Posted on 09/06/2017 4:04:03 PM PDT by Western Phil
HOW TINY BATH ON THE ILLINOIS RIVER TURNED AN INVASIVE-SPECIES INTO A NATIONAL TOURNAMENT By Becca Fanning, Video by Austin Keating and Becca Fanning, Aug. 23, 2017 – Randy Stockham turned the throttle, his left arm braced as he dodged an airborne fish and steered around a fallen tree to catch the lead boat. With 10 minutes left in the first heat of this year’s Redneck Fishing Tournament, his team was on track to bring home the gold.
In the boat, Stockham’s crew worked in sync, knees bent and nets in the air as hundreds of Asian carp leapt from the river, hitting trees, the sides of boats and occasionally landing with a thud on the floor next to him.
“We call the first heat the blood heat. That’s when you put your ‘A’ team in,” Stockman said.
“And 90 percent of the time, the first heat is going to be the overall winning heat. The fish haven’t been upset yet. So they’re surprised when all of these boats come at them.”
Stockham’s crew won the first heat with a catch of 124 fish, far ahead of the second place team
.... snip ....
The Redneck Fishing Tournament has attracted participants from as far away as New York, Germany and Canada. This year, participants caught and removed 2,729 Asian carp from the river, 579 from Stockham’s boat.
As Stockham’s team hauled their buckets full of Asian carp to the judges table, he stayed behind, stepping over dead carp and gathering broken nets to prepare for the next heat.
“As long as I’m physically able and Betty holds the tournament, then I’ll be here,” he said.
Looks like there are two articles:
http://climatechange.medill.northwestern.edu/2017/08/29/how-tiny-bath-on-the-illinois-river-turned-an-invasive-species-into-a-national-tournament/
We’ll take the Mexicans, Guatemalans, Syrians, and the Chechnyans, BUT WE DON’T WANT ASIAN CARP!
American ingenuity.
Put them through a grinder and you have an absolutely amazing fertilizer
I was watching an episode of “Zatoichi, The Blind Swordsman” a few days ago. Ichi was at some town in Japan and mentioned that the carp were really good there.
I guess they can be prepared to be OK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfutebOJglA
Filleting and cooking recipes. People taste tested boneless fillets (takes a little skill to fillet and bone them right). Out of 307, a majority really liked them, some better than tilapia and catfish. Can't imagine I'd like them better than catfish.
They're only coming here to do the jobs American carp won't do.
A friend told me his mother would pressure cooker carp them make patties.
We ain’t them fried and I ALWAYS choked on a bone before u finished eating. My parents would hand me a piece of “light” bread to chew on and swallow. It was supposed to make the bone go down. It never worked.
We’re a “nation of immigrants” so we must love Asian carp, too!
There is a local fish called “suckers”. They swim up even small creeks at certain times of the year. They are absolutely full of bones but Mother knew how to slice them then fry them to where there were none at all.
I don’t know if they dissolved, or something made the bones pop out or what but they are one of the tastiest fish there is.
Those bones I'm super careful with them. I coughed one back up but was just lucky. I think it would take a major bone to endanger your life but those smaller ones can make you mighty miserable; can't imagine how you'd get rid of them.
I have to be really careful when I cook whole catfish (I bake it w/spices usually). I don't like breading stuff to fry. HOWEVER, there are some recipes for oven baked breaded catfish filets and the one we tried worked well, the usual egg wash, cracker crumbs mixed with flour and corn meal. Spray the sheet pan with some cooking spray, put the breaded filets on. Then spray the tops of the filets with cooking spray.
It worked and I'd do it again but I'd wipe the excess spray off the sheet pan B4 baking because it gets to smoking before those very large catfish filets are cooked through.
Could do it with the Asian carp filets, bread and bake.
Grandpa would grind up “suckers” and make patties to deep fry. The heat would soften the bones that were left.
If you filet them thin and fry them hot it probably makes the bones edible.
The asian carp are tasty, but they're a serious nuisance to prepare for cooking, so I usually just bury them in my victory garden. They make great fertilizer.
Missouri Dept of Conservation has some good tips on how to prepare rough fish here:
My first thought as well. My friends make it a point to provide me everything left over from cleaning their fish and it’s much appreciated. Everything that grows loves it once rotted and worked into the soil.
Now this is a thread that I can really enjoy reading!
I am a prairie guy but married a gal from the Ozarks. I think her dad is the all time gigging master. We have caught, scaled, scored, cooked and eaten many suckers through the years. Yes, when they are pressured and canned the bones are softened and dissolved. We typically fry up patties, but father in law would open a jar and put the meat on a cracker. There is the Sucker Day in Nixa, MO. in mid May.
Glad to oblige.
Sliced so the oil can get to them, they dissolve.
I put some fish in the holes where I transplanted tomato plants into the garden this year. Best tomatoes I ever grew.
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