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Comment by Shawn on March 27, 2010 at 12:03pm

Cool- thanks Nate. I'll try to get some better pics in the meantime...

Comment by Nate Storey on March 27, 2010 at 10:31am

the more i look at that fish the more i think i was hasty in my first diagnosis- might not be common carp- it's head is shaped funny, no barbels, I can't see the fins very well. . hmm. i don't know. I'll try to find out for you. . .

Comment by Nate Storey on March 27, 2010 at 10:28am

could be- koi and carp can intermate- they're essentially the same species, koi is the golden child- beautiful, well bred, high class, while carp is the bad boy of the fish world- tough, wild, ugly and with a chip on it's shoulder. . . at least that's how i like to think of them. . . : )
there's a lot of physical variation among carp populations, but it's strange that it doesn't have little barbels, not sure what's up with that.
you should try frying them up sometime-esp. when you catch them in the fall when water is clear. not bad.

Comment by Shawn on March 27, 2010 at 3:01am

He doesn't have the whiskers (barbels?) that carp are supposed to have, that's why I was thinking he might be a cross-breek koi/carp. Any chance of that? In the same stream there are some of the fancy streamer fin koi, but they also have this more natural carp coloration. I'm sure there has been a population of koi in there for decades. I just assumed they were mixing.

I grew up catching lots of carpio in the midwest. Some were upwards of 20lbs- they put up a heck of a fight!

Comment by Nate Storey on March 26, 2010 at 3:16pm

common carp, cyprinus carpio- aka wild koi, wild-not bred for color. they're an invasive species- you could probably get in trouble for keeping and cultureing it in your system. here in wyoming, we're required to kill carp even if we don't keep them- they can really damage a lot of western lakes, rivers and streams. They aren't bad eating! look up a recipe for smoked fish or chinese fish dishes.