carp+bread = money

Pymatuning is the largest man made lake in PA., with part in Ohio,  The good ol' Army Corps of Engineers did it again:  find a small steam or creek, damn it up and make a Lake, This they did by making a dirt damn on the Shenago  creek in Jamestown = the Lake one one side ans a trickle of a creek on the other.  It's just their think: make lake out of trickles of water some times for flood control but usually just for some they can prove it can be done. The Lake has over 35 miles of shore line and just two main roads: the Causeway which goes from PA. to OH(there is a marker showing state boundaries. it is about 2 lanes wide plus parallel parking and acts as a damn itself. The lake is shallow: you could literally walk in the water along side the causeway without going over your head  Each side has a beach and campgrounds. The other road is the Spillway that goes from the country(desolate) area's of Espyville  to Linesville-a town, but desolate in itself.  It has one main street of "shopping stores."  This road separates the lake into two main sections:  on one side you can fish, hunt, etc.; the other is protected waterways where no fishing or hunting  is allowed.  The Spillway is just that-a semi circle about 30 ' in diameter where the water spills from one side, under the road/ bridge to the other side.  there is a concession stand plus room for about 100 cars.  The big item it sell, besides stuff made in China with "Pymatuning Lake" stamped on it, is day old bread-so the tourist can throw slices to the carp-that are so thick that the ducks and other birds can walk on top of them to get bread before the carp get it.  These are BIG carp atleast30' long and weighing just as much.Why? this particular stand(there are others) sell to the tourist, on average, about 4000 loafs of bread a week. I was always fearful if me or anyone fell in past the guard rail, they would be gummed to death. It was always fun to ask someone to throw their still lite cigarette butt in the mass of carp, especially near the shore.  The stupid carp would immediately suck it in and just as quick spit it out!  Interesting fact: the spillway was made of concrete with 2 steel bands about three feet a part. When there was just to many of them, the water "cops" would raise the water level almost to the top. and the two steel bands would then have electricity poured through, killing most of them.  They would be "scooped" out and taken away in a big truck to a place where they would be ground up and given to the local farmers for fertilizer. Pymatuning boast the largest fish hatchery in the state, where the would "milk" the eggs from full size female Musky's, fertilize them, and, when the "babies wee about 18" long, put them in the lake.  They would give demo's all through the day plus the had a museum.
But the Lake's big fame was feeding the carp.  It was a great fishing lake, but that was kept quiet and boats could only have a 6 horsepower motor to prevent pollution from water skiers.  Bigger motor sprayed a lot of oil on the surface of waterways.
People came from Cleveland and Youngstown, Oh. plus all the way from Pittsburgh, PA.-Now, with so many new recreation spots, Pymatuning Lake is deserted. Rarely does anyone fish the lake anymore and the carp thing has lost it's appeal. Five or more years ago, a house on the lake, like my parents, would sell for over half million: today it would probably fetch around 80 to 100 grand. Maybe. The big tourist days are gone.I remember when we went to the catholic church in Linesville "father" Hout would always announce a second collection-necessary to help pay off the new, bigger, church, that had to be erected to accommodate the tourist crowds. Right.  Everywhere else, the second collection, at least at Christmas time, was for the catholic priest-his 'present' for a new car or more likely, a vacation at some exotic beach, since his home, car, cook and housekeeper came out of regular collection funds. But Hout was a priest to the core, which is why, after being interviewed by him, I decided I would never be a catholic priest, besides the appeal of that exotic vacation and keeping the second collection-and a cute cook and housekeeper:) Hey, you got to make up for that stupid vow of celibacy. Next(maybe) St. Michael school, Greenville, Pa. and 17 mi. from where we lived. Looking back, dumb: to do all that driving just to continue the sadistic ways of the nuns.