Silvewr And Bighead Carp Sightings

[eric1978]

Supposedly they don't taste all that bad, and have a firm, white meat unlike our native carp. Unfortunately they do have intramuscular bones. I'd be more hesitant to eat them because of the rivers they live in than an aversion to the meat itself. The thought of chowing down on fish out of the MS and MO rivers just doesn't sit right with me.

Apparently those who regularly eat these fish prefer them live or freshly killed, which creates problems for their viability for commercial fishermen. Maybe we should chop them into bits, glue them back together in patty form, label them Seafood Surprise, then ship them back to Asia. They wanted to feed their kids mercury-toxic dolphin for school lunches in Japan...surely they'd eat some MS river nasties with the taste of the homeland.

Something tells me they'd be a blast on a cheap 8wt, if we could figure out what flies they would consistently slurp.

http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2004/07/20.htm

[Trout Commander]

I'd be more hesitant to eat them because of the rivers they live in than an aversion to the meat itself. The thought of chowing down on fish out of the MS and MO rivers just doesn't sit right with me.

+1 on that for sure.

On a side note, not to take this thread off topic, do people eat those monster cats you hear being caught out of the MS and MO rivers??

[mhall02]

Apparently so..

http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22684&st=0&p=151523&hl=Record%20blue%20catfish&fromsearch=1&#entry151523

Just think about how long that fish has been around and the bioaccumulative toxins that may reside in its flesh.....oh my.

[Outside Bend]

Supposedly they don't taste all that bad, and have a firm, white meat unlike our native carp. Unfortunately they do have intramuscular bones. I'd be more hesitant to eat them because of the rivers they live in than an aversion to the meat itself. The thought of chowing down on fish out of the MS and MO rivers just doesn't sit right with me.

Apparently those who regularly eat these fish prefer them live or freshly killed, which creates problems for their viability for commercial fishermen. Maybe we should chop them into bits, glue them back together in patty form, label them Seafood Surprise, then ship them back to Asia. They wanted to feed their kids mercury-toxic dolphin for school lunches in Japan...surely they'd eat some MS river nasties with the taste of the homeland.

Something tells me they'd be a blast on a cheap 8wt, if we could figure out what flies they would consistently slurp.

I've had them before; they're pretty good fried or smoked. The bones can be a pain, but there's a way to clean them which reduces the amount of bone in the fillet, and whatever bones remain are so large they're easy to pick out. And they're planktivores, so contamination isn't as big an issue with them as with other large-river species such as catfish, sturgeon, and walleye/sauger.

There were some folks trying to grind them up and sell them as fish sticks, but "silver carp sticks," isn't a name which seems to spur American consumers into buying a product. That may be overcome, orange roughy was once termed "slimehead." One of the crazy things is bighead and silver carp populations are crashing in some parts of Asia, due to overfishing and habitat degradation.

I've heard of folks catching them on white clousers, deceivers, etc when they congregate in moderate- and smaller streams for spawning.

+1 on that for sure.

On a side note, not to take this thread off topic, do people eat those monster cats you hear being caught out of the MS and MO rivers??

Yep, they do.

[Trout Commander]

Apparently so..http://ozarkanglers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=22684&st=0&p=151523&hl=Record%20blue%20catfish&fromsearch=1&#entry151523Just think about how long that fish has been around and the bioaccumulative toxins that may reside in its flesh.....oh my.

Also makes you wonder how many missing persons it has feasted on.

[mhall02]

Also makes you wonder how many missing persons it has feasted on.

Yep, better bring in River Monster's Jeremy Wade to check into this!!

First bighead/silver I remember seeing was as a fisheries undergrad at MU-Columbia. I was a tech for a wetland fish study on Grand Pass Wildlife Area (wetleand on the MO River between Columbia and KC)and we netted up about a 15 pounder. I didn't even know what it was a that time (17 years ago), but now apparently they are everywhere. As Outside Bend discussed above, here is an article from last year out of Columbia Missourian that discusses the numbers may be dropping:

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2009/06/07/asian-carp-facing-starvation-and-reproductive-problems/

[Kayser]

All it would take is a name change. Several popular species have done the same (chilean seabass was once toothfish). And people eat fish out of the MS River, I love buffalo (sold as river fish in taverns), and the big rivers are really the only place to get them.

I think we need a thread to discuss new names for the things to increase marketability. No ideas yet, but I'm thinking...

Rob