Would You Be More Willing To Try...

[Gavin]

I just watched a video on how to clean one....before I voted.

The meat doesnt look that bad...but it looks like a PIA to process...I'd be willing to try it, just dont ask me to clean one. Cheers.

[Kayser]

The poll asks for what you would be MORE willing to try. If you don't want to eat any of it, just put down what sounds best, and leave your thoughts below. This is just for fun, to see what the favorite of the three is. Preliminary results don't look good for Kentucky Tuna...

Rob

[ness]

Silverfin sounds good. Asian carp...forget it. Kentucky tuna...way too obviously a euphemism for something that probably isn't very good. Not sure there is much history of Kentucky producing gourmet food. There was a restaurant near where I live that advertised "fresh Alaskan walleye". Not sure what the fish really was, since there are no walleye in Alaska. But "Alaska" sounded like a place where good fish would come from. Kentucky doesn't, even though those of us who fish and know anything about Kentucky know that there are some good tasting fish in that state.

Yeah, I ran into Idaho Rainbow Trout at a fancy restaurant one time. I questioned a chef there, just to see what he said. He wanted to argue, I wanted to eat. If I remember correctly, I had scallops and lobster bisque. Good restaurant, but I don't expect them to get the names right.

I love marketing hype.

[gotmuddy]

I think it is a great idea. Capitalism in action. If you can get a dollar a pound for them and have open seasons they will get eradicated quickly.

I would try them out, the meat looks just like the meat from tilapia.

[Outside Bend]

Soylent silver.

[eric1978]

Soylent silver.

Good one.

I've said it before...the problem I'd have with eating the Silvers or Bigheads is not the fish itself, but where they come from. The MS and MO rivers are just too contaminated and nasty for me to enjoy a meal out of them. That goes for the cats or any other species caught from those rivers, too. No thanks. I'd be just fine with canning it and sending it to third world countries for starving kids to eat, though. Better than nothing for them.

[duckydoty]

I have eaten them and have been doing it for over 15 years now. I think the 1st one I ate was in 1994. They only got up to about 10 pounds then. The bigger ones are a lot easier to clean. Does not matter what they call them...they are very good eating. Here is another one for you guys that fish in Alaska. Have you seen the Wild Alaskan Keta Salmon they are selling in the stores now??? It out sells fresh caught chum salmon 10 to 1......same fish though.

[Outside Bend]

The Chinese eat 'em, and there's a billion of those guys. The fish can't be all that bad

I get the concern about eating fish out of the MO and MS rivers, especially fatty and long-lived fish like catfish and sturgeon. I'd probably even be reticent to eat suckers, carp, and buffalo from the big rivers. I wouldn't be as worried about asian carps, as they're planktivores and it only takes a few years for them to grow to the 5-10 lb range; basically a scaled, rostrum-less paddlefish.

And honestly, I'm not sure how much worse eating something out of the MS or MO rivers is than eating fish from the Big, Black, LOZ, or parts of the Neosho watershed.

[Kayser]

The MS, and MO rivers aren't that contaminated, there are less consumption advisories for those waters than most others in the MO/IL region. I regularly eat buffalo (big suckers) and catfish from the MS below STL, and don't see a problem with it. People just get turned off because of the muddy water and what they think is in it, due to the paranoia of certain groups and organizations that get lots of press.

These fish are extremely fast growing, which means A- they can't be a substitute forage of shad, for larger game species, which is the problem and B- they don't accumulate toxins, chemicals, or parasites to nearly the same level as a catfish, bass, etc., which is good as far as eating is concerned. They also aren't bottom feeders, like common carp, so they can't pick up contaminants in the sediment as readily, and have mostly white meat, as seen in the video. It looks to be whiter than blue cat, and probably cleaner. I can't think of any better reasons ever presented to eat a certain fish.

Rob

[flytyer57]

The Chinese eat 'em, and there's a billion of those guys. The fish can't be all that bad

The Chinese also eat dogs.

No, thank you.