Carp-Do people really throw the fish on shore as fertilizer

[Photoz]

Actually, they ARE tasty (similar to bass) and MANY people DO eat them. Hit some of the big fish markets downtown, and see what a live carp will set ya back. Although I'm not sure, I believe these are commercially caught?

[Casey123]

This is the best thing about our country, we are are entiled to our own opinions.

 

 

The irrefutable Facts:

 

Carp are an invasive species

Carp Destroy wetlands

Carp can live in water with very low oxygen levels and tolerate very high pollution

Carp provide a hell of a fight

Some people love eating bottom feeders

We will never irradicate carp, no matter how hard I try.

 

 

 

By the way, the water quality in Cootes is not that bad, as it flows into Hamilton Harbour, not out of. The pike hatchery has been inmproving since the installation of the Carp barrier.

If you want to take an interesting trip, go down to the carp dam in the spring, April is best. The MNR and volunteers work every day, recording species heading upstream and throwing the carp downstream of the barrier.

 

No carp are killed (too bad), just relocated back to Hamilton Harbour.

 

I guess next we will hear someone defending Round Gobies??

Edited February 23, 2008 by 4Reel

[danbouck]

I tried carp last year. I DO NOT recommend it lol! Can't quite explain the taste but I had to try it!

[Photoz]

I've fished the carp barrier . . . . never saw a pike taken out of the cages, (pike can survive in fairly tepid water too) lotsa bass . . . . but I've seen some MASSIVE carp go back down the 'shute,' some I'd bet would have EASILY hit 50 pounds. Plus the occasional sheepshead too, but the carp come in there during the spawn . . . . never caught one there, even with the water being loaded with 'em. Although I'd eat Kawartha & Lake Simcoe carp, I kinda draw the line at Hamilton Harbour carp . . . . never thought of glow-in-the-dark fish as being very palatable. But . . . . speaking of eating bottom-feeding fish, I'll take a ling any day of the week over any other fish in Ontario!

[mercforever]

remember the old man telling stories of them using lobster for fertilizer in the garden,back in cape breton,it used to be a poor man's meal.I guess the lobster have come a long way.......

[Photoz]

LOBSTER . . . . . . the cockroach of the ocean . . . . and are considered by many as the top of the delicasy ladder? Cooked properly, ling have a similar taste!

[livinisfishin]

Exellent Response to this topic so far, thanks guys

[Carp]

All this negativity regarding carp.

 

Nobody loves me. I think I'm going to cry!

[troutologist]

My grandma always was looking for some fish to bury in the garden come spring. they used to dip suckers. Once my cousin and I got old enough we started bowfishing....15 fish did for the whole garden. Stunk a bit but they were a foot under the earth

[Fishnwire]

My neighbour used to put my smelt heads and guts in her garden. She was a pretty good gardener, so she must have known what she was doing.

 

Letting fish die on the shore and not eating them just seems wrong to me. The fact that some species are invasive and destructive is a compelling argument though...........So I guess I'm adding nothing to this discussion.

[Rich]

Lots of people use them as fertilizer. Kinda seems like a waste to me. Spend all that time fishing for, and reeling in these brutes just to toss them in a garden. I'm sure it works. IMO toss gobies in your garden and leave the carp. Killing off one or two won't help anything. Whereas killing off 5000 gobies for your garden, well that might leave a dent in the immediate area where you caught them. lol

[PatrickGG]

[Casey123]

I hear dead horse tastes good too, add it to the lobster, ling and carp

Edited February 24, 2008 by 4Reel

[wolfville]

It is illegal to "abandon fish or permit the flesh to spoil". Wether you like that fish or not. Refer to page 9 in the regs.

[Marko]

I was raised and taught to treat fish with respect and every other fisherman fishing around me.

If you dont want to eat the damn thing then let it go, there is no point in catching and killing it and leaving it there to rot and smell for other fishermen who might be fishing nearby.

[troutologist]

Im not gonna say what I have done is implicitly right, but this is what my family has done for 75+ yrs. If the MNR allows bowfishing for certain species there may be some scientific basis for this.

[pikehunter]

I tried carp last year. I DO NOT recommend it lol! Can't quite explain the taste but I had to try it! Gonefishing.gif

 

Brave man, very brave man.

 

When I was young and fished the Grand with my father he would toss the carp and suckers on the shore to let them integrate back into the ecosystem, a word no one heard of back then! But they never lasted long enough to rot. Some "foreigner" would come along and ask if he could have them? Sure take them all and the next one I catch you can have it too was his answer.

 

As a teen my buddies would spear suckers in Rambo Creek in Burlington, I never joined in with the fun as it never occurred to me that standing on the creek bank with a spear in my hand would much fun and I thought that just spearing suckers and tossing them up on the bank was pointless. Today there are no suckers spawning in that creek, at least that part of it anyway. This could be due to the city diverting about 1/2 the water to a concrete channel for flood control and who knows maybe too many were speared?

[Rich]

The funniest part about the fertilizer thing... people don't eat these carp because they are so big and full of pollutants. So they throw them in their garden. I guess they don't think all those pollutants will grow right into the vegetables?

[lew]

Hey Rich, your new signature is hilarious hahaha

 

That'd make a great bumper sticker

[bigfish1965]

Are carp a non-native species? Yes...

But so are chinook salmon, rainbow trout and smallmouth bass. The carp's size and feeding method does lead to some habitat damage but nearly ever lake that has them, has adapted to it. Good thing about nature....it an usually survive whatever stupidity we throw at it.

[fishing]

I release the fish. Over the years I saw people catch hundreds of fish, around 95% of them were released. About 5% were kept. Some people think small carp taste good. Many people enjoy fighting them. Saw only one fish was left on shore dying. Its eyeball was missing, a bird must have taken it.

[Casey123]

If someone wants to dispatch of a carp and use it as fertalizer aka. worm food, I say great, as long as they are not breaking any laws. If someone wants to through a fish on shore and watch it sufficate, well to me that is just plain sick.

As with any fish we keep, they should be dispatched in a humane and quick manner.

I don't think we should be promoting cruelty toward and fish species.

[bassjnkie]

EDITED:

 

 

L8ter!!!!

Edited February 25, 2008 by GOOD BYE

[pikehunter]

WOW! Such harsh words have been spoken. I guess we have to say good bye Good Bye

[Rizzo]

THAT CARP ARE A SPORT FISH. You all think your great all knowing profesional fisherman, that don't know you head from you donkey, when there is proof

 

I didn't really think we were discussing whether carp were sport fish or not. I couldn't care less if its a sportfish. If I find one that makes it into our small, land-locked lake I'm taking it out for reasons previously mentioned.