Friday, August 26, 2011
Invasive Carp in Missouri
I write this blog entry from my hotel room in Columbia, Missouri. Yesterday I enjoyed one of the most unique and eye-opening fishing experiences of my life. Electro-fishing for carp on a tributary of the Missouri River.
Kids, don't try this one at home. Electro-fishing is illegal in most states unless you happen to be conducting an approved scientific study or if you happen to be a state biologist. I was fortunate enough to be invited out with biologist Vince Travnichek and writer Jim Low, print news coordinator for the Missouri Department of Conservation.
As it happened, we could have still gotten a whole pile of fish without the electro-fishing gear. Silver carp will literally jump straight into your boat. This happened at least a dozen times during roughly two hours on the water. On one occasion a five pound fish landed precisely in the live well. Jim captured that one on camera and I look forward to seeing his photos.
Meanwhile, here are some of my photos. My verdict on carp is that they are perfectly delicious to eat. The secret is that you need to keep them alive as long as possible until you are ready to fillet and refrigerate or freeze them. A dead, ungutted carp suffers fouling of flavor much more quickly than crappie, trout or other fish that American anglers are accustomed to eating.
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2 comments:
We're gonna try that eatin' thing this fall. I hear that they've gotten up as far as Pacific on the Meramec River here in Missouri, which sucks because I'm sure they'll screw with a great smallmouth fishery, but hey, if I can eat 'em....
We usually fish further up the river in the land of jet boats, canoes, springs and giant smallmouth. If you get back out around Eastern Missouri and ya got some time to kill give me a holler. It doesn't take much to talk my buddies and me into a day of fishing.
Jackson: I brought six silver carp home for eating after a bowfishing outing on the Illinois River at Havana. I put them on ice in a big marine cooler right in the boat, then emptied another bag of ice on top of them when we got off the water. Due to the long ride home Friday and a commitment on Saturday, I didn't get to cleaning them until Sunday, but they were still quite firm. I filleted them all and pan fried one that night and found it very tasty, with a slightly smoky overtone. I froze the rest and we ate them over the next couple months. They might taste even better if cleaned right away, but I had no problem eating them!
Looking forward to Eating Aliens!
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