OK, have read that silvers are very good to eat. So on Sunday, took 12V filet knife, shot one medium size, and fileted on the spot, and put on ice. Meat looked pretty good, was shot from clean water. Tonite, gave it a corn meal bath, and fried up some. Meat comes out of frier snow white, and was very, very good, and we are finicky about fish!! So, we have been throwing hundreds of pounds of good eating fish in the river, or dumpsters. We normally will eat crappie, or bluegill, as it is good, this was just slightly better, yes, better...would say it is like walleye for color, and taste. Oh well, live and learn. Anyway, will probably go out and fill the freezer, with a couple hundred pounds ( just kidding ) maybe 10 or 20 lbs.

Been telling people, but many won't listen. I have to say I like grass carp just a bit better than silver, for most applications. Silver is a bit meatier, grass carp flakier. I like walleye better, but catfish just is not in the same ballpark. Dang good stuff, and with the carp you are low on the food chain, thus lower in contaminants. Congrats on putting the fish to the test. My great fear is that one day there will be a clamor to make more of these fish, instead of get rid of them.

OOh, don't know about the 12v knife. I like to feel the bones so I don't cut any. And they are very good eating.

Chris has that right. And he knows how to cook them too.

I ate silver carp tonight. Half of one fish fed the family (only four now, with my son in college) and we had leftovers.Covered part of it with a cajun rub, and marinated another part in olive oil and garlic, then coated that one with parmesan and then w bread crumbs. Then broiled it all, served with a salad and Udon noodles. Pretty good stuff.

i don't shoot any rivers (although I'd like to start). I do go snagging for spoonbill however. We catch truck loads of carp trying to catch spoonbill. just yesterday we caught close to 40 of them and several were over 30 pounds and it was kind of a slow day. I have tried to clean the big head and there are just so many bones I had a hard time with. is the bone structure the same in the silver carp? Did you just fillet the fish and cook it and remove the bones after? the spoonbill is a fish eaters dream, no bones what so ever in the whole fish.

Both bighead and silver carp are easy to clean if you get the method down. Easier to do than to explain. Both species have bones in the meat, but the trick is not to cut them up into small bones. Those 30 pound fish of yours have huge intramuscular bones and they are easy to eat around. I sometimes debone the fish (Do a google search for an article called "Carp Lemonade" for deboning instructions - this is good for fajitas, paellas, soups, or other recipes where bones are problematic), sometimes we just put the whole filets on the table and eat around the bones (usually do this when grilling or broiling), and sometimes I cut the fish into long strips that I call flying carp wings, and we fry those. To make the flying carp wings, get your filets, cut off the red meat (you will end up with top and bottom halves to the filet) and cut the meat in long strips by cuttingBETWEEN the bones, leaving about three large bones per strip. The bones lie at an angle in the filet. Once you figure out how to hold the knife and make this work, it goes very fast, but it is hard to explain. I take the top half of the file, poke my knife through the filet near the top, and let the bones guide the knife. You can also get started cutting and if you hit a bone, just tear the meat and it will separate between the bones, once you get a cut started in the general direction.

Here on this website there are also instructions for eating just the rib cage sections. I like that too, but not as much, because you end up throwing away most of the meat (not a problem if you have a lot of fish) and because I don't like the rib cage meat quite as much as I do the meat on the rest of the fish. Belly meat from silver and bighead carp is NASTY, so don't go there!

These links are on our webpage: www.illinoisbowfishers.com


Duane's carp cleaning: http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2004/07/20.htm

Gary's carp ribs: http://www.illinoisbowfishers.com/asiancarpchops.pdf

We've been doing the rib method because we're lazy and it's faster. Make sure you get all the fat and connective tissue off the inside of the ribs and it's great eating.

Tho' the very best way is to have Carptracker clean them and then give them to you.

-Christine on K's login

yeah, Christine's real good at finging other people to fillet the carp for her.

Darn straight!

Speaking of such, when we going out? I thinkyou have a frozen head for me. You can fry fish while I skin it out.

yeah, after that barrel full of carp in Branson, But they were good.

might be Grafton before I get away.