Carp for the Table - No Way

[Dales]

Hi All

 

Maybe I should start this thread with some history, I have a planned cat fish session in August and while thinking about baits I was considering Carp as a dead bait. The lake I plan to fish has Carp in it, so logic dictates that the cats must feed on the small Carp.

 

I posted a thread on Catfish baits and a big thank you to everyone who added posts, especially Budgie who sent me some top information on fishing for Cats, it was most useful and a very interesting read.

 

Well I was wondering should I try Carp as a bait, no live baits are allowed at this lake, but with Carp in the water the cats must eat them. Obviously I need to check on whethr I can use Carp as bait. I am not sure what the owner will think if I am cutting up a Carp on the bank. Have I just caught one of his and started to give it the jack the ripper treatment

 

So I was thinking if I try Carp, how can I get some with out a sharp blow to the head from the Carp at the fishery. At this point I remembered that I saw Carp on sale at Morrisons super market in Stoke Newington in London. The fist time I saw this I was outraged, seeing 5-8lb Carp on ice. However now I am thinking about Morrisons as a place to pick up Carp as bait.

 

My post is not about whether Carp dead baits would make good Cat Fish bait, it's more whether you have seen unusual fish on the fish mongers ice or in a supermarket.

 

This post is not about johnny foreigner eating all our fish, that has been done to death in the press and on the net. I am more interested in how the market has adapted to the change in demand in fish for the table. Has your local supermarket now started to stock fish you all ways thought of as catch and release only?

 

It would also be interesting if you can now buy coarse fish at a local shop has this changed your view about them. Have you tried Carp now you can buy it at a supermarket?

 

Have you seen Chub, Wells, Bream, Perch on sale?

 

Please do not let this thread become bash a foreigner, I am just interested in whether shops have now started to cater for the demand.

[chesters1]

the cats may eat a few small carp but i bet they eat boilies meant for their big brothers more

try 22mm fish flavoured boilies soaked in a fish oil and sit back and wait

 

in london shops have always sold freshwater fish for the ethnic jews and poles etc ,they obviously have a different set of taste buds or a vicious jerk sauce as to me only perch tastes nice and i'v tried all the common varieties ,river fish though have less of a muddy taste than pond fish whatever the species.

i distinctly saw freshwater fish on a school trip to billingsgate in the early 60's so its not a new thing.if you get ethnic minorities in any numbers their food swiftly follows

Edited July 25, 2009 by chesters1

[lutra]

I don't think moving carp around died or alive is a good idea.

[Peter Waller]

There are a number of waters where it is increasingly recognised that over stocking can and does lead to problems. So what better use for the surplus than as bait or for the table?

[chevin]

Carp have been bred for the table in many countries for centuries. Those you saw in the fish shop may well have been imported. I believe that the reason for carp being in the UK is that monks had them in their "Stew" ponds for their Friday fish. Like Chester though, I would never try to eat them again even though I fish a carp water where those I catch must be killed.

[Brian Carragher]

I don't think moving carp around died or alive is a good idea.

 

 

Why what colour should they be?

 

Theres been various coarse fish for sale around here for as long as I can remember bith in fishmongers shops and supermarkets so someone must be buying them or they would'nt be selling them and buying more for resale

 

I remember as a kid sat looking at the bream in the fishmongers window feeling pangs of jealousy as those bream were bigger than anything I'd seen as a kid never mind caught myself

[Emma two]

What are the motives behind the objection to others being able to buy freshwater fish in a fishmongers? If the carp, or any other species were to be taken away unautherised from private, club or commercial fisheries then that would be a matter for concern. However if they are reared especially for the culinary trade, then how can it be any more right or wrong than the commercial production of any species of fish, bird or animal?

 

I find the sight of 'day-glo' pink farmed salmon more appaling than I would a carp on the slab, for there is species which in it's natural form has a famously inbuilt urge to migrate in order to complete it's life cycle, yet is kept in cages which not only impact negatively upon the local environment, but also present a potential disaster to wild populations should they escape. Is it because such salmon so commonly seen that the population is 'ok' with it...if it's 'normal' it's safe , right? no matter what and how it takes to produce?

 

The argument, 'they (coarse fish) don't taste good, I don't like them, so no one else should be able to get them either' is especially egocentric

[Chris Plumb]

My local town (Reading) has always had a large Polish population - I remember as a kid (early 1970s ) seeing bream, roach and carp in the local fish mongers....

 

 

C.

[lutra]

Why what colour should they be?

Pink to keep the girls happy that fish for them.

[n.battison]

On the subject of eating carp, i heard, that carp were originally introduced to the UK by monks in the middle ages as a source of food.

 

So if this is true, the whole basis of carp in the uk is as a food source.

 

So is it really that unusual eating carp.

 

Neil