Re: eating fish - I have an article coming out in the July Missouri Conservationist on how to debone and eat silver and bighead carp, both of which are delicious (but I like the silvers better, and the silvers dress out better - although Asian people generally prefer the bighead, which brings a higher price than silvers at the Asian market - but then they eat the head too.)

Re: survival of shot fish - I imagine that a fish that is shot through the meat and not through the gut cavity would have a high chance of survival, better than 50-50, based on my years of experience handling fish. But a fish with a nicked intestine is a dead fish, even if you shoot the fish up with antibiotics, as I always do when implanting radio tags.