Asain Carp ?

[RUGER]

What do they eat?
Can you catch them with a rod and reel?

From watching man bring them in with the bowfishing rig, I would love to catch some with the rod and reel but I don't remember ever seeing anyone do it ?

 

[easy45]

The only way to catch them with a rod and reel is to snag them, they feed things like plankton, basically the same thing that shad feed on which is where the problems come in because they tend to out compete our native bait fish. Hope Man continues to put a hurting on them.

 

[RUGER]

I am thinking about going back to Reelfoot and try it today.

Dunno though, I just now got that smell out of my nose from our last trip.

I guess everyone that goes there to bowfish or snag just throws the fish on the bank and leaves them. :eek:

Very distinct odor for sure.
The guys in the boat we watched would just throw them back in the water.

Sick smell for sure.

 

[Crosshairy]

Are they shooting them in the air after they jump? I've seen that a couple of times on TV, and it looks pretty crazy.

There are a couple of internet videos out there that talk about how to clean them. They have a white meat, unlike the common carp, but are pretty bony. One guy was describing how to cut them up into "fish wings" that make eating them pretty simple, where you just pull the meat off a single Y-bone.

As easy45 said, they are filter feeders, so they don't have contaminants in them from heavy metals like the bottom-feeding common carp have.

I've just been told that if you are going to try cooking them, bring a cooler with ice and chill them down right after catching to preserve the meat quality.

Haven't tried it yet :)

 

[RUGER]

All of them I saw them shoot they were shooting down into the water, not on the fly.

 

[GreyGoose]

if they were edible would there not be a commercial side to catching them?food for thought,there are a bunch of starving people out there and a large source of food.

 

[catman529]

Supposedly bighead carp will occasionally bite a bait. Silver carp are strictly plankton feeders. They feed by swimming just under the surface sucking water through their mouths. If you can get a small lure or hook into the suction you can hook one (was done with a fly rod by a guy on the Cumberland last year) but snagging with big trebles or shooting would be much easier.

 

[scn]

if they were edible would there not be a commercial side to catching them?food for thought,there are a bunch of starving people out there and a large source of food.

They are edible and actually pretty good. There were some cooked as a demonstration at a TFWC meeting in recent months, and it wasn't bad.

There is a decent market in the Asain community in some of the larger cities and overseas. However, the problem right now is that the price being paid for the fish doesn't justify investment into infrasturcture to support such a market at this time in TN. There are a couple of markets/fish plants in IL that are buying them.There was a commercial fishing tournament in KY early this past spring directed at these fish to bring some of the issues to the forefront.

Hopefully the market will continue to develope where it is economically feasable to fish them heavily.

 

[RUGER]

That would be cool.