Carp?
 

I know little about bowfishing, but it seems many of you guys go after carp. I've also heard that carp tastes horrible. Do you guys just pour on the seasoning or what?

RE: Carp?
 

You would have to ask the bald eagles, ospreys and sea gulls at Tri-State Bird Research and Rescue what they taste like. I don't eat them, but the Bird Rescue place is always in need carp all the time.
Gar are great eating as well as the stingrays we shoot.

RE: Carp?
 

Common carp have a strong flavor, so not many people eat them. If done right, they are good, but it takes a bit of work. Also, some people shoot so many they couldn't possibly eat or clean them all. No problem - carp are invasive exotics that, for the good of the environment, should be exterminated. Shoot all you want and not worry about eating them.

Asian carp (silvers and bigheads) and grass carp are excellent eating, having a very light flavor and firm white meat. Because they are carp, they have the stigma attached of "trash fish". I personally clean for eating all asian and grass carp except those too small to be worth fileting boneless. I, though, am one of the few that eat them regularly.

But these, too, are invasive exotics, even worse than common carp. As much fun as I have shooting them and as good as they are to eat, I would love to see the asian carp completely wiped out of our rivers.

So, eat them or don't eat them, just don't return them alive to the water.

RE: Carp?
 

In IL, many of the waterways are so polluted that there are health advisories issued saying not to eat several species, including carp, because of high PCB and mercury contaminants in the fish.

If youtalk to any biologist who monitors waters with carp infestations, they'll be grateful for any help you can offer to help get rid of the things. As long as you don't leave a pile of dead fish where everyone else has to smell it or look at it, you're doing a service to the ecosystem by removing them permanently, whether you eat them or not. I personally prefer to leave them for other wildlife to eat when I can, but I live so close to a major city that I have to throw them in my personal garbage most days because of the dense human populations in the area.

If somebody likes to eat them, they can have all of mine. I just take the carpout of the water so life is a bit better for the fish that most fishermen actually like to eat.Bowfishing isfun too, and usuallyprovides more action than most other kinds of hunting. It's hard to beat a day of shooting live moving targets with good friends.

-Bulz

RE: Carp?
 

There are four different types of carp, each with different meat. Silver, bighead, and grass carp have very similar meat, common carp meat is quite different. When most people say "carp", they mean common carp, but anymore, asian carp are more common than common carp. Might want to specify what type of carp you're refering to when conversing with someone.

RE: Carp?
 

Good point fishhunter.
I don't have the asians up by me yet, so the guys here just mean commons. Many of them in fact think that there is only one type of asian carp since they are often referred to as a general group. I clear that up whenever I can, and it is a good idea to let people know that the asians (and grassies too, I guess)are much more edible than the commons.

Use every opportunity to educate. There are lots of folks out there that don't even know what a carp is, why they are harmful, or even that you can shoot fish with a bow at all. I run into them all the time.

RE: Carp?
 

About a week after the BassPro demo in Columbia with Carptracker (he handed out over 100#'s of silver fillets and showed I don't know how many people how to fillet them), I was cleaning some in my boat just down from the boat ramp. A couple guys came by and wanted to know how to clean them. I showed them my technique and gave them Carptracker's spiel on how to tell the difference, their general lifecycle, etc. As a teacher, this comes natural for me. I've been doing free fish fries with them for a few years now, and have a hard time convincing some people that it's not catfish or carp.