Weird Job of the Week

I have mentioned this set of articles before, but I have yet to go into detail about one of the stranger articles sets that I write each month. Last week, I completed the third set of articles that I have written for a carp fishery in France. Each set contains seven 500 word articles about why you want to go fishing at this place. It is a little well-stocked lake in the French countryside where you go and set up a bivvy, which kind of looks like an open faced tent by the side of the lake. The majority of the visitors spend about a week or so living in the tent fishing for big carp.

Now, living in the South, I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of fishing for carp. Here carp are nothing more than trash fish. As a rule, they do not taste good, and they are difficult to cook to boot. I had never heard of catching them for sport before now, and I cannot imagine why you would waste your time trying to catch a fish that you cannot eat.

Maybe this is a difference between people from the (southern) United States and Western Europe. If I go fishing, I plan on keeping, then eating anything large enough to be worthwhile. For example, we will catch and eat two different types of catfish, bream, and bass. We also occasionally catch something called a drum, which is similar to a carp. We don’t ever eat those, though I do see people take them home from time to time. I think we caught a type of carp once, but I don’t know enough about fish to identify it. I know that people fish in Europe, but maybe they are not as much into eating it as we are here in the South.

Nonetheless, this little resort does quite well. I often through in some of their latest catch reports in my articles, and they always seem to have one or two people there at any given time. Since they do not allow more than five or so people to come fish at one time, this seems pretty good. They have some nice amenities, and it is fun to write for them. I was also extremely pleased when my client said that they were pleased with the articles, which is always nice to hear. But really, who in the world wants to go fishing for carp?