Carp do you love them or hate them?
 

I used to think carp and suckers were the most worthless fish ever. I hated the way they can seem to over run lakes, streams, and rivers. Now that I'm down in Kansas I have learned they have problems with trash fish like gar and freshwaterdrum. People down here actually kind of like carp compared to them. I'm starting to think that they aren't as much a plague as I used to. What do you think? Carp do you love them or hate them?

RE: Carp do you love them or hate them?
 

all i know is they can put up a fight!!! i caught one over 3foot long when i was like 10...pulled me in twice....but i landed it....and dad made me hold that slimy thing up....that was before i carried a camera.....after that i carry one all the time.....big ole nasty lookin fish....i kinda like em......but then again i think catfish are one of the greatest fish to swim.........

RE: Carp do you love them or hate them?
 

i hate em, but they do put up an awesome fight when you catch them, i dont' mind fighting them, i just hate what they do to the water, the way they reproduce and take over everything. you can't even go to the lake and enjoy it without seeing hundreds of them

~Jepcho

RE: Carp do you love them or hate them?
 

Carp are nasty..but I rarely see them at the lakes I fish at.

RE: Carp do you love them or hate them?
 

Carp are a great sport to catch - and can be huge. I caught many a carp as a kid. But after decades of watching what these bottom feeding muck rakers do to spawning habitat I detest them and would be content to see them all but extinct. I live on a small lake and watch these muck rakers every year disturb spawning areas. Very similar to what Gar do.

Having said all that,the Grass Carp has been introduced in some ponds to clean up the grass problem. They are virtual eating machines. Fisherman are warned not to keep/kill these fish. I understand they are very expensive to buy and stock.

RE: Carp do you love them or hate them?
 

You mentioned carp and suckers.Our family has tried to eat both.We didn't like the carp but those White Suckers are very good fish.I used to catch them from a creek in Maryland.
Chuck

RE: Carp do you love them or hate them?
 

I chopped up a sucker once to try and use for cut bait and noticed the meat was white unlike a carp where it is usually dark. I was wondering if there was a good way to prepare sucker meat. The only thing that stopped me from trying to frie it up is that also in the sucker meat there are a lot of thin very noticable dark vains. So if there is a good way to cook up sucker meat I would like to know.

RE: Carp do you love them or hate them?
 

Suckers are 5 star. Back in my day we just fried them in a pan. I like to inspect my fish these days because we have worms in the bass fillets in Florida. We never had worms in our fish up north. I would....

Prepare them like bass ,either fillet or whole.

After soaking them in a salt water solution for a couple of hours ,I would shake them up in a bag with 50/50 corn meal and flower with salt and lots of pepper. Put about 1/2 " of healthy oil in a black pan on med.high heat. Fry to golden brown.Nice tasting fish like white or yellow perch. The roe is also excellent. They fight very good but hard to hook.They nibble very softly.

God Bless,
CHuck

RE: Carp do you love them or hate them?
 

The only experience I've had with carp was quite awhile ago...I was at a local "puddle" (3feet wide, 5 inches deep) looking for frogs or something with my friends. Instead, we noticed sometihng dark in the water. My friend poked it with a stick and a carp starts swimming around, and in this little puddle! Infact, there were two in there! We didn't bother taking 'em home though.

RE: Carp do you love them or hate them?
 

i hate them. they hurt bass populations too much. studies have been done on it that conclude that carp can make bass populations decline in lakes. defintelya fish that needs to hae its numbers chopped down.

slayer