# Asian Carp



## Oldcountryboy (Feb 23, 2008)

If I lived over east where they are having problems with Asian Carps, I believe I would be catching and canning a bunch of'm. 

When I was a kid they would shut off the flood gates immediately during the spring floods. This would leave thousands and thousands of fish stranded on gravel or little pools of water. We would walk down through there carrying tubs and catching the fish by hands and nets and would fill several tubs. We would then take them home and my mom and participating aunts would be cutting and packing fish in jars while my Uncles, cousins, and I would be scaling and cutting the heads off. 

So I have a hard time figuring out what they're complainning about. I see all those fish jumping in boats and think of filling the cupboards up with canned carp.


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## Ed Norman (Jun 8, 2002)

Did you read the carp through the ice thread? Backwoodsman has experience with them and says they stink and he wouldn't eat one. I have no experience except for wanting to shoot some with a bow after watching a few TV shows. But I found a youtube video of a guy who loves to eat them. They aren't bottom feeders like common carp, they are filter feeders and almost look like a salmon.


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## backwoodsman (Jan 21, 2010)

Im man enough to admit when Im wrong or could be wrong. I didnt know they spoiled espescialy fast like dogfish(bowfin) hince the very strong odor immediately. I'd just as soon they never got here or could be posioned out of existence but Im tempted to try them after being dressed properly on the water. Dogfish are one of the best eating fish there is but they dont keep long and wont freeze well. Dressed, filleted and fried right on the bank they are excellent sooooo we may give asians a try. As far as storage or canning most methods show bones being left in the fillets. Pickling may be an answer? If/when we try the asians I'll post a report.


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## Ed Norman (Jun 8, 2002)

Thanks for giving it another try. I want to know how you think they taste. 

If you can them, most of the bones should melt and the big ones will be soft. 

We're going carp fishing tomorrow, common carp. We made some boilies just like the English sporting types, and just finished tying up some hair rigs to hold them. If we find any we'll dump the guts right away and see how they taste. It's cold clear water so muddy taste shouldn't be an issue.


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## diamondtim (Jun 10, 2005)

I hope and pray they will be kept out of the Great Lakes or they can wipe out the sport fishing there. The Obamanation seems to want to protect Chicago's Sewage Canal to the Illinois River at the expense of the surrounding states and the ecosystem of the Great Lakes.


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## backwoodsman (Jan 21, 2010)

Ed I like the flavor of common carp. We remove the "mudline" and all brown or muddy looking meat. Do you "score" your carp fillets? When we commercial fished we did it by hand for years then made a machine and then we bought one last few years we did it. Scoring works good for rough fish, carp, buffalo, suckers etc. Heres how we score carp etc. Scale the carp etc with your fillet knife, by cutting the scales away like your trying to "fillet" them off the carcass. Fillet the fish just like any other then lay the fillet meat side up. Cut from the top(Back) of the fillet to the bottom(belly). Dont cut all the way thru the skin of the fillet. Each cut needs to be about 1/8" apart. After breading the fillet and you drop it in the oil if you drop it meat side down it will cook the little bones up better. We make our own dough bait/balls for carp too. Ive never liked the extra steps in making boilies so we just boil the whole batch and that seems to toughen it up. Carp love koolaid type powders, molasses, sugar etc in mix's/recipes. Diamond the Chicago political machine got obama elected so he's gonna protect his own first. The water they poisoned for 5 miles might have been the canal but I can remember for sure. Prairie state outdoors had some info on the website about it too. The damage those asians will do to the Great Lakes fishery within a few decades will be unbelievable. Our rivers are in a decline right now. Catfish and catfishing has declined 30%-40% from what we were catching just 4 years ago.


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## hunter63 (Jan 4, 2005)

I'm in favor of "The first annual Asian Carp Shoot".

With them jumping around along side and in front of your boat, I believe you could cruise along and shoot as many as possible, steel shot only of course.
5 guys to a boat, no limit.......What do y'all think.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

i have a cusin with a commercial fishing license , i keep meaning to talk to him about what it would take to run down the Miss and load up on these aisian carp , but i figure it would be for crude protien , just not sure if , that would pay for time and fule , not probably possable anyway as right now he needs a new engine for his tug.

i keep thinking , drying it sounds like a profit killer , but mixing it wet with dry grains and hay and feeding it fresh , i think pigs would probably be the best able to eat it , chickens could probably do well also.

hey any one who thinks they could get this to work feel free to run with the idea. i haven't got a working tug or farm right now


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

There's a lot more at stake than solving Chicago's toilet problem. Billions of dollars worth of cargo pass through those canals every year. Abruptly closing them down would throw a whole lot of people out of work. It's nice to claim Obama is at fault but this problem has been decades in the making and the feds have completely failed to address it. They only ran the barrier at about 1/4 voltage and have done virtually nothing to encourage the harvest of those fish. If there was money to be made the commercial fishermen could just about eliminate the Asians. We need to find or develop lucrative markets for those fish and turn the commercial netters loose on them.

I've spawned and raised those species in school so I'm familiar with what it takes for them to spawn and preventing them from spawning in the Great Lakes can be done by placing electrical barriers in the major rivers flowing into the Great Lakes. To get them from the Mississippi River basin they need to be aggressively harvested and once the population is hammered down sterile fish (triploids) need to be stocked to interfere with spawning just like CA did with the Med Flies. It can be done but the politicians are involved so who knows what will happen.

There's lots of possible uses for them. The AR fish farmers were supposed to be building a canning factory for them. Canned they should be fine for eating. If not animal feed, pet food or fertilizer are other uses.


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## diamondtim (Jun 10, 2005)

fishhead said:


> There's a lot more at stake than solving Chicago's toilet problem. Billions of dollars worth of cargo pass through those canals every year. Abruptly closing them down would throw a whole lot of people out of work. It's nice to claim Obama is at fault but this problem has been decades in the making and the feds have completely failed to address it. They only ran the barrier at about 1/4 voltage and have done virtually nothing to encourage the harvest of those fish. If there was money to be made the commercial fishermen could just about eliminate the Asians. We need to find or develop lucrative markets for those fish and turn the commercial netters loose on them.
> 
> I've spawned and raised those species in school so I'm familiar with what it takes for them to spawn and preventing them from spawning in the Great Lakes can be done by placing electrical barriers in the major rivers flowing into the Great Lakes. To get them from the Mississippi River basin they need to be aggressively harvested and once the population is hammered down sterile fish (triploids) need to be stocked to interfere with spawning just like CA did with the Med Flies. It can be done but the politicians are involved so who knows what will happen.
> 
> There's lots of possible uses for them. The AR fish farmers were supposed to be building a canning factory for them. Canned they should be fine for eating. If not animal feed, pet food or fertilizer are other uses.


The freight could move to other modes (like rail). 

The real challenge would be how would the huge motor cruisers owned by the "Gold Coasters" move to Lake Michigan from their moorings.:umno:


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## diamondtim (Jun 10, 2005)

hunter63 said:


> I'm in favor of "The first annual Asian Carp Shoot".
> 
> With them jumping around along side and in front of your boat, I believe you could cruise along and shoot as many as possible, steel shot only of course.
> 5 guys to a boat, no limit.......What do y'all think.


At first blush, it sounds like fun, but you may have some problems with other boaters and the folks that live along the river. I can see some of the participants getting a little :lookout:hard to control.


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

fishhead said:


> There's a lot more at stake than solving Chicago's toilet problem. Billions of dollars worth of cargo pass through those canals every year. Abruptly closing them down would throw a whole lot of people out of work. It's nice to claim Obama is at fault but this problem has been decades in the making and the feds have completely failed to address it. They only ran the barrier at about 1/4 voltage and have done virtually nothing to encourage the harvest of those fish. If there was money to be made the commercial fishermen could just about eliminate the Asians. We need to find or develop lucrative markets for those fish and turn the commercial netters loose on them.
> 
> I've spawned and raised those species in school so I'm familiar with what it takes for them to spawn and preventing them from spawning in the Great Lakes can be done by placing electrical barriers in the major rivers flowing into the Great Lakes. To get them from the Mississippi River basin they need to be aggressively harvested and once the population is hammered down sterile fish (triploids) need to be stocked to interfere with spawning just like CA did with the Med Flies. It can be done but the politicians are involved so who knows what will happen.
> 
> There's lots of possible uses for them. The AR fish farmers were supposed to be building a canning factory for them. Canned they should be fine for eating. If not animal feed, pet food or fertilizer are other uses.


 I don't know anything about these kind of fish.Do the small fish travel to the ocean to live and then back up the rivers to fresh water to spawn,or do they have to stay in fresh water.If they do travel to the ocean,thats where they can be caught by the millions, if a market was available for fert,pet food or whatever.
The rivers in NC use to be loaded every spring with herrings and shad,now only a few shad make the trip up river.Some folks say the reason is pollution and I'm sure thats not helping,but long haul nets from boats, along with airplanes finding the schools in the ocean,and relaying by radio,where to put out the nets and surround the large schools,and catch every one. Thats where the fish are going.If those carp make that journey also,and with a market,they to can become history.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Yes the freight could be removed from the barges and transferred to rail or truck but all the costs time and money and may put more trucks on the roads. It probably should go that direction because the canals should be closed but they can't just close the locks and start filling up the canal without changing the infrastructure. Congress should have been working on this for at least 20 years but they've been too busy worrying about nationally important things like whether gays get married. 


Eddie,

Asian carp stay in freshwater. Their spawning requirements are very specific and they cannot spawn in anything but major rivers. Even in the rivers they can be located and the schools removed with nets. It will take some time but it CAN be done. There just needs to be a financial incentive given to the fishermen.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Here's a page I have on my website. It describes the spawning requirements of Asian carp and what it takes to sterilize them.

http//www.angelfire.com/mn3/dnrdocuments/grasscarpbiology.html


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Here's a pretty detailed article on where the Asian carp DNA has been found.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/feb2010/2010-02-11-092.html


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## hunter63 (Jan 4, 2005)

Oops guess my idea of a carp shoot was already taken, or at least sorta taken.

******* fishing tournament,:

http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=79007


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## backwoodsman (Jan 21, 2010)

Havana and Bath and several other river towns have asian carp tournaments that are called "red neck fishing tournament" etc. Helmets and baseball bats and 2x4's were standard but last I heard they were "too violent" and they were gonna require dip nets etc? I'd still like to shoot'em out of back of the jon with a 20ga and med load 6's, lol. Carp cops would frown on that though. Its legal with a bow or spear for anyone thats bored? We've even got asian carp bowhunting outfitters now, lol. All you have to do is power down, get everyone ready to shoot or throw their preferred weapon and rev the motor, almost like sayin pull on the skeet range! Spillway on a local lake is still open, guess what they are shootin and sticking? They came up the Illinois and into the creeks. Just a matter of time before some idiot carries one up above the dam and spillway and the lake will be packed with'em. They got 55 gallon drum's in the parking lot they fill with asians and trash/wood and the city Parks and Lakes workers burn everyday. Throw nets are fun with'em and they are legal to take and keep with a throw net now. Fish do these things spawn or carry eggs in the winter? Several that they snagged and cut open had some eggs?


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Most fish species will have immature eggs even in the winter. They produce them shortly after spawning. Those eggs aren't viable until they mature and in Asian carp that only happens in fish living in a current. That's one reason why they won't spawn in lakes or ponds. They'll produce immature eggs every year but the eggs won't mature without a current and the fish will reabsorb them. In school we had to shoot them up with hormones to force the eggs to mature.

I'll bet that a person could fill up a gill net pretty fast with those fish. If nothing else they could be composted with yard waste but that link I posted talked about a company that is exporting them for food. We just need to convince people in the US to try them. Once that happens the population will get hammered fairly fast. One article I read quoted a resource agency guy who was opposed developing a market because he thought that if that happened there would be an incentive to harvest them sustainably instead of trying to wipe them out.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Seems as the indians used fishes for ferterlizer. So why not those carp? I bet planting a bunch in tyhe garden would do it good once you killed off all the skunks, possums and ***** that would dig up the things.
Of course they would be good for the garden too.

 Al


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I knew a guy who was liquifying common carp and using it for a foliar fertilizer. It worked pretty well. He did all kinds of things with that fish. Wallets from the skin, ice cream, frozen fish sticks. He also refined the oil and was able to get up to 20% yield from winter carp.


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## diamondtim (Jun 10, 2005)

fishhead said:


> I knew a guy who was liquifying common carp and using it for a foliar fertilizer. It worked pretty well. He did all kinds of things with that fish. Wallets from the skin, ice cream, frozen fish sticks. He also refined the oil and was able to get up to 20% yield from winter carp.


Anyone else have a flashback to the "Bass-A-Matic '76" on SNL?:hysterical:


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## Ed Norman (Jun 8, 2002)

diamondtim said:


> Anyone else have a flashback to the "Bass-A-Matic '76" on SNL?:hysterical:


Yeah, but that Asian carp shake leaves you hungry again in an hour.


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## backwoodsman (Jan 21, 2010)

Far as Im concerned heck with a sustainable fishery from the dang things, mak'em extinct here. Kill'em all, let god sort'em out.


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## J2E1 (Oct 15, 2009)

Liquify and till in the field seems like a good plan, just have to till it under to let the microbes hit them and hopefully mitigate the smell. Might help reduce our dependancy on petroleum fertilizers.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

They don't take bait but if it is legal where you live snagging would be a whole lot of fun. Kind of like tarpon.


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## hunter63 (Jan 4, 2005)

diamondtim said:


> Anyone else have a flashback to the "Bass-A-Matic '76" on SNL?:hysterical:


Yes i did, made me gag back then and still does.

Did blend up fish "stuff" for the garden for a while, got to bury it deep, though, the wild life like it also.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

We took some little bluegill fillets with bones still in and dropped them into a blender to make them edible. It didn't. We made the paste into patties. It was green AND it was still full of short sharp bones. First bite and my friend had a bone stuck in his tongue.


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## backwoodsman (Jan 21, 2010)

Ouch, theres some minorities around here that run small bluegill etc thru grinders. They behead, descale and eviscerate them but some are rumored to not do any of that? They fry them like salmon patties I do know cause they had a grill full going at a local pond/park last year. Kids and I took them a 5 gallon bucket of 'gills and they offered us some patties. I had to decline, as they didnt look too appetizing to me. Nice people just odd cuisine at times(to us anyhow).


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## Oldcountryboy (Feb 23, 2008)

Naw, save those big bluegills for the frying pan and the little ones for the trotline. Or throw the little ones back for next years fun.


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## WstTxLady (Mar 14, 2009)

hunter63 said:


> Oops guess my idea of a carp shoot was already taken, or at least sorta taken.
> 
> ******* fishing tournament,:
> 
> http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=79007


that & some outfitters/guides up in area that have them do "extreme aerial bow-fishing" ... i've seen it on several hunting shows & it looks like some awesome fun


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## backwoodsman (Jan 21, 2010)

Theres some outiftters that take you out and all you need is the clothes on your back. They provide bows, arrows, gear, lunch and drinks.


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## KFhunter (Feb 21, 2010)

I've seen the bowfishing shows on TV, but if I were to want to get A LOT of carp I'd probably use a flat bottom boat with a 55gal drum in the center and use a fishing net to catch them


dunno why a guy couldn't grind em up and make cat food or something?


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## WstTxLady (Mar 14, 2009)

i thought they used them to make fertilizer or compost. not 100% sure though.


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## backwoodsman (Jan 21, 2010)

Some private people are using them for fertilizer but so far the plants to process them havent appeared. One in Pearl was the only one I knew of last summer. Most throw them on the bank. We cut them up for bait, trapping and fishing.


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## Ray (Dec 5, 2002)

I eat the asian carp, just treat it like suckers, fillet and score about 1/8th inch apart, leave the skin to hold them together. then roll in cornmeal and fry. not as good as suckers, but I wouldn't throw any out. you can can it too and then use just like canned salmon, mackerel, and make fish patties. mix the meat with chopped onions, raw eggs, crushed crackers, and fry, yum good. they are much better than regular carp, the asian or whit amure. good eatin. best wishes, ray


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## WstTxLady (Mar 14, 2009)

they do make some dandy **** bait too lol


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## Ray (Dec 5, 2002)

one more use, which should be considered carefully. I have never done this, only herd of it. An old acquaintance of mine had purchased a new pickup, and parked out back of the hardware store in the back ally, and ran it to pick up a fe items for a job he was working on. When he returned to his truck he found that someone had taken a DUMP in the drivers side seat. Nicely piled and curled like the cartoons, yet real. YUCK!!! It was a couple years but he kept his ear to the ground and finally found out in secret who had made the donation. Just happened that he had come into possession of some nice grass Carp. Well he cleaned the carp and preserved them but all the water that was used in cleaning, gutting, preparation which was a thick milky pink was thinned a little and directly poured into the floorboard of the offending pooper, I was told he traded his truck several months later because of a strange and horrible smell that couldn't be found or removed from the vehicle. true story, ray p.s. moral: watch where you poo, or never ever tell where you pooed, it may come back to haunt you and you won't even know it. poo poo.


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## Oldcountryboy (Feb 23, 2008)

Ray, another good one is to put some limberger cheese on someone engine block. When the engine gets hot, it melts the awful smelling cheese which runs all over the engine block. One heck of a odor to try and get rid of.


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## WstTxLady (Mar 14, 2009)

REVENGE never smelled so.........STANKY! lol


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## Ed Norman (Jun 8, 2002)

At my sister's wedding we were tying ribbons and stuff to their car. An ancient lady with a walker came down the sidewalk. She stopped to watch and said, "Put some fish in the hubcaps."


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