Carp for the Table - No Way

[Ken L]

Lots of fish that arn't usually considered table fare are on sale in Birmingham's fish market.

Carp, roach, bream, mullet and whitefish (pollen from Lough Neagh) are regularly on sale as are tope and conger eels.

They used to sell signal crayfish as well but that got banned.

We have fish on sale from all over the world and a fair bit of live seafood as well. The only thing that I don't recall seeing is live eels.

 

Edit: As the baits were mentioned at the start of this thread, I should say that my local Chinese supermarket is Wing Yip (it's a big one) and from time to time, they have all sorts of frozen fish in stock including carp in the 4" range.

Edited July 26, 2009 by Ken L

[1965nick]

Nothing wrong with supermarkets selling carp or for that matter any freshwater fish. They will only sell farmed fish anyway, wild fish would be too irregular in size or too expensive forthat matter for them to make a profit on. Carp in my experience are quite tasty and very meaty, perch very good with firm flakes of fish. Best freshwater fish for eating though must be grayling.

[dapper64]

selling carp in the supermarkets is surely a good thing,In poland carp is the traditional christmas dinner(so I am told)so it makes sense to have it available to buy.The asian supermarket near me has alsorts of wierd looking fish in the freezers.

[Anderoo]

Silly foreigners, when will they learn that all other fish can be eaten but carp are to be kept in overstocked, muddy ponds and revered as some kind of watery god and worshipped in a complicated way that involves sticking metal in their faces

[chesters1]

youl find a lot of foreigners stick metal in carps faces but its called a skewer

half the ponds in the country wouldnt exist without eating coarse fish ,stew pond isnt just a chance name ,most of the ponds around here (including both frenshams) were used by the monks of Waverley abbey for din dins and to sell on.

its probably only 25 years since fishing mean usually taking one for the pot ,no eyebrows raised at all.

Edited July 26, 2009 by chesters1

[Andy Macfarlane]

Are there any pike in the water?? If there are, you might have problems with them finding your baits first. I'd go with budgie and use worms, leeches, squid, huge boilies, big pellets....that kind of thing.

Besides, as you've mentioned, chapping fish from the water is a bad idea and could see you in the back of a police car, so forget that idea.

 

...andy...

[Worms]

http://www.aquavisiononline.co.uk/70131/in...p?p=2&pno=0

 

These people farm carp for the table.

 

Funnily enough I was chatting with a friend about carp yesterday and we now know of two old ponds that have 'wild' common carp. These have been DNA tested etc and are rare examples of carp that are directly descended from 'original' medieaval stocking! They are long lean fish that rarely grow above about 15-20lb apparently.

Edited July 27, 2009 by Worms

[Dales]

Are there any pike in the water?? If there are, you might have problems with them finding your baits first. I'd go with budgie and use worms, leeches, squid, huge boilies, big pellets....that kind of thing.

Besides, as you've mentioned, chapping fish from the water is a bad idea and could see you in the back of a police car, so forget that idea.

 

...andy...

 

Yeah, I plan to follow Budgies good advice, but was just interested to see what coarse fish are now easily available to buy in supermarkets etc. Looks like from the posts, you can pick up most coarse species in many places. This will also be very useful when the Pike season comes around, saves a lot of time and trouble if you can throw a few coarse fish in the trolley while doing the weekly shop.

[Dales]

It's intersting how our attitudes are dictated by what we are used to. As I keep a few Carp in a pond and when I go Carp fishing, I take care to use safe rigs, gently net the fish, place them on a padded unhooking mat and gently return them. I don't see them as food, they are almost seen as pets and yes a fish to be revered So much so that fish in many Carp in waters have pet names.

 

 

Silly foreigners, when will they learn that all other fish can be eaten but carp are to be kept in overstocked, muddy ponds and revered as some kind of watery god and worshipped in a complicated way that involves sticking metal in their faces

 

In Britain we have a tradition of merging bits of other cultures in to our own and none more then food. Does any one even think of Chinese, Italian and especially Indian food as been foreign anymore? Chicken Tikka Masala is now considered a national favourite. Therefore I think it will be interesting to see how long it will be before the idea of eating Carp becomes second nature and a normal replacement to the Sunday roast.

 

Not sure it will replace Turkey for Christmas, but given time eating Carp is likely to become more accepted and the norm, especially if sea stocks are depleted, Carp are easy to farm and an ideal species to produce on a large scale. However it's proberbly going to be anglers who find the idea hard to accept. Maybe we should stop given the Carp in our waters names? I have never liked the idea anyway. It's all ways harder to eat an animal with a pet name.

[Maddog]

Ken wrote: Edit: As the baits were mentioned at the start of this thread, I should say that my local Chinese supermarket is Wing Yip (it's a big one) and from time to time, they have all sorts of frozen fish in stock including carp in the 4" range.

 

There is a large wing yip near me (NW London), they even have a tank with live eels and a few carp in it, choose your lunch while it is still alive!