07-28-2004, 07:40 PM
NeveronSunday offered to take me out on Willard again yesterday. The conditions were comfortable as far as air temperature breeze etc. a great day to be on the water. Water temps were 82* and the whole lake was mostly like a sea of glass. We fished from about 1 pm to 9 pm and caught only 4 wipers and a carp. You know the saying about "a bad day fishing...." Still better than getting skunked though.
All the Wipers were in the 18-22" range. Unfortunately, I didn't catch any Wipers except for one that Mike let me reel in while he was trying to pull a treble hook out of his thumb that had been impaled about 1/2" into his thumb by the previous wiper. He tried for about an hour to get it out eventually he just cut off the treble and left the point and the barb and a little of the shank stuck in his thumb and kept fishing for the rest of 4 hours we were there. What a trooper!!!
After 5 hours of fishing I hadn't caught a thing. Then my drag started singing and after such a long dry spell I was pretty excited. I thought I had a huge wiper on I only had 10 lb test on so I was really careful about bringing it in... it kept running and running. After a while I was able to bring it to the surface about 30 feet from behind the boat... I saw orange fins. Talk about a let down... all it was was a carp. But I still reeled it in took me a while. Usually with carp I just cut them loose but since I had him I thought I would use him for kittie bait. After I saw the fins I couldn't believe that a carp would take a lure. Turns out he didn't take the lure, I snagged him through the tail. I decided to keep him. I thought one less carp in any Utah lake is a good thing. We called it a day shortly thereafter.
All I can say about carp is that they are just evolution's evil tricks kind of like cockroaches. If there were ever a nuclear explosion cockroaches and carp would be what would survive. I had never kept a carp much less cleaned one. I wasn't all that concerned about saving a lot of the meat but I wanted enough for a few trips to Utah Lake. I was even planning on giving some away. After all a 20 pound fish should yield a lot of bait strips. I guess I just don't know how to clean a carp because all I was able to get were 2 filets about an inch thick and 18 inches long.
Carp are a slimy fish, and real slippery making it difficult to handle the big ones. Once I was able to wrestle it onto my kitchen counter (It was dead thankfully) I started to cut into it like I would a normal fish. I couldn't cut through the toenail type scales. In retrospect I should have cut under a row of scales not through them. Since my filet knife wasn't working I pulled out the seraded cutco bread knife and was finally able to break through the scales. I hit the center bone almost immediatly and tuned the knife toward the tail I cut off the filet and I was amazed at how little meat there was. I know now why there are so few commercial carp operations it's just not worth it. The quilty of the meat seems low and greasy oily flesh is not my idea of a good meal, of course maybe the small ones are better.
After cleaning a carp I can now see why few people eat them. Simply put they are gross fish. This one had no odor at all except maybe the scent of grass but to me the wiper had a stronger odor. This carp was greasy almost oily and had really dark meat. I can see why people consider it to be good for the kitties. Worst of all were those scales I'm convinced that half of the weight of this fish was the scales. I had a pile of scales 8 inches high and I didn't even scale the whole fish. Clearly those scales are natures way of protecting the carp from a nuclear winter.
If I ever decide to put myself through a carp ordeal like that again I'll do it outdoors not in the kitchen. I'll use a saw and cleaver because it was just too much work for the little yields I got using a knife. Hopefully I'll get a few nice kitties to make it worth it.
On a more positive note Mike (with the hook still in his thumb) unloaded the live well. When I got home I noticed that under the huge carp were 2 nice wipers. What a surprise! I'll have a great dinner tonight. Thanks a ton Mike!!!!
Do any of you catfish guys that use carp have a better way of getting more bait meat from Utahs very own water based cockroach?
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All the Wipers were in the 18-22" range. Unfortunately, I didn't catch any Wipers except for one that Mike let me reel in while he was trying to pull a treble hook out of his thumb that had been impaled about 1/2" into his thumb by the previous wiper. He tried for about an hour to get it out eventually he just cut off the treble and left the point and the barb and a little of the shank stuck in his thumb and kept fishing for the rest of 4 hours we were there. What a trooper!!!
After 5 hours of fishing I hadn't caught a thing. Then my drag started singing and after such a long dry spell I was pretty excited. I thought I had a huge wiper on I only had 10 lb test on so I was really careful about bringing it in... it kept running and running. After a while I was able to bring it to the surface about 30 feet from behind the boat... I saw orange fins. Talk about a let down... all it was was a carp. But I still reeled it in took me a while. Usually with carp I just cut them loose but since I had him I thought I would use him for kittie bait. After I saw the fins I couldn't believe that a carp would take a lure. Turns out he didn't take the lure, I snagged him through the tail. I decided to keep him. I thought one less carp in any Utah lake is a good thing. We called it a day shortly thereafter.
All I can say about carp is that they are just evolution's evil tricks kind of like cockroaches. If there were ever a nuclear explosion cockroaches and carp would be what would survive. I had never kept a carp much less cleaned one. I wasn't all that concerned about saving a lot of the meat but I wanted enough for a few trips to Utah Lake. I was even planning on giving some away. After all a 20 pound fish should yield a lot of bait strips. I guess I just don't know how to clean a carp because all I was able to get were 2 filets about an inch thick and 18 inches long.
Carp are a slimy fish, and real slippery making it difficult to handle the big ones. Once I was able to wrestle it onto my kitchen counter (It was dead thankfully) I started to cut into it like I would a normal fish. I couldn't cut through the toenail type scales. In retrospect I should have cut under a row of scales not through them. Since my filet knife wasn't working I pulled out the seraded cutco bread knife and was finally able to break through the scales. I hit the center bone almost immediatly and tuned the knife toward the tail I cut off the filet and I was amazed at how little meat there was. I know now why there are so few commercial carp operations it's just not worth it. The quilty of the meat seems low and greasy oily flesh is not my idea of a good meal, of course maybe the small ones are better.
After cleaning a carp I can now see why few people eat them. Simply put they are gross fish. This one had no odor at all except maybe the scent of grass but to me the wiper had a stronger odor. This carp was greasy almost oily and had really dark meat. I can see why people consider it to be good for the kitties. Worst of all were those scales I'm convinced that half of the weight of this fish was the scales. I had a pile of scales 8 inches high and I didn't even scale the whole fish. Clearly those scales are natures way of protecting the carp from a nuclear winter.
If I ever decide to put myself through a carp ordeal like that again I'll do it outdoors not in the kitchen. I'll use a saw and cleaver because it was just too much work for the little yields I got using a knife. Hopefully I'll get a few nice kitties to make it worth it.
On a more positive note Mike (with the hook still in his thumb) unloaded the live well. When I got home I noticed that under the huge carp were 2 nice wipers. What a surprise! I'll have a great dinner tonight. Thanks a ton Mike!!!!
Do any of you catfish guys that use carp have a better way of getting more bait meat from Utahs very own water based cockroach?
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