For a long time now I've been wanting to see what carp taste like.   I'd heard that carp tasted very good, horrible and somewhere in between.   Heresay doesn't do much for me.   I like to make up my own mind on things.   Freshwater drum caught out of clean water taste good to excellent - they are right up there with bass and close to walleye.   Most Oneida Lake fishermen would kick themselves in the head if they realized how good drum were.   Suckers to me are OK.  I'd eat them if I had to.   To me they aren't compelling food.   Carp are utilized as a food fish throughout the world.  In the Czech Republic fried carp is the traditional Christmas dish.    The main reason we have carp throughout the United States is because early immigrants demanded them!   For FOOD!

I was out lake trout fishing yesterday (4/5) with my girlfriend Jessica.   She caught some nice fish and we were near the northern portions of Cayuga Lake.  I decided we'd spend around 1/2 the day checking on the carp up there.   We were pleasantly surprised to find good numbers of large carp working areas around the marshes.   I foul-hooked a fair amount of fish, but had a 5 or 6lb carp hammer my clouser fly.   We had a lake trout in the livewell and I decided to keep the carp.  I was "on the fence" but she thought it'd be a cool idea to kill it and eat it "for science"  ;-)

I'd kept a carp or two before but chickened out on eating them - I'd release them at the boat ramp, and I almost did it again but she made sure we went through with our "experiment".  

The first thing I had to come to terms with, is that carp aren't the easiest fish to kill.   Most of my clients have seen me kill trout, perch or salmon.  I just pry their heads up and break their "neck".  This kills them instantaneously and they bleed right out.   This is virtually impossible to do with a carp.   So I took a sharp knife and sliced right under its gills.   I was then able to do my "pry bit" and kill the fish.  

Filleting a carp is a tedious task.   I'm sure there are better ways to clean them, but trying to cut through their tough scales is very difficult.   They are also very bony with thick, strong bones.   They also have plenty of "floating" bones - moreso than a northern pike.   On top of this, the carp also have a very wide and somewhat deep lateral line.   I was shocked that by the time I'd removed all the undesirable parts of the fish (maybe the entire fish for most people ;-) I had very little left over to eat.   The carp was a female and her eggs were a brownish olive color.  Not appetizing at all.   Trout, salmon and perch all have bright orange eggs.   The carp eggs resemble something rotting inside them.   But I got over it.

After a bit of work I wound up with a bunch of small pieces of fish.  The meat didn't look bad at all - it had a slight redness to it, that gave it some appeal.   I decided not to doctor up the fish much at all.  I added some salt and pepper and heated up the oil.

I was filled with anticipation.  I couldn't wait to finally see once and for all what these fish tasted like!    The carp pieces cooked up quickly and I put them onto a plate lined with paper towel.   So what did it taste like?   All I could say was that it "wasn't bad".   I wouldn't call it great, but it was fair to good.   The fish had a sweet finish (after-taste).   Yet I wasn't very gung-ho about eating a bunch of it.   Maybe I just couldn't get over the fact that it was carp.   But I kept eating pieces of it and saying to myself - this isn't bad at all.   Jessica tried a little piece.   She's not a big fish eater but thought it was "OK - better than I thought it'd be.  Not bad."   

I really didn't enjoy the process of killing and cleaning the carp.   That to me is the tedious part.   If someone else wanted to cook the fish for me - and they knew how - perhaps they had a good recipe, I would have no problems eating it.   I think we are spoiled in this country with an abundance of easily caught, good tasting and EASY TO PREPARE fish.   If all we had were carp here, I could get used to killing, filleting and eating them.  But it's hard to want to eat carp with all the yellow perch, bass, trout, walleye, bullhead etc... around here.   I'd love to see more people fish for and eat carp - we have too many around, but I don't see it happening anytime soon.   But it isn't bad - it's actually alright, and I'll probably try it again with a bigger fish - 10lber or better out of a clean lake like Skaneateles.   Cayuga is a clean lake, but this fish was mudding around a soft bottomed area.  

Here's a link to the Sander's Fishing Guides website and an article I wrote a few years back:

http://www.sandersfishingguides.com/files/Fishing%20for%20Longnose%20Gar.pdf

Boat control is critical to fishing success.  It's often overlooked by novice anglers and even some experienced anglers.   I find three tools indispensable to boat control:  a bow-mount trolling motor, one or two drift bags and an anchor.   Boat control is about positioning your boat in a way that optimizes your presentation.   Various techniques require different amounts or types of control.   Vertically jigging deep lake trout requires a steady or slowly drifting boat.   I like to use my trolling motor for vertical fishing.   The shallower the water, the quicker you can drift and still maintain contact with the bottom.  

I use drift bags a lot while fly-fishing.   When working flies deep and/or thoroughly a slow drift is essential.   A drift bag will make a 10 or 12 mph wind feel like a 5 mph breeze.    Drift too fast and you might as well be reading a book.   Drifting is also a great way to cover water when casting or live-bait fishing.   

Many advanced anglers overlook anchoring.   When winds are too strong for the driftbags or trolling motor, or you need to fish a pinpoint location, an anchor can fill the bill.   I like to use an anchor around 27lbs with a length of chain and 200' of rope.    

Fishing line has a number of qualities that are important to the angler.   Two of the most misunderstood are line diameter related to pound test.   The fish don't know what pound test is.    You often will hear anglers say things like "We had to use 6lb test in order to catch fish, 8lb wasn't working as well".    Yet one company's 6lb test can be thicker than another companies 10lb test!  So knowing the brand and diameter of the line being used would be more important than just the pound test.    Line diameter affects the line capacity of your reel, the sink rate of the line and the action of your lure.   It also affects the ability of the line to withstand nicks and toothy critters' teeth.    I like to use the thinnest line per pound test I can find in most instances.    When anglers are casting lures or fishing live bait and complain that their line is too heavy, it's the diameter that is often retarding their casting ability, lure action or live-bait presentation.   Thick line can really hamper the action of a lure as well as impede the swimming action of a live minnow.    I don't think most fish are nearly as line shy as anglers give them credit.  

Pound test is an arbitrary label.  Many lines listed as testing "10lbs" actually break at 12 or 13lbs.   Sometimes even higher.   There's nothing to stop a company from marketing actual line testing at 14lbs test as the following:

Superstrong 8lb test

High grade 10lb test

Ultra thin 14lb test

It's ridiculous but true.  In Europe anglers are more concerned with line diameter than pound test from what I've heard.   Let's compare a few lines and their diameter vs. labelled breaking strength  - and keep in mind that these diameters and pound test ratings are probably erroneous as well!:

Damyl Tectan 13.9lb test has a diameter of .0098"

Yozuri Hybrid's 12lb test has a diameter of .013"

Sufix Siege 6lbs test has a diameter of .010"

Edge Flourocarbon in 12lb. test has a diameter of .013 but a listed "breaking strength" of 17.6lb test.   How idiotic is that?  At least they are being honest with you (or so it seems.)  Why is it called 12lb. test?  

P Line Spectrex IV has a "15lb test" that has a "4lb diameter" (whatever that is) and it's listed diameter is .009".  If you compare it to Tectan, it's a 13.9lb diameter.

12lb P Line Flourocarbon has a listed diameter of .011".  

Maybe fishing lines should be used as good examples of "Marketing Gone Wild" in Marketing Classes.   My advice is to look at the pound test rating, but also be very aware of the diameter of your line.   Don't be fooled into being impressed by the strength of one companies 6lb test when in reality it's just 14lb test being sold as 6.  

Fishing for different species of fish is not only satisfying, but also rewarding.   If you've spent most of your life fishing for bass, and you get serious about perch fishing you'll find many unexpected benefits.  The same principle applies to countless other fish species.

I began targeting perch on Seneca Lake back around 1986 or 87 with my friend Terry.   By using light line and light tackle we had to focus hard on what we were doing, especially when it was windy and/or cold outside.   We'd routinely catch pike, pickerel, smallmouth bass and even lake and brown trout while perch fishing.  So targeting perch helped me learn a lot about other fish species and their habits.     

I learned more about vertical fishing for smallmouth bass while targeting lake trout, than I ever did vertically fishing for bass.    Everything from interpreting electronics, to fishing for suspended fish.   Day to day location of bass and how weather elements changed "the bite" were other crucial elements I picked up.   

If you get the chance, don't turn down the opportunity to fish for a different species of fish than you're used to targeting!  

Cross-pollination also applies to different waterways.   It's easy to get into a rut if you fish the same lake all the time.   I've found that by fishing different lakes, I can take knowledge I gained from one waterbody and apply it to another.     

One pattern I've been onto for a long time "theoretically" is spring carp.   My own experiences over the years combined with friend's experiences have taught me that early spring is the best time to get very aggressive carp.    The will pounce on crankbaits, jigs, flies and other presentations at this time.  

Why is this the case?

I did a bit of reading on carp, and articles I found in "Fishing For Buffalo" mentioned that carp have small stomachs - they need to keep feeding constantly.   Carp are also omnivores.   They can eat everything from nymphs to crawfish and from minnows to cottonwood seeds.  Vegetable matter = dinner!

What happens is that as water temperatures start going up quickly in the early spring, the carp's metabolism goes up accordingly, yet the food chain - plant life and animal life, has not yet caught up to the carp's appetite!   So the carp MUST eat, but there isn't much around!    Wait until June and July and sure, you can catch carp - but they have the choice of what they want to eat.   They can afford to be selective!   Carp can't afford to be selective in late March and in April - they HAVE TO EAT!  

As a kid I caught a 23lb carp off the Webster Pier near Rochester in late April/early May on a mr. twister jig.   I also caught fish in the spring in Irondequoit Creek on jigs.   My buddy Eric caught 2 or 3 in a row in early April off the Ithaca "Wall" on rapalas!   Last week I had one hit a jig in Skaneateles Lake in 34/35 degree water.    Today (April 3rd.) I got a monster on a flashy chartreuse streamer!   These aren't coincidences.   The carp are hungry as heck now.   Get them while they're hot!

One of the more annoying aspects of pike and pickerel fishing is seeing how many of these toothy critters end up with a hook around a gill-rake.   I see a lot of this with smaller specimens, but it also happens with bigger fish - whether fly-fishing or gear fishing.    A lot of it has to do with the way pike and pickerel feed - they inhale lures by forcing water through their gills.  I see it a lot with flies and lures that are fished with a stop and go motion.   You pause the lure and then the fish sucks it in.   Bass often do the same thing.

A sure way to kill these fish is by trying to back the hook around the rake and bring it back through the mouth.   The fish usually will thrash and you'll get cut or the gill tissue will get ripped - killing the fish.   A great way to remove your lure or fly is to simply cut your line and back the hook through the gills.   If you open up the fish's gills you'll see where the hook is.   Just go through the gills with your hookout or pliers and carefully clamp around the bend of the hook and gently pull it through.   It works great and next time you see that hook in those gill rakers you will know that by working fast and effectively, you will save the fish, your hands and valuable fishing time.