Keeping a few carp for any reason including eating them is not a waste of a resource and thinning the population of Carp would end up giving us fewer but larger carp. I personally feel that Carp under ten pounds should be treated like Tilapia. Why Carp fisherman are generally immune to the logic of managing a resource is beyond me.

When I was a kid, my grandparents lived on a river in Illinois that was full of 3-5 lb carp.

One summer, we kids decided to keep some of those carp and use them to fertilize my (ever-patient) grandmother's garden (you know, just the way that Squanto supposedly taught the Pilgrims to do).

A few days later, my grandmother's dachshund came into the house from the back yard, happy as a clam and stinking to high heaven. It had dug up and eaten some of those now-rotting fish. So the grown-ups quickly put and end to our experiment.

He is right.

I mean its common sense guys. And there are WAY too many carp in this country... using them for fertilizer sounds like a good idea to me.

Carp guys with little hammocks and soft nets as to not hurt the carp crack me up. The things are almost indestructible. I have seen several nearly cut in half with props, the wounds healed and the fish lived on well past the time of the injury, years even. One time I threw one up on the bank at Lake Mead in Arizona (it was ILLEGAL to release them alive at the time in Arizona, that's since changed). The thing sat on the bank in 110 degree heat for an hour. Then out of nowhere gave a few flops, got back in the water and swam off like nothing had happened.

I dont know that these fish would be too hurt by not being handled with TLC and in a rubber, soft net. And I am sure would make great fertilizer if you can keep the pests away.

We harvested some carp for our neighbor who was into organic gardening. It worked awesome from what he could tell. The Zucchini squash and bell peppers had the best year after introducing the carp. Just bury them airtight and rather deep,because that's a lot of rotten flesh decomposing at once.