I personally have no problem with people eating small carp. One of the objectives of our carp fishing club is to promote the release of trophy size carp. To me, and it is a personal thing, a carp from our waters would have to be over 20 lbs to be considered a trophy sized fish, some guys would even bump that up to 25 or even 30 lbs. Carp live a long time and when they get big and old their fertility goes down. So you may think that a 25 lb female carp loaded with eggs will produce 100,00's of fry but most of those eggs won't hatch. It is the 6 to 10 lb carp that are the most productive spawners.
All life on this planet without exception exploits and effects the environment . Some of these effects we view a negative and some we view as positive I would also say that,.that view is also totally subjective. Carp can , under the right circumstances take over a body of water, so can other types of fish. I have fished quarry ponds full of nothing but stunted smallmouth., with 8 inch bodies and heads that belong on 2 pounders.
The reduction in the numbers of sport fish is directly related to to their proximity to higher populations of people not carp. I read about a study done that showed that with in a 3 hr drive from Toronto sport-fish populations have declined by up to 90% , depending on the species, over 50 years.
Carp can and still do help take the pressure off of struggling game fish populations. I cannot understand for the life of me why a guy fishing bass or pike would get all worked up over someone on the bank fishing for carp. This is the reason why carp were introduced to our waters over 120 years ago. By promoting carp fishing they can still fulfill that purpose.
