Grass Carp

Caught my first grass carp 5lb 12oz while fishing my local canal at night for tench. The fish was taken on free lined worm/sweet corn cocktail. Beautiful fish, quite exciting to catch in the dark on a very clear and shallow section of the canal. Can anyone give me a brief potted history of the fish? i.e. was introduced into this country in seventeen hundred and fast asleep, now widely distributed etc etc.

John
I was listening to Fishermans Blues on Talk Sport radio at the weekend and Keith Arthur recommended the following site for fish identity/details etc.
WWW.fishbase.org
If it does not come straight up, you can link to the same site in France or Canada.(i used the French one ,no problem)

Hi Steve I’ve had a look at the site but couldn’t get on via France, had to go via Germany! Interesting site. I’ve found out locally that the grass carp were introduced some time ago as a weed control experiment by Lancaster University. From information on the web site it looks like the fish can’t breed and as they only live about 20 years, it looks like catching them is going to be a limited pleasure. Also the non-navigable part of the Lancaster Canal is destined for major development to bring it back into use. As the canal passes under the M6 several times, we are talking major development that for many years will dramatically affect the fishing. I need to make one or two more enquiries about who’s looking after the fish protection side of such a development?