Windwalker7

I've heard they make good fertilizer. What else do you do with them?

I'm thinking of getting an old bow and getting it set up for bowfishing, I just don't know what to do with them once I get a few.

Fishhunter

Despite what a lot of people say, carp are good eating, particularly grass carp and asians. they can be filleted boneless, remove the red meat, marinate, and deep fried. The local outdoors store has me do a fish fry each year for their fall sale, and all the guys working there are the first to hit my fish - they love it. A few here have tried it as well. Gar are also good so long as you don't soak the meat. Cleaning gar can be difficult, but Christine has a tutorial posted.

http://www.illinoisbowfishers.com/gar.html

mncarphntr

Suckers and Carp are good smoked, if you look at the price of smoked fish in the meat case its worth a little effort to try it. Buffalo and Gar are pretty fair eating, not like Walleye and Crappie but also worth trying. When you're shooting hundreds of fish in a season, certainly the amount you will eat is only a small fraction, the rest of my fish go into a compost pile for fertilizer which I use myself or sell. Some say this is wasting fish but the species we are targeting are underutilized by anglers and usually prolific enough that reducing populations is a good thing overall, especially non-native carp species.

KASKASKIA BIG HEADS

i give mine away i dont no how to do it right so i try to give them away.

Windwalker7

I've heard that because carp are bottom feeders that they have high concentrations of PCP's, mercury, etc..., making them no good to eat.

The lake we are going to has alot of garbage in it. Its actuallyfor flood control. See all kinds of stuff along the bank.

I use my smoker quite often. I wouldn't mind trying a few carp ifI knew they were safe to eat. The trout I do taste really good.

Thanks for the input.

scmtnhnter

im not eatin carp i give them away to some local color folks real sweet ppl .i just started keepin the gar for myself .but before usin them as bait for yotes . it works to lol

sandilands

A few local guys here bowfish for carp and use them for bear bait. What kind of brine do you use when smoking a carp? Even marinade b4 frying?

Fishhunter

KASKASKIA BIG HEADS, I'm planning on coming to Illinois to shoot with Christine sometime this summer. I keep hoping she'll invite me up within the next month before the summer gets busy.[:@] I'm going to show her Carptrackers method. If you're around, I can show you the boneless method as well. Then I'm going to marinade and fry up all the asians we shoot. It also works well for grassies. Buffalo are the best - even better than crappie when done boneless and marinaded. We can make a gathering out of it if you all want.

Snood Slapper

If you or Christine could please, please, please post some pics of how you do either or both of these methods; much like Christine did with the gar pictorial, I (and I'm sure others) would appreciate it greatly. I would really like to try carp sometime, but really don't know the best way to clean them due to the bones. Take your digi-cams and shoot lots of pics...and fish!!!

Bulzeye

Up here in Northern IL, most of the carp are not safe to eat, and I'm told there is actually a warning out that says not to eat more than 1 carp per month! Those fish just suck up every last bit of pollutant from the bottom.

To my knowledge, the gar, bigheads, andsilvers from this area are OK to eat.