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Carp
- Thread starterBaka
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
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fishers use to keep the carp in clear water for like 2 days to improve the taste. Of course that whouldn't work with a speared one
then again maybe it would??
Here the carp are usually pretty spookey - they live in clear, cold water and their behavior varies alot. Sometimes they are curious, sometimes aggressive (!!) but mostly pretty cautious. They are long lived fish though - and tend to accumilate toxins because of that. I've only ever tried one smoked. It tasted like smoked fish.
When I was a kid we speared one from shore with a big five tine hand spear right behind the head. We put it in an outdoor pond at the local zoo where it did just fine until fall when they released it
When I was a kid we speared one from shore with a big five tine hand spear right behind the head. We put it in an outdoor pond at the local zoo where it did just fine until fall when they released it
How is a carp aggressive? They don't have front teeth, just a mouth like a leathery hose. It would be like an angry hoover.Fondueset said:
They must be tough!Fondueset said:When I was a kid we speared one from shore with a big five tine hand spear right behind the head. We put it in an outdoor pond at the local zoo where it did just fine until fall when they released it
According to one of my books "The best time for eating carp is from November until April. In the summer they tend to develop a muddy flavor. Skinning the fish and soaking it in a mild salt water helps remove this muddiness. The younger, smaller fish (up to 7 lbs.) are the best eating. They may be fried (if 2-3 lbs), poached or baked." I can provide a carp cassarole recipe if you're really interested.
or you could make gumbo . . .
or you could make gumbo . . .
For 5 years I managed a Koi Carp Farm, we held up to 1,000,000 Carp of all varieties. Once a particularly valuable fish died through an accidental electric shock. The 20lb Japaneses Koi was worth about £12,000 so we ate it! The fish had led a pampered life living in crystal clear water & fed top quality food. To be honest we had a few locale dignitary's along for publicity & we all drunk to much wine! But it still tasted S..t.
The come bombin straight at you at flank speed then suddenly turn away at the last instant - I missed the shott between, when this one was about 18 inches from my camera - you can see in the inbound picture it's fins are all drawn in for max speed. It can take you buy surprise now and again.
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naiad said:
That particular Koi farm unfortunately no longer exist however I still work within the industry. My affiliation with fish is quite complex as I both advise on the well being of captive fish & hunt wild fish for food & pleasure. The best way to learn about fish & their habits is to spend every day in their company. I guess the best way to get involved is to keep a few as pets! When you start a hobby it usually leads to a way of life.
No bite but a ferocious suck!naiad said:How is a carp aggressive? They don't have front teeth, just a mouth like a leathery hose. It would be like an angry hoover.
In Algonquin, IL, they feed carp in the river from a tourist boat that berths next to it. They are the biggest carp I have ever seen. A big group of them come up to take bread scraps left over from a nearby restaurant. The funniest thing is to see them "fighting" with the ducks which also go for the bread. A strange sight!
I used to visit a farm occasionally as a child that had a pond in the middle. The pond was filled with hundreds of giant goldfish ... it was odd, you don't normally get goldfish growing that big (maybe 12" long) nor that dense (the pond was packed full of them). I have heard that fish normally secrete a hormone that prevents this sort of growth/dense packing (you guys probably know more about this than me) -- perhaps some farm contamination effected them. Anyway, one day a heron found the pond. Then it just fished the pond out until there was not a single fish left -- it ate every one of them! (This was pre-Koi being popular, I was told they were just regular goldfish...obviously mutants
-- although my Uncle was quite a kidder, come to think of it).
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Goldfish are just color-selected carp. In a lake, they'll get as big as a normal colored carp. If that heron had waited much longer, they'd have eaten him! I recall an abortive attempt at bow-fishing in a lake in our local mountains. We stalked carp that were sunning themselves and a fair number of them were escaped bait goldfish. I know some were a good couple of feet long!
I used to have a beautiful blue Koi. Midnight blue above the lateral line - fading to sky blue then mother of pearl along the belly. Scales along the back, lateral line and belly only. It would wag it's tail when I came home from work and splash water all over the wall.
naiad said:How is a carp aggressive? They don't have front teeth, just a mouth like a leathery hose. It would be like an angry hoover.
there are HUGE ones in the St.Clair river near Sarnia, Ontario. they will push a diver out of the way if you are resting in "their" spot. I've punched quite a few of them, while they were nosing me out of the way. looks like a small fridge with fins....
For those interested here are a few facts about English Koi. A typical 4" Koi will be for sale at around £10.00. The most spent on a Koi by a western hobbyist was £100,000 by an English Koi keeper. The fish was an amazing Maruten Kohaku. Of course this is a known price paid & there may well be more valuable fish in England. To the best of my knowledge the largest Koi in captivity in England is a Mastuba which lives at the Koi water barn Ltd. this fish was last weighed in 2002 at a staggering 90lb she may well now be over 100lb. The average age of a well kept Koi is anything up to 35 years however there are reports of Japanese Koi living to over 100 years.
naiad said:How is a carp aggressive? They don't have front teeth, just a mouth like a leathery hose. It would be like an angry hoover.
Last september I was scuba diving in a quarry reputed for its bio-diversity. There is an immersed house with a flat root at -12m. A lot of carps are often there, so it's a well known place to rest and observ them. I was kneeing with my son, and suddenly feels some move around my hand. One carp had taken the zip on my suit sleeve and had managed to open it ! Another tried to get away my son computer. Maybe they were willing to try a diving equipment ?
I also heard this weekend at the same place that carps can break small mussels (dreissena polymorpha): they bring them on this roof, take some gravel and let it fall on their food. Then they chew the mussels, and spit the remaining of the shells.
So beware of falling gravels when carps are in the neiborhood ;-)
CdM
JPPLAY said:
Well large Carp need large homes, so you build a very large pond ( swimming pool size) with extensive filtration then you get in the pond with your fish & practice breath holds while enjoying the fish. Well at least that is what some of my customers do! If you think about it this is a far nicer way than sitting in a chlorine filled swimming pool.