Any carp fishermen, bow, speargun, hook & line?

For years I have heard that Wisconsin exports huge amounts of spring carp (That is what we call a bottom scavenging fish up here in Wisconsin.) to several southern states. I have heard that early carp have a firm delicate texture and taste great in a variety of recipes. In later spring and summer, the meat supposedly becomes rather muddy flavored.

Any of you Southerners eat Wisconsin carp and can you compare it to any of the common salt water fish or to catfish in taste and texture.

If I am around here next spring, I have been toying with the idea of doing some carp fishing with a Bear Whitetail Hunter 50# twin cam compound bow that I purchased at Goodwill for $10.99. The knees are the reason I am considering a bow since sitting on the low seats of a boat is currently not in the books for me.

Give me details and any recipes you care to share, as well as any horror stories about carp as a delicacy.

Bountyhunter

The best carp recepe I've found as of yet goes like this;
1. Catch and clean one medium to large carp.
2. Place one red clay brick inside body of carp.
3. Wrap carp in foil (shiny side in).
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
5. Add garlic, onion, and italian seasoning and bake an additional 15 minutes.
6. Remove from oven, discard foil and carp, and eat the brick.

To those of you who enjoy carp, sorry...I couldn't resist, I hear it's pretty good pickled.

Troy

The muddy flavour comes from algea in water. Smoked carp tastes pretty good. You need medium size or bigger for that (they are also easier to hit <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />). Small carp can be simmered in water with onions, laurel, vinegar, pepper grains and grains of mustard seed. When you are careful not to damage the slime on the skin it turns blueish.
Around here there?s also a recipe for a fish with 3 to 4 pounds. You clean it, season it and stuff it with potatoes. Then you bake it in an oven for about 30 min. in an upright position. When the fish is done the potatoes are ready too. When you don?t want the potatoes with it you can use a cup.

Heh - gee, I could guess you're a fellow midwesterner just from the "delicate" way you bring the subject up, LoL...

I'm not a "carp fisherman", but I've caught them with hook-and-line and many springs ago I bowfished for them a couple of years. Oh - I've eaten them as well.

In my part of the midwest they are sneered at by, erm, un-informed people because they are associated anecdotally with a certain ethnic group - in other words, some folks make racist comments about carp (think that over a moment - how absurd is that! It's a fish, fer cripes sake!)

It's a white-meat fish (minnow, actually, I think) so it is about as bland as any other white meat fish. The quality of the meat depends on the polution (or lack of) in the water it lives in, just exactly like any other fish.

Commercial fisherman around here smoke most of their carp catch. Smoked carp, like most any smoked fish, is a tasty snack to me; YMMV. I have also eaten fried carp - tastes like... fried fish. Poaching, broiling, and baking carp are unknown to me, and I defer to M_A_X on those methods - which are probably a better indication of what carp meat tastes like than smoked or fried.

The source of the sneering in the USA comes from who introduced carp when and why: US Grant administration after the Civil War as a food fish. You may fill in the blanks from there - we both live in the midwest, so I expect your local myths about carp are the same as ours. Carp are an important food fish in Asia where they originated and if you look in the kitchen of many "Chinese" restaraunts, you will find one or another variety of carp being prepared (at least, in all the kitchens I have been in locally...)

Hooking one produces varied results, but they are never easy to just wind in unless you are using very heavy line. Sometimes they pull like a bulldozer and sometimes they fight the line like a beserk "game" fish. But the ones I caught have always been interesting on the hook. Bowfishing is altogether different to me and I think carp are the only fish I've ever taken with a bow. Maybe some buffalo or freshwater drum also - been a long time ago.

When I was a kid, one of my neighbors (the term "hillbilly" comes to mind rather sharply) used to keep caught carp alive in clean water for a week, feeding them cornmeal doughballs. I can't say what that did for the taste because that family never shared any <grin>.

If I caught a carp these days I would take it to a commercial smokehouse - and that's my prejudice, because most any other local food fish I simply cook and eat - poached or fried, according to species and my fancy at the time.

I suggest you find someone who smokes fish, try some smoked fish of a species you consider palatable, and then try some smoked carp. If you like it <shrug> go fishing...

<Edit> check this out - start at the bottom with the info and then check out the recipes above. Sounds interesting, now that you "made" me go check this out: http://www.idfishnhunt.com/eatcarp.htm <end edit>

HTH,

Tom

All I know about carp is that they eat anything (including bass) and that your recipe is probably the best way to eat them. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Many many many moons ago, as a kid in high school, I had the good fortune to live for just one year directly across the street from the Grand River in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I spent just about every afteroon of that summer fishing for carp.

I used worms for bait. I would put a very heavy sinker on the line so that the line could slide freely through the sinker. I would lob the whole thing into the river and let out lots of line. The heavy sinker would sink quite fast and stay fixed in place, and the bait would woft in the current. With a bit of patience I would get a hard strike on the bait. I would usually set the hook and then have fun hauling in the rig and fixh. They pulled VERY hard. Not really a fight, but more a nasty pull that sometimes pushed the 10 lb test line I used.

Given that it was illegal to return them to the water, I always gave them to my neighbor who used them as fertilizer. I was always told they were essentially inedible.

Where I windsurf, there's a culvert that routes a small stream out of the lake, under the parking lot, and then to a small pond. Apparently, carp accumulate there. One time, somebody speared at least a dozen big ones, and then just left them laying around the shore. Talk about a stink!

If you catch live carp, you can keep them in clean water for a few days and that cuts down on the muddy taste - or if you have dead ones, soak the carp meat, gutted and cleaned, in a mixure of milk and honey for about an hour.

Rena

I have found that milk and honey trick to be good for lots of gamey tasting meats. Even just milk is somewhat effective if you have an aversion or allergy to honey.

I like my meat sweet...

<img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

If you don't have milk, I have been told(have not tried this one myself) that crabapples and sour things will counteract the muddy taste, too.

Rena

The main question is:--------does the carp taste any better in the early spring without all the coverup spices and flavorings?

I have heard that fish for the American market is often bleached to remove or cut down on the "fishy odor and taste". I like my fish to taste and smell the way it comes from the water with little more than black pepper and maybe a little paprika. Sometimes I will fry some onions and/or garlic with fish, but that's just the Italian in me.

I have no aversion to honey as long as her husband does not come home early. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

.....
I guess that also is the Italian in you .....

... or is it just plain old YOU ??!!

>In reply to:

>I have no aversion to honey as long as her husband does not come home early.

>.....
>I guess that also is the Italian in you .....

Only if her husband is in the Mafia?

Rena

Or armed....

There is no Mafia!

That is just a politically incorrect assertion made by law enforcement officers to obtain bigger budgets.

The guys running around and killing each other for money, power, and drugs are just a bunch of over-hormoned guys who happen to be Italian or Russian or Mexican or WASP's or American or Asian or-----------and the beat goes on.

The only real organized crime is big businesses who use nationalities, heritages, or religions as a focus for the uninformed honest folk who need to see a certain type of scapegoat. During Hitler's rein, the bad guys to focus on were the Jewish people, and now the bad guys to focus on are the Arab people, when all along, it is all about big business-------------and the beat goes on.

I only ask that the jealous husband coming home early be a sportsman and shoot me on the rise. <img src="/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I try to pick husbands who were thalidmide babies as they tend to be "unarmed".

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Hey, bounty,
Most fish (not just carp) tends to taste better in the Spring, also, the flesh tends to be firmer earlier in the year. Before anybody asks why, I don't have a clue, I'm just stating an observation... now, as for Honey... <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />.

Troy

The carp tastes better before the water warms up. When the water gets warm there is some growth of certain algae which produce an oily substance that causes the muddy taste. The carp also has less fat that could contain the flavor.
The fishy odor or taste is a sign of decay. When you stunt the growth of the bacteria the decay will slow down. I would not want to eat a fish that has been bleached to mask signs of decay.

Max:

From what I read somewhere a long time ago, the bleaching was not done on old decaying fish. The American palete does not appreciate the true smell of most fish. The fish that are bleached are fresh and the bleaching is only done to soften the natural smell. My mother used to make a turkey meat and bone soup that absolutely stank to the high heavens but tasted fantastic. The average person in the states who had never tasted this soup would probably have refused it as soon as the odor hit them, but it is great tasting while being bad smelling. Certain fish tend to be pungent in odor, but neutral in taste, so the processors kill some of the odor with a light bleaching solution.

Bountyhunter

The family doctor always told me that "If fish smells like fish, through it away - it's not fresh" He was talking about the actual raw fish, not the smell of cooking.

Woft:

I don't know where your doctor fishes, but live fish I personally catch always smell "fishy", although some, but not all of the "fishy" smell disappears after cleaning them.

Most of the people I know that do not fish do not like the smell of fish wheather live, store bought, or frozen, but usually like to eat it after it has been prepared. These are the people commercial processors prepare the fish for. Another good example of something with a pungent odor but great tasting is limberger cheese.

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Don't forget that old standby, garlic (although I kind of enjoy the aroma).

Troy

Hey Wildcard163:

You're talking to an Italian born soul here.

Garlic does not have an odor, it is a perfume. I would rather kiss a woman with garlic on her breath than one with tar & nicotine coming out of her lungs.

I wouldn't even date a woman who smokes, let alone do anything else with her.

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

(P.S. Do you ever intentionally do that internal burping routine after having eaten a large quantity of garlic containing cuisine? The gas coming up gives an impression of a high quality steak. If you have never done it and want to try, remember to make it a gently forced burp of low volume and keep you mouth closed. It even fills up the sinus cavities with a rich aroma.)

BountyHunter
I grew up with in walking distance from the Mississippi River in western Illinois.My father worked every fish fry our local VFW had.His recipe was simple.Soak in milk briefly(just to wet)and roll in yellow corn meal with salt and pepper to taste.Deep fry till golden brown.He always sold out of carp as well as catfish.And as others mentioned it was not ethnic or racial in the ones who came to eat.It was just simple good FRESH fish caught 12 city blocks away.
BOATMAN
John

Boatman:

But was it the same year round, or did the quality of the fish suffer as the weather warmed?

Bountyhunter

Ooookay... I'm not even gonna touch that one.

Troy

True, a lot of Labeling and Mislabeling has gone on, and does go on, -thruout Man's History and Current Affairs! But Not Entirely or Always so either!

The Al Qaida and such *Portion* of Islam, for instance, -IS *Genuinely* a bunch of Bad Folk! No "Corporate Manufacture" or anything as you mention, -has gotten their Bad Ball Rolling!, -on U.S.! I'd like to Friendlyly and Respectfully so Remind!

Three Years On is still Not a terribly Long Time! So Many of us talked Loud and Long about Never Forgetting! I'm Not saying that you've done any X level of Forgetting, -But How Well do Many of U.S. Fully or Sufficiently Remember!?

Al Qaida and Co. Deserves their typical Rap and Reputation. They've Donned such Shoes, -They Well Fit, -and They Should so be Worn! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]bountyhunter[/email]

Scott:

I disagree as those people are not in my Country killing me or mine.

Within the State of Wisconsin, County of Milwaukee, I don't go to areas where I am unwelcome or may be attacked. That is my feeling about the areas outside of my Country.

Big buisness goes everywhere.

Bountyhunter

I Hear your Point. But I do Remind that 9-11 New York, Washington, and PA were and are!, -Certainly Within our Own Country! Not that Long Ago either.

And while I'm generally upwind of those locations, -I'm Downwind of say Chi-Town! Such things certainly can Directly Affect me, you, or Anyone here Else!

We should Prepare Closer to the 10 of Martin's Scale, -as oppossed to Further from it. [color:"black"] [/color] [email]bountyhunter[/email]

I know who did the physical attack on us.

I just don't believe the people who thought out and financed the attacks were the same nationality.

Big business has no nationality.

Bountyhunter

I Differ with you on who Financed the Attacks, -but Agree that Big Business, -Far from Always a Bad Thing!, -Goes Everywhere and has No Nationality!

They rather get a lot of their Financing from things like Drug Sales. This *is* a way that Americans and other Westerners *are* Directly Financing their Likes! Tsk Tsk Tsk!, -and Shame Shame Shame!, -on U.S.!

But its Not our Big Business doing so! -Though various Contracts, Investments, and International Trade is Done and Made!

NOTE, -I Note that you may also Agree, -that Big Business is Not *Always* a Bad Thing! I Don't want to Seem to be Implying an Opposite! Thus this Note.

Also, -Red China's Sure Slurping Up at the Capitalist Trough!, -but thru Much to Most of the Soviet Union's History! (And I Ardently Oppose them and All PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER.!), -They Kept Foreign (and Domestic) Capitalists out Real Good! So there are or have been, at least Some places, -where even Big Business!, -Doesn't Go! (Enuff now, -of this Brief and Basic "Political" Shaded Aside, -in my Responding.)

And speaking of Chicago, -I Remind also that you are Plenty Closer to it than I !, -if yet some Dozens of miles North of it's Prevailing Wind Track! This Current Day Aspect of Survival, -*Could* Directly Affect Us!

Chicago, -I've Always had a certain Small Yen to Go there! But Never yet have! I like that song by the Group of the same Name, -from the late 70s, -"Take me Back!, -to Chicago!" I also like to Plug in the Name of my old Rural Area!, -in which I used to Live!, to that Tune! A Country Boy like me Prefers such Country Outdoors Anyday! Even Over say Chicago. You can Take the Boy Out of the Country Outdoors!, -but you Can't Take the Country Outdoors Out of the Boy! "Thank God I'm a Country Boy!", -as another Song and Artist, -has so Well said!

I've Always Felt and Feel, -the same Like and Yen, -for your Milwaukee Area, -as well! Also have Never been there!

Big Business goes Pretty Near Everywhere, -but NY, DC, etc, -It Didn't Go there! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]bountyhunter[/email]