Forum name change

[ShaunM]

As everyone can see the forum is now Hunting and Fishing. Now we can really give our fisherman a place to tell their lies .

[DaveS]

Man.....I love this nieghborhood!!!! That's no LIE either! Now I can post fishing stories without feeling guilty. But to keep with the "gun owner" tradition, I do carry a handgun when I'm out fishing. You know, for snakes and whatnot! lol

[ShaunM]

HA HA HA.

[MacGyver]

Maybe we need to kick it off with some bowfishing stories or something. Kind of ease the transition

I knew a guy when I was a kid who stocked a pond specifically for growing fish for food. He's a huge fisherman, but when he wanted to harvest these fish to eat, he'd just toss a handful of corn out into the water, wait about 2 seconds for them all to come up and feed, and then pick the ones he wanted and shoot them with an old pump Winchester loaded up with .22 shorts.

[JAB]

Maybe we need to kick it off with some bowfishing stories or something. Kind of ease the transition

I knew a guy when I was a kid who stocked a pond specifically for growing fish for food. He's a huge fisherman, but when he wanted to harvest these fish to eat, he'd just toss a handful of corn out into the water, wait about 2 seconds for them all to come up and feed, and then pick the ones he wanted and shoot them with an old pump Winchester loaded up with .22 shorts.

My grandfather in law talks about eating carp when he was a kid. Said that the ones they got came from real clear creeks, streams, etc. and were pretty good. There was a creek that ran across his parents' farm and he said the creek would sometimes overflow. When the creek would recede, there would be large (sounds like they were pretty much pond-sized) pockets of water left for a while and he said there would be carp trapped in those pools. He said that he and his dad would take their little raft/boat out on those pools looking for carp. He told me that his dad was strong enough that he would just stab the carp with a pitchfork and flop them up onto the boat but that, being a kid, he usually had to shoot (mostly stun) them with his shotgun then just drag them onto the boat.

[Oh Shoot]

My grandfather in law talks about eating carp when he was a kid. Said that the ones they got came from real clear creeks, streams, etc. and were pretty good....

I've eaten a bunch of carp, due to a erstwhile 6 month camping sabbatical on Melton Hill Lake. Didn't have a boat, and main thing I could catch from shore was carp.

Quick recipe for Melton Hill Carp Cakes:

- fillet/skin carp (3 lb and under the best because of bone size), then

- run fillets through meat grinder on finest setting. This minces up the tiny bones in the fillets.

- (optional) add minced onion, bell peppers, whatever you like; add an egg to help everything blend together

- form into patties, dust both sides with flour or corn meal, fry in oil

Basically, salmon patties with carp instead of salmon - bunch of folks ate these, pronounced them delicious, even after finding out what the fish was.

- OS

[DaveS]

"Hey Boys.....we're having fried taters and fish for supper....WATCHOUT OUT FOR BUCKSHOT!" Sorry my friend....couldn't resist! lol

[TGO David]

Hunting101 is to be thanked for the name change. Excellent idea.

[DaveS]

Thanks David for letting it happen!

Thanks 101!!

[Mark A]

Great, there goes the neighborhood...

I mean, come on... Now I have to keep track of 2 different kinds of lies?

Mark

[JAB]

Sounds like that recipe would work OhShoot. This may be the best recipe I have heard for preparing carp (told to me by the aforementioned grandfather in law) :

1. Clean the carp, removing the head, tail, etc. but leaving the rest largely intact

2. Place on a cedar plank on a hot grill

3. Cook until fish is flaky

4. Throw the carp away and eat the plank

Seriously, though, he said that the creek from which the ones he and his family used to eat came was fed by mountain streams so that the water was clean and was very cold, even in the summer. He thinks that probably resulted in them having 'cleaner', tastier meat than most carp. I reckon they would just clean them then his mom would pan fry them because he has mentioned that they have a lot of bones but says that the bones were so big that they were easy to pick out when they were eating them.

Carp hunting with a shotgun can be dangerous, though. He used a single shot, 12 gauge Cherokee (still has it and shoots it, some - I have shot it, too.) Well, apparently one time the boat was trying to turn in the current so he was close to the bank, holding to a willow with his left hand to steady the boat. Some carp came swimming by so he shot at them holding the shotgun with only his right hand. Says that the next thing he knew, he was holding the shotgun by the muzzle end and his hand was bleeding like crazy. The recoil had slid the shotgun through his grip and the hammer spur had cut/torn the palm of his hand open on the way through.

He also talks about hunting big frogs with a slingshot (well, it isn't exactly like combining hunting and fishing but I'm saying it is close as frogs do largely live in water.) Says that hickory nuts made great 'ammo'. He also says that it usually wouldn't kill the frog, only stunned them, and that you had to be pretty quick to pick them up or they would come around and hop away. Apparently, they ate a lot of frogs' legs, too.

Edited June 16, 2011 by JAB

[Erik88]

Clean carp=best oxymoron ever

[Oh Shoot]

Clean carp=best oxymoron ever

Actually, and seriously, the idea of "muddy" tasting carp isn't founded in reality. Most impurities that you can taste settle in a fish's belly area, so as long as you cut this out (which you do on any fish if you want a boneless fillet), doesn't really matter what kind of water it comes out of. It's true that Melton Hill, wherefore I consumed the majority of my lifetime carp intake, is as much like a river as lake and stays cold even in summer (except right around the steam plant), but I've eaten carp from muddy ole Watts Bar (from the Hog Pen area, incidentally, which is named for it's muddy bottom), and they were fine too.

There are many fish that live and feed mostly on the bottom. Indeed, most fish do. Drum spend as much time on the bottom rooting around as carp, and they are not known for the "muddy" myth. Catfish, even "mud cats" and flatheads taste fine sans belly meat also. And of course,drum are not a bony fish like carp and buffalo either. If I could have caught drum any time I wanted during that camping stint, they would have been my preferred rough fish cuisine by far.

- OS

[kwe45919]

I've eaten a bunch of carp, due to a erstwhile 6 month camping sabbatical on Melton Hill Lake. Didn't have a boat, and main thing I could catch from shore was carp.

Quick recipe for Melton Hill Carp Cakes:

- fillet/skin carp (3 lb and under the best because of bone size), then

- run fillets through meat grinder on finest setting. This minces up the tiny bones in the fillets.

- (optional) add minced onion, bell peppers, whatever you like; add an egg to help everything blend together

- form into patties, dust both sides with flour or corn meal, fry in oil

Basically, salmon patties with carp instead of salmon - bunch of folks ate these, pronounced them delicious, even after finding out what the fish was.

- OS

Uhhhh you ate a fish, a bottom feeding fish from Melton Lake?? You know there are signs everywhere saying "you eat outa this lake, you get cancer".....I fish Melton as it's in my back yard but I'd never eat anything out of it.....Noriss,Tellico maybe but never Melton.......

[ShaunM]

Not sure about carp but it might work. When we catch catfish we always put them in a cage in a creek for a couple of days. It takes the mud taste right out of them. It may work for carp as well.

[bajabuc]

If you're fond of fresh water clams...rake up a bunch...put them in a food safe barrel with a bunch of cornmeal About a week and you got cornstuffed clams and that's great eating.

[Oh Shoot]

Uhhhh you ate a fish, a bottom feeding fish from Melton Lake?? You know there are signs everywhere saying "you eat outa this lake, you get cancer".....I fish Melton as it's in my back yard but I'd never eat anything out of it.....Noriss,Tellico maybe but never Melton.......

The only fish advisory from TWRA for Melton Hill is catfish.

I don't know about any other signs around the lake. My sojourn there was back around '75, didn't have a boat, never saw any signs. Although I did poach a couple of geese that were already cooked.

Oops, I hope the statute of limitations has run out on that.

- OS

[Oh Shoot]

If you're fond of fresh water clams...rake up a bunch...put them in a food safe barrel with a bunch of cornmeal About a week and you got cornstuffed clams and that's great eating.

Not sure I've ever seen a freshwater clam, or if I did guess I didn't know what I was looking at ... or do you mean mussels?

- OS

Edited June 17, 2011 by OhShoot

[roverboy]

Ohshoot, your recipe sounds a lot like my Grandmothers. She could cook some mean carp patties.

[Oh Shoot]

Ohshoot, your recipe sounds a lot like my Grandmothers. She could cook some mean carp patties.

I knew my maternal great grandparents, lived over in Harriman; in his 90's, he'd walk down to the river and catch big buffalo, I've been along a couple times as a young'un...she'd steak them out in sections, fry like any other fish. It made for a looong supper, picking around all them little bones.

- OS

[kwe45919]

The only fish advisory from TWRA for Melton Hill is catfish.

I don't know about any other signs around the lake. My sojourn there was back around '75, didn't have a boat, never saw any signs. Although I did poach a couple of geese that were already cooked.

Oops, I hope the statute of limitations has run out on that.

- OS

........I'm pretty sure you were there before the radiation took over....

[Oh Shoot]

........I'm pretty sure you were there before the radiation took over....

Hmmm, could that explain the thumb growing out of my kneecap?

- OS