CARPE DIEM

********************************************************************
DOES THAT LATIN TERM MEAN: "FISH FOR CARP EVERY DAY?"
********************************************************************
(MIL'S NOTE: "Country Boy Bob" seizes every day to fish for carp. He loves
fishing.  On first reading his story, I said: "Well, Bob didn't actually write the
story---I grew up in Clovis and there is NO lake within a half mile of his
house---except that old lake by Wildcat Stadium, which is dry, except
when it rains."  I was wrong! It WAS that lake.)
***********************************************

Below is the story by "Country Boy Bob":

These fish are carp.  They are worthless scavenger fish that eat anything on the bottom of the lake and are full of bones.  No one wants them and no one will take them home, and Green Acres lake has hundreds in it.   Since I am a catch -and -release guy, the fun is in the fight, so I started fishing for them.  They are big and heavy and good fighters.   But I did not want to release them back into the lake nor did I want to throw them on the bank and let them die and stink.  So I went to a little Oriental grocery store and asked the lady if she would like the carp.   She said yes and she said that she would pay me.  I said “no, no, no, I will give them to you.”   She is a Christian lady and insisted that she give me something, so I said just give me a soda.   When I took the carp to her she gave me an orange soda in a bottle which was bottled in the Phillippines.  

So now, I am fishing and getting paid with exotic foreign sodas.  The way that I figure it is, if I catch 4 a day, it will probably take me about a year to rid the lake of carp and I would have plenty of  soda pop and I could go fishing every day and it is only about 1/2 miles from the house.   Now, how can you beat that to keep an old man entertained?

I have heard of several ways to prepare a carp, cook it and eat it.  Some say just boil them and the bones will get soft.  Others say to just gut them, cut the tail, fins and head off and grind them—then you can just roll them and make a patty and fry them---like salmon patties.  But here is the best one that I have heard:   You get a slab of cardboard, lay the carp on the cardboard,  sprinkle with salt, pepper and whatever spices that you like.   Slide it in the oven and bake for one and one half hours at 300 degrees.   Pull the card board and carp out, throw the carp away and eat the cardboard.  What a delicacy!  

----30-----
For Mil's Place
Bob Snipes (Country Boy Bob)