Letters : Carping About Carp

Oh, now, I do vigorously protest.

Carp are “garbage fish good for grinding into gefilte,” with a flavor “like that of a pincushion dipped in Pennzoil.”

Indeed.

Paul Dean (“Koi in Pond Brings Ripples of Tranquility,” Nov. 8) has obviously never even put fork to fish, or he could never have made such a comparison. (How would he know what 30-weight over pincushion tastes like, anyway?) I suppose it’s harmless hyperbole, and I’d never go so far as to champion the carp as a noble fish or a taste fit for a king, but it’s certainly tasty and wholesome as a food. Where I come from--Nebraska--carp are consumed with relish (if not with motor oil). And the Midwestern palate isn’t particularly adventurous, nor are Midwesterners lacking for protein amid all that beef.

Despite the “trash fish” category of the carp, it’s a formidable foe at the end of a fishing line. . . . You go carp fishing with dough balls made of corn meal, molasses and other secret ingredients, or with kernels of sweet corn. The carp is a dainty eater, with a sensitive mouth quickly aware of a hook, and hard to land.

ROBERT D. COPPERSTONE

Covina