I know a Hmong gentleman who preps carp so well, I just can’t get over it. Since his English is limited, I’d pay to watch him prep it. He’s still more acquaintance than friend, so I’d feel like I’m imposing.
Where I grew up you fertilized your garden with grass carp. This man turned my head. I even had to have my translator, his son, repeat that it was carp I was eating. He also taught me that mung bean noodles are a must in egg rolls.
In another lifetime I lived in Prague. Carp is the Xmas dish over there. Kids pools filled up in the public squares and markets for sale.
Well, they always say that the trick to catching a muskie has nothing to do with the fish’s hunger
; ya gotta piss 'em off. Notice most musky lures, aside from being big, agitate the water somehow. Piss 'em off! All about luck. Location, too. I have three spots that are gold, and, even then, I’ll only catch one in a blue moon. Catching a big northern is pretty much the same.
Where I’m going next week, I’m right by the Chippewa flowage, where the biggest muskie ever caught in WI was landed. 63.5 inches, 69 lbs. Sadly my record is 46 inches. Tiger, though. Didn’t weigh it.
Very popular to bowfish where I am. Legal, too. You do it at night.
Carp for Christmas! I know a place where I can catch them that size with my hands. You walk into these shallows and they like to rub against your leg, like a cat. If you gently reach down, you can almost rub their belly. My son used to adore that spot. Then you catch them and lift out of the water and then they get excited, man, they’re hard to hold. There’s just so many, and they scream out their location by all the swirling.
I’ve really opened up to carp the last decade.
Nice
It’s quite tasty. Sure boney and a pain but that didn’t discourage the folks I was with that had endured a lot more behind the iron curtain.
“I’ve really opened up to carp the last decade.”
Not a phrase I expected round these parts.
Fish and chips always blinds us. We forgot about carp, pike . . . gefilte fish for Christmas or Passover in Poland or Prague, etc.; quenelles de brochet anytime in Lyon . . . fish balls in Asia . . .
Lots of Passover experience but I’ve never gotten into the jellied fish goo around gefilte fish and horseradish. Something’s gotta make matzah taste better by comparison. Asian fish balls love em. Matzohballs too!
Homemade (as in 2d Ave. Deli) and freshly grated horseradish for you then.
I’ve caught a few northern but never anything big. But they’re a blast though. Favorite fish to catch as they fight like they’re huge but once I get it in the boat it’s just a small snake. Lol
Wow wow wow. I wouldn’t want that in the boat with me. I used to fish Lake Winnie in northern Minnesota.
I hang my head in shame. I never even knew people ate it until I went to visit my brother in Beaver Lake, Nebraska. When the waitperson asked if I’d have the carp or walleye, I thought she was joking. So, when she left the table, I asked my bro “that wasn’t serious?.” My brother said “freaked me out , too. but, yeah, she was serious.” I got the walleye.
I should throw smelt out there for those of you who spent their childhood cranking up a frickin’ heifer of a dip net, time and time again. Under the Hoan bridge in Mwaukee, there was bumbs everywhere, throwing up drunk, and here’s my 9 YO butt crankin’ the dip net, my pal Steve scoopin’ 'em out.
Now those little guys are something to clean. Guttin’ a bunch of sardines. Always loved eating smelt, though. We still have a smelt fry at our VFW.
Beer battered smelt. Got to use PBR for the batter. GOT to.
Whitebait are these little guys you catch with a net over/in a stream and then collect enough to make fritters. Other preps too. Really good stuff.
Winnibigosh? Was my uncle’s favorite lake for years. He’d spend a month there in the summer. He’s too old to do that anymore. He would come home with bags of walleyes. Big lake. Real lake, too, not a flowage. The Chippewa is big; but, being a flowage, there’s islands everywhere. Winni is just a big chunk of water. I have yet to fish big Winni. I wonder if there are many muskie in there. They tend not to go very deep, until winter. Lake trout are some deep feeders. Makes them easier to catch though. Silver spoon on the bottom, bang, they grab it.
I always wanted to land a sturgeon on the Flambeau river; but afraid I’d kill the thing. Kind of a swimming antique.
Same in Germany, although it was not a dish my family ever made for xmas. There’s a famous German xmas movie that involves a carp in a bath tub.
Yeah, that;s the place. I loved it there and rented a unit at Tamarack Lodge by the dam. (If there were “sheep in the bay” (white caps) I stayed in. ) The fishing was pretty good if you knew what you were doing…which I didn’t. I love it there though and could always catch enough to eat and bring home. If I couldn’t catch walleye or northern I’d go the perch beds and live it up.
You are several levels above me as a fisherman. I just used minnows or a daredevil spoon when hoping for Muskie or northern. I caught more than my share of snags. 
You uncle has good taste. Haha.
That fishing creel . Crater lake or some other beautiful spot.
Indeed! Trout from Crater Lake.
They were stocked in the early days and now are not so loved.
Your photos revived a memory of a pintxos crawl in San Sebastian, maybe the last stop being the occasion to try a few tasty bites of elvers on some kind of base and washed down with ice cold Cruzcampo, by then having had our share of tinto for the evening.
He’s nuts. Go out on that lake no matter. Good with a boat. Used to go on Michigan and really bring in lake trout and coho. Still loves his boat.
Tamarack, eh? I need to call him soon. I’ll ask if he’s been there. Big lake.
No smelt lovers out there? C’mon! Beer battered smelt. Love it.
