Fish Identification help!

[akaShag]

33 minutes ago, AKRISONER said:

what hasnt been confirmed yet is...did the guy eat them 🤢

As I remarked earlier, a fellow I knew used to fish for them, specifically to eat them.  He poached them in water and claimed the flesh was just like trout.

[MJIG]

3 hours ago, akaShag said:

He poached them in water and claimed the flesh was just like trout.

I detest fish poachers.  Oh wait... 

 

[Beans]

Grass Carp ???

[akaShag]

11 minutes ago, Beans said:

Grass Carp ???

Nope.  Fallfish.

[John Bacon]

13 hours ago, Beans said:

Grass Carp ???

Grass carp eyes are lower in relation to their mouth.

 

[akaShag]

and grass carp are not fallfish.

[OhioFisherman]

On 8/17/2020 at 10:51 AM, akaShag said:

As I remarked earlier, a fellow I knew used to fish for them, specifically to eat them.  He poached them in water and claimed the flesh was just like trout.

When we were kids my dad took us fishing for the spring sucker runs, people used to eat them too. A different era? I always wondered about the number of people on my street growing up with pigeon coops, until my dad told me they were food not pets!

[misfish]

 

[OhioFisherman]

Rambo!

[OhioFisherman]

100 in the boat? My hero!

[akaShag]

3 hours ago, misfish said:

 

Interesting for sure.  But carp doesn't really appeal to me...................not that I wouldn't try it if somebody else cooked it!

Doug

[akaShag]

5 hours ago, OhioFisherman said:

When we were kids my dad took us fishing for the spring sucker runs, people used to eat them too. A different era? I always wondered about the number of people on my street growing up with pigeon coops, until my dad told me they were food not pets!

I have eaten canned suckers, if memory serves me they put tomato sauce (or maybe tomato paste) in the jars.  They told us it tasted like canned salmon, and I was a young boy and probably thought it was true.  In my memory, it was just fine.  I would eat it again, and hell I would probably can suckers again if I caught a bunch.

Pigeon (squab) is delicious!  Never heard of people raising them, but what a good idea!

Doug

[OhioFisherman]

I have probably eaten them too Doug, my grand parents lived above us in the city and they could cook anything. Not sure how much work was involved with the pigeons, they seemed like free range birds, just provide them with a safe place to sleep and breed?

Downtown Cleveland seemed to have millions of them hanging around, even on public square with all the traffic and people, now they have some nests for falcons to help thin the flock?

Can't picture them tasting much different than a cornish hen? chicken?

[misfish]

11 hours ago, akaShag said:

Pigeon (squab) is delicious!  Never heard of people raising them, but what a good idea!

Where my grandparents lived ( Lansdown and Wallace- Parkdale ) there were many that raised them for consumption. Mostly Italians.

[Fisherman]

Ya, I tried a few a couple years back, pigeon stew, tasted fine.   Just make sure you clean them well,  dirty birds, a.k.a. flying rats.

[akaShag]

5 hours ago, OhioFisherman said:

I have probably eaten them too Doug, my grand parents lived above us in the city and they could cook anything. Not sure how much work was involved with the pigeons, they seemed like free range birds, just provide them with a safe place to sleep and breed?

Downtown Cleveland seemed to have millions of them hanging around, even on public square with all the traffic and people, now they have some nests for falcons to help thin the flock?

Can't picture them tasting much different than a cornish hen? chicken?

It's been a while since I had any, but yes it tastes like bird.  Dark meat.

[Headhunter]

Well, to continue off topic..

I used to work for a guy who raced pigeons. He keep them by the hundreds, breeding the faster ones and "donating" the slow ones. Not uncommon for me to come in the office hearing cooing only to find a cage full of pigeons. Now, these were well fed birds living in the best place money could buy, so they were clean and healthy. Co-worker would grab the cage at lunch time, come back after lunch with an empty cage. His parents lived a few blocks from the office and pigoni was on the menu.

Also worked with a fellow born in Portugal who told me as a kid, he would put glue on top of fences to catch pigeons...

HH

[misfish]

36 minutes ago, Headhunter said:

Also worked with a fellow born in Portugal who told me as a kid, he would put glue on top of fences to catch pigeons...

[smitty55]

8 hours ago, Headhunter said:

Also worked with a fellow born in Portugal who told me as a kid, he would put glue on top of fences to catch pigeons...

HH

That is priceless...

I really got into pigeon hunting back in the 80's, it's a lot of fun and great practice for wing shooting, they fly pretty quick. I rented a farm for 5 years where I had year round shooting. There was a taxidermist that was in one gang I hunted with and he would mount them specifically with spread wings and a hook coming up the back for attaching to a line that they would set up to slide them down or leave static. Dairy farms were off limits though as all the blasting would turn the milk from the stress,  beef cattle were no problem for the most part, they didn't like having them in the hay mows. In the winter the birds would stage absorbing the heat from the sun for hours before they would head out to feed so it never had to be an early shoot
As for eating I really enjoy the meat, it's all dark except for the pink filet. Being so lean it requires care when cooking. The best methods I've used were the oven bags with bacon strips,  slow cooker, and the clay baker works quite well too.

When it comes to processing they are real easy too, it takes less than 5 seconds to breast them out skinned, nice and clean too. Grab the heart and then a quick rinse and wipe dry. I honestly don't remember exactly how I first tried the technique, I've always had American outdoor mag  subscriptions since the 70's so it may have been some article on pigeon shooting in Field and Stream or Outdoor Life. Regardless, it's ridiculously simple. Hold the dove upside down in your hands under the wings with your thumbs up at the breast bone on each side. Squeeze a bit and then with your thumbs just split the quite thin skin along the breast bone and peel it down exposing  the breasts. Takes a second. Then you make a claw with your thumb and two fingers with your index finger at the top. Grab the breast with thumb on one side and middle finger on the other and index finger in at the top and just pivot the wrist back and rip the the breast out, works great, no loss of meat. Leg meat is minimal, but if you had enough carcasses and legs you could make a decent stock.

Cheers

[philc]

yup ....Fall fish