Chapter 2

In Illinois, a group called the "Red Necks" decided to go fishing.  In rural America, it was common to do sports activities like water skiing and boating on the weekends.  It would be some decades later, 2015.  The kids known as the red necks were just good old Americans who grew up around the Great Lakes and to the oddity of immigrants, these were folks that never had seen the ocean in their entire lives.

The only exposure they had to Asian fish were at the sushi restaurants.  And to them carp was seen as garbage fish which were worthy of fishing.  This wasn't the case globally.  In England, carp fishing was seen as a very viable sport.  In Mongolia, carp fishing was a staple and even celebrated yearly as a tradition.

In Russia and Poland, carp was eaten during Christmas.  The Orthodox Church permitted eating of fish but not meats during the holidays.  Oddly, this tradition and even the Asian traditions were simply absent in the rural states.

The red necks decided to pack up in their garage.  The main fellow, Jerold had a very beautiful Shimano fishing pole.  It was so good that he could have used it near the shores of the Atlantic Ocean.  His buddy Mark had never gone fishing before but was just excited to catch some bass.  Bass fishing was the main sport in America.  Without bass, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River would be more of a catfish and paddlefish area.  Of course the other two fish weren't as prized as bass in the fishing world.

In America, there was a prize for the largest ever bass caught at $1,000,000.  This insane carrot makes bass fishing one of the biggest tourist attractions for fisherman domestically.

"Hey Jerold, let's go fishing and enjoy our weekend."  says Mark.  "In fact, I want that $1,000,000.  I hope I catch a big fish today.  I'm hoping 25 lbs at least."

"Haha, well I hope so Mark."  laughs Jerold.

For the most part, Mark and Jerold would be the first kids to experience something completely unexpected.  They both head to the dock in Peoria, Illinois where most kids went to go fishing.  They took their automobile and their tow and backed up to the dock.  The lowered the boat into the water.

It was a beautiful day in Illinois.  It was quiet.  The sun was shining, and nobody was out this early.  Only Jerold and Mark were there.  As they lowered the boat, they loaded up on sandwiches, some fishing bait, and a some colas.

Mark and Jerold had a row boat.  They slowly rowed out to the river.  Mark sat down and threw out his hook into the river.  As it fell into the water, it created a ring of waves.  It was so quiet, that you could hear the water drops and the clear breeze.

Jerold opens up a can of Coke and sips.  Mark opens up a grilled cheese sandwich and bites into it.  Both of them talk about life.  Jerold had a huge crush on a high school girl in his class, Andi.  Andi was just a popular girl who cared nothing about fishing.  She just cared about fast cars and iPhones.

Mark on the other hand didn't have much of a love life.  He didn't care much for popularity in school.  He was more about learning the world.   In fact, Mark was thinking about leaving Illinois after high school to join the Navy.  His dream was to see the world.

Some town kids really never saw too many international folks.  In California and New York, Chinese and Japanese were very common.  In fact, due to their port locations, it was easy to see commerce between the two great Asian nations in these regions of America.

But rarely did you see anybody cross through the small town of Peoria.

"Jerold, I guess you have big dreams about Andi.  I'm sure that with your family background and your moves to college, you'll be alright in that department."  laughs Mark.

"For me?  I'm thinking about seeing the world.  I mean I want to see Germany, South Korea, and Japan.  I want to see how it is out there.  You know what I mean?"  explains Mark.

"Yeah Mark, I get you.  The US Navy surely pays your way through stays and you get a G.I. Bill too.  They pay for your college after your service."  says Jerold.

Of course, that was just it.  Kids basically relied heavily on the U.S. government to gain a career.  There just wasn't much left in the United States.  While America was churning out children to purchase iPhones and watch music videos on cable, the Chinese were churning out children to become engineers and workers.

The U.S. economy was basically a multi-national economy where jobs were going overseas and the kids in America were spending their parents' money to buy the products.  We had a huge outflow of spending to support jobs overseas.

No longer was there good jobs coming out of America.  In fact, much of the large corporations were investing abroad abandoning the American labor force.   Mark saw an opportunity through the Navy.

Soon it was noon.  The sun was out and more kids were out in the river.  One guy had a motor boat.  He zoomed pass Mark and Jerold.  Jerold starts yelling.

"Hey keep it down!  I'm trying to fish here you know!"  yells Jerold.

The kids laugh with their beers in their hand.  The red necks were a mix generation of fishing guys and drunk motor boaters.

Mark and Jerold shake their heads attempting to calm down.  And then it hits them.  Boom!  Boom!   Something hits the bottom of their boat.  Mark looks scared.  So petrified that Jerold thought he saw an episode of Jaws.

Jerold soon becomes scared himself.  He slowly turns around and looks past his shoulder.  One fish.  Two fish.  And then hundreds, thousands, and millions of Asian Carp start jumping out of the water.

Jerold starts to yell.  "Ahhh!!!!".   It was obvious that these kids had never seen Asian Carp in their life.   These fish were strong swimmers.  They were so skittish that they would jump 30 feet in the air if they felt any sort of vibration.

For the entire morning, Jerold's boat was quiet and kept the waters calm.  The red neck motor boaters riled up the fish.  And nobody knew that they existed.

Millions of fish were jumping like popcorn as far as the eye could see.  There was just no way that Jerold and Mark would get out of the water in time.

Eventually a huge 100 lbs Asian Carp jumps into the boat.  Mark starts to cry.  He's bewildered.  Not understand what is going on at the moment.  Jerold ducks hoping to avoid disaster.

In a slow flash, Jerold thinks about Andi.  His dream of getting together with the popular girl and asking her out and a date flashes before his eyes.

Mark ducks and his face is literally in a jumping Asian Carp in the boat.  It's 100 lbs.  Bigger than any fish he's ever seen in the river.  So much for his bass fishing.  Here where he dreamed of catching the largest bass fish to gain the $1,000,000 prize was replaced by a fish that dwarfed any record catch in America.

The fish was so large it literally took up 1/3 of the boat.  But Mark had no time to think.  He just ducked and his face was being battered by the jumping fish in the boat.  It was either face the fish jumping in the boat or get hit by flying carp by the millions.

Jerold thinking about his dream girl starts to cry and stand up.  At this point he's lost it.  No longer was he afraid.  He had literally given up on himself.  It stands ups yelling.

"Jerold!  What the heck are you doing?!"  yells Mark.  "Get down from there!"

Within seconds, Jerold is hit with an Asian Carp behind the head.  And then another from the front of his head.  And then one hits him hard in the chest.  So hard that he bruises his heart immediately.   Each fish is about 30 lbs.  You can compare them to a beautiful King Salmon from Alaska.  It was that large.

And then another and another.  At this point, Jerold became a human target for Asian Carp.  One hits him in the side, breaking his ribs.

Mark is in dismay.  He's scared but refuses to get up to help Jerold.  And then a big Asian Carp.  Almost 90 lbs jumps.  This one directly jumps in the face of Jerold.   Slowly Mark sees the fish headed towards Jerold's face.

"Jerold!!!!"  yells Mark in fear.

The fish hits him directly in the face.  At 10 miles per hour the 90 lbs fish was a missile ready to kill.  It hits Jerold in the face and you hear a crack.   It was the blow that nobody wanted to see.

Jerold falls, the Asian Carp had literally broken his neck.   All of this was the most frightening thing that Mark could ever see.

All on a weekend where the two high school boys just simply wanted to go bass fishing.