Is my smoked buffalo (carp) done?

[Winger Ed.]

I would never eat carp!

They've gotten a bad reputation in the US, mostly from folks that never ate any.
In many other countries, they raise them for the same reason we do pigs & chickens.

Look at 'Asian carp' videos on youtube. They're pretty amazing.
Tons and tons of them are caught and processed for export, mostly to Japan and China.

[DanishM1Garand]

I would never eat carp!

We went fishing as kids with my dad. My brother caught a carp and dad didn’t want to eat it. Brother dug his heels in and dad cleaned it and fried it. He fileted it as any other fish and cut out the mud line. It was as good as my bass.

[Thundarstick]

Looks delicious!

I was raised on them both! Buffalo are more of a silver color where yellow carp are golden. A carps mouth points down, and can be line caught, Buffalo mouths point forwards and aren't generally line caught. The jumping carp are another thing all together, are actually very good eating, and if could be line caught would put bass tournaments out of business! I'm quite fond of Buffalo fish baked. Like many other "trash fish" the water it comes from and what they are feeding on make a HUGE difference in how they taste! Someone mentioned fresh water drum (sheep's head) don't ever try and eat a big one, don't ask me why, just don't!

[Winger Ed.]

As a kid in the 60's when we visited my Aunt & Uncle's ranch in East Texas,
a cousin and myself would go work at his part time job.

We'd ride bikes down the road a mile or so and fish with oatmeal balls dried on hooks for carp.
We'd hold them from the handle bars as we went back home.
We never made it more than half way before someone in a car would stop and pay us 50 cents for each one.

In 1967, for a 11-12 year old kid, that was some big bucks for us just going fishing!

[tomme boy]

The only thing asian carp here are used for is fertilizer. I know several commercial fisherman that work for the state of Il. One of them their family owns a large fertilizer plant. They get all the carp they want for free from the state. They just have to show up with their trucks to transport them. They are making a lot of $$$$$

And carp have something similar to what we would call y bones in a walleye or pike. But they are more of a y bone on steroids. There are bones coming off of other y bones. One very easy way to cook them if the fish is up to 4lbs or so is to descale and gut them. Then cut them from the top to the bottom every 1/4" then coat and deep fry. The cuts will let the oil get between the cuts and it cooks the bones so they actually dissolve. But the fish has to be small.

[Winger Ed.]

The only thing asian carp here are used for is fertilizer. .

I guess its different at different points along the water ways.
There is a few of the of the processing plants:

I was watching a youtube video called, 'Asian Carp processing plant in Kentucky'
A Chinese lady owns it, and they export tons of daily back to China.
The folks over there prefer the wild caught American ones to their own farm raised carp.

There is other processors out there, and 20 cents a pound for them alive looks like the going rate.
for both of the 2 varieties of them.

The commercial fishermen aren't getting rich, but they're doing pretty good running long gill nets for them.

[Tripplebeards]

I ended up removing the meat from the skin and removed the red line. I could tell the meat around the redline was tough and stringy so it wasnt cooked properly. I wrapped the fish in tin foil and baked in the the oven at 350 at a half hour. The meat was moist and steamy. Just wanted to make sure they were completely cooked through. I made a couple of fish tacos with it and the rest I made dip using cream cheese, sour cream, and added a little dill. Buffalo is all white meat. Carp is read and oily. I've boiled and pan fried buffalo. Its just as good as bass and walleye.

[Thundarstick]

https://www.wvlt.tv/2021/01/19/man-c...dle-tenn-lake/