Fish, Out of Water! : Homeowners Offer Bounty to Rid Lake of Carp

John Durbin is a security officer by night and a bounty hunter by day.

After working the graveyard shift at a Newport Beach insurance company, the 56-year-old retired Marine sergeant grabs his fishing rod, some of his secret homemade dough bait and goes bounty-hunting in the Lake Forest II planned community.

The hunted: bountiful schools of wide-mouthed carp that have taken control of the community’s 36-acre artificial lake, threatening species of catfish, bass and the lake’s water quality.

The carp explosion has prompted the Lake Forest Keys Homeowners’ Assn. to post “Carp Reward” flyers throughout the neighborhood, announcing that it will pay 50 cents for each carp caught at the exclusive Sun and Sail Club, the community’s clubhouse.

In a neighborhood where homeowners spend up to $900,000 for lake-front homes, there is little likelihood that the 50-cent carp bounty will cause throngs of residents to grab their rods and reels and head for the water.

Durbin jokes that the money he earns from catching carp would pay for his beer and cigarettes. But Tim Bishop, general manager of the association, said he expects a posse of young bounty hunters to encircle the lake this weekend.

“The kids are going to have fun with this,” Bishop said. “We have way too many carp and we want them out. We are willing to enhance our members’ finances if they help us get rid of them.”

On Tuesday, 17-year-old Jason Cahill, a home school student who lives on the lake, said he plans to use his special mozzarella-and-jack-cheese bait to reel in $100 in reward money to buy software for his new computer.

“They haven’t been biting as much,” he said, sounding a little disappointed. “I think they know there’s a bounty on their head.”

The carp has not always been an outlaw. In fact, after Germany presented the United States with with its first supply of carp in 1877, Congress decreed that every state should have a carp farm.

The weed-eating bronze species, which grows up to 50 pounds, can eat up to twice its weight in weeds a day and is used to clear irrigation canals in some California cities.

Bishop said the carp at Lake Forest probably got there as live bait that fishermen tossed into the lake. And last year, the association’s supplier of fresh-water fish mistakenly slipped some carp into a stock of catfish, bass and bluegill released in the lake, Bishop said.

The carp is known as a prolific breeder, and its population in Lake Forest exploded. The voracious fish, which feed at the bottom, have upset the lake’s ecological balance by eating up the food supply of the other fish. And its constant churning of the lake’s bottom has also destroyed the eggs of the other species.

“What we have here is a bunch of vacuum cleaners stirring up the bottom and messing up the others’ eggs,” Bishop said.

Bishop said the association decided to offer the reward after the lake’s biologist reported that the overpopulation of carp was also affecting the lake’s water quality.

But outsiders beware. The bounty is open only to residents of the Lake Forest II planned community.

“This is a private community,” Bishop said, “and if outsiders come in, we’ll call the sheriff to handle the matter.”

Durbin, who earned the nickname “Fisherman John” because he fishes as many as seven days a week, said he believes that bounty hunters would enjoy the challenge of catching carp.

Fishermen contend that carp make for good sport because they provide an excellent hook-and-line fight. Durbin enjoys telling about the hour he spent reeling in a 24 1/2-pounder last October.

“That was a long one,” Durbin recalled. “More than 30 inches.”

On Tuesday, Durbin sat on a lawn chair, lit a cigarette and cast his line into the water.

“Come on, I need some cooperation,” Durbin urged the schools of carp that had surprisingly surfaced near his line and made ripples in the water as if to mock him.

But shortly after, the line dipped and Durbin reeled in a 16-inch carp.

“Here come 50 cents,” he said, smiling as he rested the carp on the lake’s concrete bank.

Carp is rich in protein and is a major food fish in Asia and Europe. In Louisiana, the Cajuns crave dishes such as baked carp with creole sauce.

But Bishop said the Lake Forest catch will not be cooked.

“We’ll simply collect them and dispose of them properly,” he said.

CARP FACTS AND FIGURES

* Carp made their American debut when Germany made a gift of 350 of the scavengers in 1877. Congress subsequently decided that every state should have a carp farm, and the fish were indiscriminately planted in ponds.

* Part of the reason the much-maligned fish is so unpopular is that it is a prolific breeder. The female will deposit numerous eggs on plants in shallow water, and those eggs hatch in less than a week. It takes only three years for carp to reach sexual maturity, and they have a life expectancy up to 40 years.

* Another reason for their unpopularity is that the fish are strictly “bottom feeders.” While looking for food at the bottom of lakes, ponds and rivers, they churn the water, adversely affecting the environment for many plants and animals. They also compete with native species of fish by eating similar food items such as plants, insects and crustaceans; and, they’ve been known to use the eggs of more respectable fish as a food source. In short, when carp move in, decent fish move out.

* Carp are usually reddish to golden-brown in color, weigh 15 to 20 pounds and can grow up to 3 1/2 feet long. (The largest carp on record in the United States was caught in Virginia and weighed 42 pounds; the largest carp in the world was 83.5 pounds, caught in South Africa.)

* Anglers contend that carp are good sport because of the excellent hook-and-line fight they provide.

* However popular a food source carp may be in some Asian and European countries, they are generally shunned in this country because of their strong odor and muddy taste although they can be found in a few ethnic markets where they are usually sold live.

* Officials at the National Marine Fisheries Service joke that the best recipe for carp is to get a large shovel, dig a hole and bury it. But Isaac Cronin and Paul Johnson, co-authors of “The California Seafood Cookbook,” dispute that. Though carp lack the good press that trout, bass, catfish and others enjoy, the authors that contend carp are an excellent food source because they yield protein quickly and cheaply since they feed on plants instead of animal protein. They add that carp taste best in winter and early spring as opposed to the warmer months and recommend removing the stronger-flavored dark meat before cooking to make it more palatable. Finally, they suggest the flaky white meat is great for braising, frying or baking in a sauce.

Source: California Department of Fish and Game; U.S. Department of Commerce National Marine Fisheries Service, Collier’s Encyclopedia, Times library