment I remember clearly. It was one of those "give yer head a serious shake" times. After that it was all good. There's nothing wrong with a diver having a healthy respect for the situation. Only a fool doesn't do that. The trick is to not let the panic take control. Try diving if you ever get the chance. It's a lot of fun. JF

When I met my wife she was tooling around in her Mom's brand spanking new '63 Parisienne C.S. convertible. Powder blue with blue roof and dark blue interior. Nice looking car. Nice ride for a 16 year old girl. Only one I ever saw in those colours. JF

I'm not a big fan of the commercial shark dives. On the other hand, you really don't need to pay extra to see sharks. There are lots of them if you pay attention. They're typically among the more timid of the reef type fishies and the first sight of them is usually the tail fin as it scoots away from you. The exception is the nurse sharks. They tend to just hang around the reefs or circle out on the flats and ignore divers. I've actually been able to get close enough to pet one (just on the back, mind you). The big fish, most fish for that matter, tend to ignore divers, treat us like other fish. I've been within a few feet of some very large muskies up in the St.Lawrence, literally rubbed shoulders with Tarpon & Barracuda in the Caribbean. I know we have other divers here who will confirm that. Most fish aren't particularly aggressive towards divers in the water. Most of the trouble with large fish attacking humans involves the humans swimming on the surface, doing a pretty good job of imitating seals and wounded fish. JF

They certainly learn behaviours through conditioning. I had a tropical fish once upon a time, a big guy, a Pacu, who learned to recognize me. The tank was close to a chair I sat in at night to watch tv. When I was alone in the room he'd press his nose right to the glass and hang there as if he was trying to get close to me. If anyone else came into the room he'd retire to a semi-hidden corner at the back of the tank. Even in the wild they learn where to go for handouts. The stingrays of Grand Cayman are a classic example of that. Just offshore of Key Largo there's a fair-sized green Moray that's grown a little too accustomed to being fed by hand. One day I hovered just out in front of his lair in the reef and sure enough he came undulating out at me within seconds. He bumped me in the chest, then twisted around so he could poke his nose inside my bcd pocket. He found nothing there so he went around behind me and poked into the pocket on the other side. When he found nothing there it was almost like he shrugged, then retreated to his hole again. At one point I had his tail sticking out under my right arm and his head under my left. Of course my wife was freaking about this monster attacking me and forgot to take a pic. I guess I shoulda warned her that I had heard about this guy from other divers. JF

My very first car was a '61 Austin Healy Sprite, the bugeye. Here's a pic of one. My first one was white, the second one black. My second car was a '66 MGB. Here's a pic of the identical car, BRG, wires and all. I still have the knockoff hammer but that's all that remains of it. Then I got married and we got practical. There followed a long boring succession of VW's Then the company cars took over my life, but I snuck in one Corvair convertible, an early model, can't even remember the year now. JF

Reminds me of another crossing one evening with my wife in the car. I think we were in her new car so we weren't looking too disreputable. Anyway, the young man at the gate asked where we were going or whatever they ask, and we said Stratford. He perked up and said he used to live there and asked a few questions about some of the folks he remembered. We were having a nice pleasant conversation when I noticed that there were a few cars waiting behind us. I suggested to him that we were holding up the other folks. He looked back at them and then said "No problem. Just wave your arms around like you're arguing with me. They'll stay calm.". I forget his exact words but it was something like that about pretending to be angry with him. He went on to say it was good for folks to see others get a little hassle there. So we reminisced for a bit longer until he decided we'd made enough of an impression on those behind. I was never entirely certain though that he wasn't just keeping me talking to see if I was really lying about something. My wife said the same thing as we finally drove away. We're becoming a world of cynics. JF

I'm not certain of this but I've always had a suspicion they just randomly decide "Every 8th car gets a going over at the turnstile". If the inspector is feeling grumpy and you push the wrong buttons you get sent to the big house for a proper declaration and/or search. I decided that years ago at a little backwoods crossing leaving Maine to NB. The gate guy tore apart the trunk of the two little old bluehaired ladies in the innocuous sedan in front of us. Then they virtually waved us through. It was the late 60's. We were early 20's in a VW with a crumpled fender. I had longish hair and a big droopy fu manchu and looked pretty disreputable if I do say so myself. I was in my biker/university student phase then. Another time 14 years ago we were on our way back from a few weeks in Fla, two couples in a late model Bonneville. We got sent over for a declaration & search. The young lady who ransacked our trunk under the watchful eye of some stern looking dude whispered an apology to me. Something about it was just my bad luck. We had nothing to find but it sure was a pita packing all the stuff back in the trunk properly. That being said, we cross to and from Cleveland (usually) half a dozen times per year with hardly a question asked. The last time I got checked at all was the Friday after 9/11 crossing at Pt Huron with a minivan full of scuba gear heading for Gilboa. One guy in front with a gun, one guy at my door asking questions and one guy at the tailgate rifling through my stuff. Lotsa guns and fatigues in view. I still laugh about the guy searching the back asking "Are those scuba tanks full?". I sighed at the prospect of dumping $100 worth of air & nitrox and answered "Yeah.". He shrugged and said "Uh. OK." Mebbe he figgered all those huge steel and aluminum cylinders were just way too obvious a place to be carrying bombs or poison gas or fertilizer or whatever the heck they were searching for. JF

Have a good one. Did you find some snorkeling gear? JF

Jeez. I'd sure hate to miss seeing you puking. I'm gonna talk to my fishing buddy, see if he's up for it. We'll do the tent thing and rent a boat and mebbe stick around for a few extra days if he's interested. JF

Well, the Friday is exam day for my students so likely the best I could expect would be to hit the road at about midnight to get there for the dawn run Saturday. Dunno if it's worth my while or not if everyone's heading out early Sunday. Mebbe I should just mark next June in the calendar and plan accordingly. JF

Missed yer first post. Nice catch. Congratulations. JF

Drilled hole and spring clip? JF

Good stuff. JF

I'd be interested, depending on which week it happens. I'm booked to teach a course for a two week period in there somewhere but if I can work around that I'm in. One other thing, I've got no ride - boat ride that is. JF

Maybe they'll go after gobies and zebra mussels next. JF

Things that make me go Hmmm!: 1. Whatever the cause of the die-off, the survivors are bound to be even tougher and breed more resistant and resilient offspring. 2. Since carp aren't likely to ever be eradicated, why are so many fishermen pleased with the waterways being stunk up? 3. In these days of C&R fishing a lot of fishermen are missing the boat by not targeting a great fighter like the carp. It's not like they're after the meat when they set 'em free. 4. If fishing is all about the beauty of the target why are Catfish so popular? Later JF

We did. Didn't anybody tell ya? The weekend started last Thursday. Of course, on the other hand you probably made a lot more money than me. JF

Jeez. That's even worse. As a venerable member here just told me "I have shoes older than you." although I'm not sure if mine are tougher (that was another part of his quote). JF

That's young too. Dayum. This is getting depressing. Seems there's only one person on this board I can call an old fart, and he's mere months older. Mebbe this explains why all the young kids hold doors for me, call me sir and offer to carry stuff to the car. Man, I'm gonna stop drinking Ovaltine. Oh well, Happy Birthday Dano. JF

30!!! Dayum!!!! Yer still in diapers. Happy Birthday, ya young punk. JF