Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Carp?

I've heard they are not bad out of cold water, They are boney.
What's the best way to fox them ?

Fun to catch but I don't know that I've eaten one

Well quite awhile back my family gathered for a reunion over the 4th of July at my folks place on the Missouri River at Running Water west of Springfield SD. Folks had a weekend home on the river front.we were drinking a few beers and sitting along the bank talking when one of my nephews caught a 6-7# carp on crawlers. Didn't take more than 10 minutes and there were 10 lines in the water. The carp were swimming by pretty steady and bitting pretty good . They were just getting tossed back. Well the old guy who used to own the folks place wandered down and watched us catch fish after watching several get tossed back he said he'd keep them if we didn't want them. OK no problem and he wandered off for awhile to return with a couple of buckets. A 2' piece of 2x6 and pretty tired butcher knife. He set on 1 bucket laid the 2x6 across the other proceeding to bone in filet the carp we were stacking up. When the bite died he was caught up with 3/4 of a bucket of carp filets. He'd filet one out and toss the remains back in the.river to feed the cat fish. I asked him how he cooked them and he said he only kept them when the water was cold and it was. He would filet them and his wife would put them in a pressure cooker when done they would just rake out the bones, put the meat in a hamburger press to make Patty's. Don't recall if they battered them before freezing or just after thawing and frying..dad told me old Otis never forgot us filling his freezer for him that summer. He and his wife just lived simple like that and out of the garden. That was 37 years ago now. Old Otis and his wife are long gone, my youngest brother 10 years ago, and my folks couple years back. Just some memories of simpler times when most folks were worth a chit. Mb

When I was younger and into bow fishing, I brought carp home to try out. After trying to fix them a number of ways, I was told by wife and friends to stop bring them home. If you had to eat them to stay alive, they'll do. But for the most part, they were just not good at all.

Use to fish for them when we were kids at the local lake with homemade dough bait.
Always gave them to an old black man that lived down the road aways.

I had to eat one when I was 24. A german bloke said they were delicious. All I can say is I'm glad I had a big bottle of Coke as each mouthful I took one chew and swallowed it down with a couple of mouthfuls of drink. Without the Coke I think I would have vomited. But the asians seem to like them. Give me some crispy bacon any day.

I spent a year in Taiwan and enjoyed carp alot.

I've baked filets with lemon and butter, and butter and paprika decent table fare.

Pickling them is awesome.

Last night I took a batch out of the smoker and again delicious. The fish shops along the Mississippi sell some great smoked carp.

The Japanese make special tweezers for picking bones out and their cast brass scalers are the best I've ever used on carp.

Drifting doughballs on a flyrod through deeper holes in a carp infested river is as much fun as steelhead, they are bruisers in shallow moving current. Spent a lot of my child hood biking down to the Milwaukee River in Brown Deer fishing carp on a flyrod

They are the strongest tasting fish I have eaten out of freshwater. I think they are terrible.

Was gonna say smoked carp makes a tasty beer food snack danged if Erich didn't beat me to it. Mb

Good Lord! Eating carp. The only thing worse is how some fly fishermen think it is now sporting to catch them on a fly rod. Where have all the smart people gone?

My grandad used to eat them, but that man would eat just about anything 😬

He just cut the heads off, gutted, and descaled them for cooking, then picked the meat off from the outside inward with a fork to eat it.

I love catching carp, but I'm not big on eating any freshwater fish, especially really bony ones.

Boy I like catching them but I’m not brave enough to eat one.

I've always made then into fish patties like you do with canned salmon.

I've tried them a couple times.
Wasn't impressed.
About like eels.
Something to eat if starving,
I hope to never want to eat one!

Gramp used to smoke them one a year. Same as smoking suckers. Leave them in the round, smoked, the meat peels off the bone.

About 2 Friday or Saturday nights a year we would go to a spillway hole and catch 50 or 60 a night. Cleaned up right they were pretty good eating.

Have eaten several up at the old Rulo Rod and Gun Club.

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Smoke 'em on a cedar plank like the natives.
When done, shuck 'em off into the fire and eat the plank.

This is the way.

Or use them as fertilizer to help your corn grow. Horrible fish.

I cure and smoke carp every spring. They come out tasting remarkably similar to ham. They are good when prepared right.