Carp Questions

[The_Lee]

I will be completely honest.. I have never caught Carp and I have never had any ambition to ever try catching them. I have heard from buddies that they do not taste all that good unless they are smoked. Anyone care to let me know if thats true or not?

[HUNTFISH69]

It's true smoked is the only way to go in my opinion, but they are very fun to catch.

Or you can always nail them to a pine board put it in the oven bake it for an hour take it out throw away the fish and eat the board!

[goblueM]

carp are great fun to catch - smarter than your average fish, bigger, and fight like crazy!

[mainbutter]

I think most people just catch carp for the fun of it, for targetting fish bigger than 10 lbs they aren't too hard to find or fish for.

I remember when I was in cub scouts, we went camping one weekend in Louisiana and spend an afternoon fishing some tiny pond nearby. Our scout master ended up catching a 30 pounder on one of those kiddy snoopy poles, took him quite a while to land it. It was one of the most memorable times fishing for me.

Because it was in a secluded pond we think someone must have dumped it in there.

If you're only interested in catch-and-eat fishing, I wouldn't be surprised to see you pass up carp. I've never eaten it personally, but the general concensus seems to be that they're good but only if on the smaller end(less than 10 lbs?), from cleaner water, and smoked. However, the common carp is quite a popular eating fish in Asian cultures. There's a Hmong community nearby, and frequently see groups fishing and catching and keeping as much carp as they can in a single evening.

[hanso612]

Growing up on the Croix, I tried every recipe imaginable to make St. Croix salmon palatable. I even tried leaving them in clear water for days ala gifiltifish or bathtub carp.

Here's what I found. Carp is passable if you take it from cold water, fillet it immediately,and get fillets on ice. When skinning the fillet leave a half inch of meat on the skin, then cut out the red lateral line and all red meat you didn't leave when filleting skin thick. Pick out bones that show up as you cut out the lateral line. Cut off fatty tissue on top of fillet and discard belly meat and cut shoulder meat in chunks. This pure white meat still has a muddy taste if dropped in batter at this point.

Chunks can be brined or soaked in milk to get this muddy taste out. These large flacky chunks of pure white meat now can be used in many recipes that are strongly flavored. When Cajon blackened, carp holds up well. In tradtional Asian dishes with coconut milk,hot pepper, and curries most fresh carp treated as recomended above will taste better than restaurant fish dishes of the same recipe just because it is fresh. Crab cakes can be made with par boiled meat and various other fish cake recipies work well too.

Smoking carp is over rated unless the fish is cleaned and treated as above-but then smoking these cubes gets complicated and I've never seen it work out yet.

Anybody else, particularly hmong readers, have any hot tips? I would love to hear your favorite recipes.Hans

[Muddog]

Carp are the #1 sport fish in the world. They taste like Lg Mouth Bass if you ask me.

Now tell me

why wouldn't you want to catch a Carp.

[Muddog]

Or for that matter,

Big Mouth Buffalo.

Get one of these on your M/light rod with 8lb test and see how much fun you have untill it is in the net. It's not so easy.

[DEADhead]

nice buffy pics muddog. Now if you think a ML rod with 8 lb test is fun, trying catching them on a 6 wt fly rod with 3X tippet.

buffalo is a much more palatable fish than carp IMO.

[Muddog]

I'm working on it! I have a six or eight weight with me at all times this spring. As soon as I can sight fish them The fly rod will be in my hand. Who said; you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

[DEADhead]

good luck on your quest. If I can help with any pointers let me know. whereabouts in lesueur co. do you live? I'm in the area from time to time for jobs, and could meet up sometime to fish of shoot the breeze.

[Muddog]

I'm in LeCenter. Long a go it was called LeSueur Center which tells you were I'm at. The center of LeSueur Co. If you have the DeLorme MInnesota Atlas and Gazetteer it's on the cover. This area has some big carp and there is at least one lake I am sure you would LOVE!

[DEADhead]

muddog shoot me an email (in my profile) I may be down in Waterville in a couple weeks. There were a couple spots I wanted to try while I was down there, including the cannon river.

[mainbutter]

Hooked into my first carp ever today, fishing in a river, and he took off downstream taking drag and there was just nothing I could do about it. I only had 6lb test on so I cranked up the drag as much as I could without breaking the line, or the pole for that matter. Saw him surface about 200 feet downstream, and a few moments later he somehow spit the hook. I'm just glad I got my line back cuz there was no way I would have been able to pull him upstream with the tackle I had at the time.

Now I've re-rigged using a different reel with much heavier line and will try it again tomorrow and see if I have any luck.

[DEADhead]

mainbutter, I bet now you're hooked, right? You'll be back. good luck

[Muddog]

DEADhead; I just restored my computer to the original settings so my E-mail is not sending yet. Yes I would like to show you around the area.

I should have my E-mail going some time today if I can fine the card with the config, notes.

[DEADhead]

ok I'll keep my eye open.