Clear your calendars! 

 The July Carp-A-Thon is set for next week, Saturday, July 19th. Fish anywhere on the lake from dawn to 11:00 AM with the catch count and prizes on the office lawn.  Coincidently, this date also coincides with the 50th anniversary of the release of Carps! The scariest, three-time-nominated Oscar-worthy film by then young director and Shemp Spielberg (lesser known cousin of Steven) that had all of us in the 70s scared to swim in the lake. So check the Daily Shower  next week for more Carp-A-Thon announcements about the event, the movie, and some fishing techniques in the days to come. 

Forest Brody chumming for carp. He’s gonna need a bigger boat.

The July Carp-A-Thon, July 19th, is just a week away!

Time to chum, Chief. It’s been 50 years since the movie Jaws–err Carps came out, and it’s been well documented how locals in the Pocono area were hired as stars for the movie. There was the dedicated lawman Forest Brody who tried to protect the PLP from the dangerous koi.  There was the irascible old salt John “Quint” Claghorn, who, with Ahab-like obsession, tried to land the largest fish in the lake that had been terrorizing bathers at the Baby Beach. No one can forget that jump-scare scene in the movie when Forest, spooning cans of corn off the Tunk dock, and Claghorn advising, “Keep that chum line going -- we've got five good miles. Don't break it,” the to  carp–“25 pounds of him”--rears up and makes everyone in the theater feel queasy. Quint knew a thing or two about carping. Each day throw a few handfuls of corn at your secret fishing spot to bring the beasts in.

Local actors at the Baby Beach running from carp.

Get out of the Water!

The filming of Carps was not easy. First, the giant mechanical carp, nicknamed “Guppy” by the Shop crew, kept malfunctioning when Baby Beach sand would get caught in the fins. Secondly, the locals cast in the movie were genuinely scared of the leviathans that lurked in the tannin deep. Very little acting was needed on the first take when one parent yelled “Carp!” and bathers ran from the waters in horror. Shemp Spielgerg needed a bullhorn to announce a reassuring message that carp were not a danger to humans but that they only posed a danger to other fish populations given their propensity to ruin good bass habitat. Shemp was right: help increase fish diversity and bass/walleye size by catching carp on Saturday, the 19th. Make sure your reel is stocked with strong line that you can sink to the bottom with buckshot weight and hooks for baiting with corn. Remember, as the local naturalist Hooper Daeschler pointed out in the movie, “What we are dealing with here is a perfect engine. Uh, an eating machine. Now all this machine does is swim, and eat, and make little carp, and that’s all.” Help us and catch some carp! 

The General Manager, Hooper Daeschler and Forest Brody discussing the importance of activities contributions. 

Helps Save the Summer

As we continue celebrating the 50th anniversary of Carps, let's highlight the dilemma the small hamlet of Pocono Lake faced.  As the fictional general manager mused, “You yell pumpkinseed, everybody says, 'Huh? What?' You yell carp, we've got a panic on our hands on the 19th of July." In the movie, the General Manager was just trying to keep the Baby Beach open for parents and toddlers to support the Activities budget, but, yikes, we all know how that turned out. The GM wasn’t entirely wrong. The PLP economy depends on robust contributions to activities, and people scared to swim in the lake and the Main Dock aren’t going to buy ice cream at the DC window, aren’t contributing as much to activities, and that means decreased summer revenue. Carp with their slime, scales, distinct odor once landed, and rubbery mouths make them not only undesirable among anglers, but an existential threat to our summer economy. Be a hero and fish for Carp. Pro tip:  Pack a great snack for the dock. Carp fishing requires patience. Bait the hook, throw it out, and wait. Carp come to you and will find your corn. You picking it up off the bottom every three minutes does not help. When you have the urge to check your hook, have a snack, wait another three minutes, and then see if your bait and are OK.