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Thread: Carp Hunting

  1. #1
    Boolit Master

    Johnch's Avatar
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    Carp Hunting

    Range scrap lead was added to the 20 lb Lee Dripping Lead Pot a few days ago
    Down to only a few egg sinkers and bank sinkers
    So I spent a hour or so making 1/8 to 1 oz egg sinkers and 1/4 to 2 oz bank sinkers

    2 Friends and I went out fishing for Carp this morning to use the sinkers I had cast the other day

    The carp were in the marsh where I hunt and need to be removed as they destroy the marsh
    We also take some of the meat to eat
    I also need a bunch of the meat for raccoon bait , as I will soon be starting to do Crop Damage Trapping
    So the darn Raccoon will destroy less of the corn fields

    We took the boat with us ( Drove in ) and set up the rods along a area of channel , where the water goes from 8' in the channel to 1' or less in a large flat
    Carp move into the flat to spawn and feed
    Tearing up the plants , what the marsh members didn't want

    Nothing fancy , just several different jello flavored carp baits and worms
    Strawberry was the winning flavor today
    6 - 7' light to med weight spinning rods
    8 lb leaders and 15 lb braid ,the Braid lets us make long casts

    Oh also my friends had a good amount of beer to drink as needed ( If the fish were not biting )

    Not great fishing after 10 AM , but we fished till 3 PM
    But about 11 AM we had to use the boat to chase down a 40 lb female carp that headed into the cattails after it was hooked
    I used my bow with a carp hunting line holder to anchor that carp , or we might have spent a long while getting it in

    We ended up with 94 carp for the 3 of us , we stopped when the 250 gallon water trough was full
    I kept about 20 lb of meat to eat .... all 3 of us kept about the same amount
    50 lb or so of of raccoon and turtle bait
    The rest of the carp was ran through the wood chipper
    That is used in the garden to make stuff really grow
    Just have to fence off the garden , or the raccoon , possum and skunks will trash the garden eating the ground fish

    I did think about getting the AK 47 out and doing a different kind of carp hunting LOL
    But didn't

    John
    Yea, thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
    And I carry a LOADED Hell Cat

  2. #2
    Boolit Mold
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    Hello John, good catch! We have plenty of carp here, how do you cook them? The couple I’ve tried taste muddy.

  3. #3
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    Winger Ed.'s Avatar
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    Good going.

    Ya might want to set up some targets under water to practice on.
    With the refraction deal going on, things under water aren't necessarily where you see them from the surface.
    Put a pencil half way in a glass of water- the bottom appears in a different place compared to the part in the air.
    In school: We learn lessons, and are given tests.
    In life: We are given tests, and learn lessons.


    OK People. Enough of this idle chit-chat.
    This ain't your Grandma's sewing circle.
    EVERYONE!
    Back to your oars. The Captain wants to waterski.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by HogRider666 View Post
    Hello John, good catch! We have plenty of carp here, how do you cook them? The couple I’ve tried taste muddy.
    You need to trim off the dark brown meat just under the skin on the filets, that helps.

    Carp smokes very well. Give that a try sometime.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by HogRider666 View Post
    Hello John, good catch! We have plenty of carp here, how do you cook them? The couple I’ve tried taste muddy.
    Carp don't get much love in the US, but most of the world raises them to eat like we do pigs & chickens.

    Cut off everything that isn't white.
    Be careful about filleting out their second set of 'Y' bones to fry them.

    Another option is fillet them out-- and again, cut off anything that isn't white.
    All the red/brown is where the mud taste comes from.
    Run them in the pressure cooker. Then use them like you would canned salmon from the grocery store.
    The thin 'Y' bones will soften up like bones in canned sardines.
    In school: We learn lessons, and are given tests.
    In life: We are given tests, and learn lessons.


    OK People. Enough of this idle chit-chat.
    This ain't your Grandma's sewing circle.
    EVERYONE!
    Back to your oars. The Captain wants to waterski.

  6. #6
    Boolit Master

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    The dark meat tastes fine. Bleed 'em good as soon as you get them in the boat and they'll taste good. Youtube frying carp and look for one where they slice the fillet into thin strips, but not all the way through. The bones fry up and mostly disappear.

  7. #7
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    We ate a lot of Carp/Buffalo patties growing up. Better than store bought canned salmon patties. Mom canned carp by the washtub full. Poke salad and fried okra and hush puppies on the side.

  8. #8
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    I old schooled a few about two weeks ago when I took a morning off from spring turkey hunting...







    I have the two “yellow” carp brining right now getting ready to smoke. The buffalo are still froze up. I hit the right morning as they only jump about two to three days here each year. The buffalo normally spawn a few weeks earlier here but we had weird spring as usual so they spawned together. I quit spearing after these ones and just floated around watching...or I would have sunk the boat at the rate I kept going. I had a couple of dandies swim right under the dock yesterday cruising next to each other. They are still making ripples on top of the water at first light but not violently splashing anymore. That big buffalo almost flipped the canoe when loaded it. There was a one about a foot longer and one the same size it was mating with I could never catch up to. I’ll get them next season.

    Anyone ever picked buffalo? I was going to give it a try but I’m wondering if it’s too oily?

    I use to bow fish them when I was a kid. I just got tired of loosing arrows all the time and the line getting caught under my bear spools all the time so I started using a spear that my buddy gave me in the mid eighties. I believe it belonged to his grandpa. I had to sharpen up the tips this season. My spear defected off a couple of fish instead of going through them to let me know they were getting dull .
    Last edited by Tripplebeards; 06-07-2020 at 11:06 AM.

  9. #9
    Boolit Grand Master
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    when I was a kid we used to fish them out of the local creek
    we used bread dough and treble hooks but we just tossed
    them on the bank and left for fertilizer
    tried smoking them but as kids could never keep them lit
    Hit em'hard
    hit em'often

  10. #10
    Boolit Master

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    I agree
    White meat only
    The second set of bones are a pain to get out sometimes
    But these carp I used a set of needle nose pliers and just pulled them out

    I have smoked carp , but I get a lot of Channel Catfish and like them smoked better

    LOL A lot of Raccoon can't get enough carp
    As my Lab caught a decent sized one sniffing around the wood chipper this morning
    As the outside cats must have cleaned up their carp before the raccoon got to it

    John
    Yea, thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
    And I carry a LOADED Hell Cat

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Johnch View Post
    As the outside cats must have cleaned up their carp before the raccoon got to it
    Carp trimmings and scraps is supposed to be some great catfish bait.

    Go after the raccoon.
    They taste fine, and when ya pull their shirt off- you can make a cool looking hat.
    In school: We learn lessons, and are given tests.
    In life: We are given tests, and learn lessons.


    OK People. Enough of this idle chit-chat.
    This ain't your Grandma's sewing circle.
    EVERYONE!
    Back to your oars. The Captain wants to waterski.

  12. #12
    Boolit Master
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    I was envisioning you taking a speed boat down the river and shooting those carp that jump out of the water!

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Texas by God View Post
    We ate a lot of Carp/Buffalo patties growing up. Better than store bought canned salmon patties. Mom canned carp by the washtub full. Poke salad and fried okra and hush puppies on the side.
    When I was bowfishing every day, I could have stacked up a hundred pounds of carp in any given evening. I've never canned and meant to get my mother in law to do some and show me the ropes but never did.

    I never had much luck getting the bones to cook out by scoring the filets and frying them real hot the way people tell you to do. I used to filet them carefully so as not to cut any bones more than I had to, then boiled the fillets until they'd flake apart. The Y bones are easy to pull out then, and we'd mashed it up with crackers and onions and fry patties like that.

    Something killed off the carp in Milford Lake a few years ago, and I haven't gotten back to bowfishing much since then. I went out for one afternoon during the long nose gar spawn a couple of weeks ago and shot several, but can't seem to get into killing them like I used to, shot half a dozen, most of which were flesh wounds on the upper back muscles, threw them back in the lake and they likely all recovered.

  14. #14
    Boolit Master roverboy's Avatar
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    My grandparents on my mothers side would cook carp a lot when I was a kid. They usually pressure cooked and did patties.
    Mrs. Hogwallop up and R-U-N-N-O-F-T.

  15. #15
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Texas by God View Post
    We ate a lot of Carp/Buffalo patties growing up. Better than store bought canned salmon patties. Mom canned carp by the washtub full. Poke salad and fried okra and hush puppies on the side.
    Washtub full? Did she hot or cold pack and how long to cook? Any detail appreciated.

  16. #16
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    I hear the Buffalo I are good to eat? I batter fried up a little belly meat when I clean mine the other day and it was nothing to write home about. Any buffalo recipes? The meat in the Buffalo are all white compared to carp that are deep red.

  17. #17
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    I always cooked Buffalo with the same methods I used for carp. Interesting fact, Buffalo are indigenous to North America, Carp are not.

  18. #18
    Boolit Grand Master Tripplebeards's Avatar
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    I read that it’s common for them to live to be a 100 plus years old as well.
    Last edited by Tripplebeards; 06-08-2020 at 10:01 AM. Reason: Spelling

  19. #19
    Boolit Master Dan Cash's Avatar
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    As a kid in Northern Colorado, we had a private lake for storing irrigation water. The carp would spawn at the lake inlet when we were filling the lake; spawned in their thousands. They swam with about one third of their back out of water and you could wade in and pitch them out with a pitch fork. I preferred to take my 1935 Beretta and shoot them. I learned to shoot a pistol that way. I bought loose ammo for 2 cents a cartridge, most of which was probably corrosive but I knew nothing about the destructive effects at that time. That little .32 was certainly destructive on those carp.
    To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, the trouble with many shooting experts is not that they're ignorant; its just that they know so much that isn't so.

  20. #20
    Boolit Master Thumbcocker's Avatar
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    I had a teacher in junior college who bow fished carp. He swore that canned carp was as good as canned salmon.
    Paper targets aren't your friends. They won't lie for you and they don't care if your feelings get hurt.

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