Do any of you eat Carp/Alligator Gar?

My mother just told me they used to eat carp in Mexico. I always heard they have awful flesh.

Ive eaten both. Both tasted good to me. Its all how you prepare them. Most people who talk bad about them have never eaten them and only pass down bad information. Granted I don't eat them now due to too much respect for them as worthy fighting sport fish. If I was going to eat a fish, i'd goto the coast.

I've eat both and they are very good. I eat a small carp a few years ago, pressured cooked it with Old Bay and it came out very white and nice firm flesh.

How would you prepare it? Fillets? My mother is the type of person whose brothers would deep fry panfish and eat the bones and all...

Wouldn't advise that with carp

If I was going to pan fry I would pressure cook for 40-45 minutes then make patties and roll in fish fry or cornmeal and fry or bake in the oven. The pressure cooking will turn the bones to chalk like Salmon in the can. I'd also stick with smaller fish less than 4#.

I've eaten neither, I sat next to a Cajun lady on a plane . Her family owned
a fish camp and had access to everything that swims in south Louisiana , fresh and salt.
Her favorite dish was gar balls . I would like to try them some day , but
it has been a while since I caught a alligator gar.

Mo

I'm not saying I am trying to fry them I am saying that I am wondering how people that actively eat them eat them.

I'd say the majority of people in this section are catch and release anglers.

Carp can be deep fried like any other fish but you must scour the fillets to break up the bones. You can then eat the fish bones and all, but ofcourse still be careful. Carp are also good on the grill, keep the skin on and grill them skin side down. Baste with hearty flavors like mesquite, bbq, teriyaki, etc. Then pick out the bones as you eat them. Unfortunately Carp can have a strong earthy taste to them, so marinating them overnight in "bright" flavors like sprite, 7up, etc, will really make them taste alot better. (Same for any fish btw.)

Please only eat Carp under 10lbs, the best eating size is 5lbs for sure.

Buffalo taste incredible and to this day are one of the most popular commercial fish in Texas. And chances are Buffalo is what you're eating at any typical buffett. Cook them the same way as Carp, but they have lighter tasting flesh so you can also use sweet and sour type sauces for this fish. Again...on the grill they are superb. Perfect eating size, 5-10lbs.

Forget Alligator Gar, stick with Longnose Gar if you want some good eating Gar! The flesh is white, boneless, but... a little more softer, spongy compared to other fish. So the flesh of Longnose Gar is SUPERB for patties, gar balls, etc. Boil small chunks in Crab Boil until they float, dip in butter, cocktail sauce and enjoy!

When it comes to Catch & Eating rough fish, you REALLY and I mean REALLY need to research ahead of time what your plans are. You don't want to bring home any rough fish from stagnant waters. Plus keep in mind the population where you're fishing at. Taking home a mess of Carp from Joe Pool (they taste good from there btw!) will NEVER hurt the population for instance.

Longnose Gar are doing well and are available pretty much anywhere in the DFW area, you can take as many as you want (for tablefare) and never hurt the population. Perfect eating size, pretty much any.

There is a restaurant in Omaha NE that is famous for selling carp www.joetessplace.com. I ate alot of buffalo as a kid. We called it adult fish meal because the many small bones would make it difficult for children to eat. My mother would purchase the buffalo from Bob Jones Fish Market that was located in Oak Cliff. It is a very good eating fish. Use to go with my dad to catch gar out of the Trinity back in the 60's. He had cousin who lived in Kaufman that would take all the gar and coon you would give them. They made gar balls out of the gar but I never ate them.

Reggie

They catch tons of these nasty Asian carp up here. Tons. They ship them to Asia where they are eaten. Damn things are dangerous. Hope they catch all of them.

We are talking about Common Carp, not Asian Silver or Bighead

I will agree with Reggie on the Buffalo from Bob Jones right in the hood on Lancaster Rd.One of my childhood friends Dad was an avid Carp and Buffalo Fisherman .He would make his own bait and he would just Kill the Carp and Buffalo near Regal Row & California Crossing and his wife would take the Carp and I don`t know how or what she did with them but you would eat your head off after she was done they were so GOOD.

My grandparents live in Omaha and used to take me to Joe Tess' all the time when I was young. I had no idea we were eating carp! From what I remember, that place was great.

Thanks, that is very informative. My mother wants to get a fishing license soon and I want to take her out to catch some guaranteed fish. I think California Crossing Dam/Park might be the spot. I never knew there were so many types of Carp/Gar. I've only ever been exposed to alligator gar and common carp (brown scaled carp). I will have to look up what Buffalo and Longnose gar are.

The sand bass run at Rowlett creek is only about 4 months away. It would be the perfect place to take her to catch plenty of fish. Keep your eyes out on the bank fishing section in early spring.

Reggie

I looked for Rowlett Creek. Are you referring to Rowlett Creek Preserve in Garland? Or some section of Rowlett Creek in particular?

You are correct The creek that runs under Miller Rd all the way to Firewheel Pkwy.However the place to be during the run is just south of the Firewheel Brigde for the most part.

Thanks for clarifying that. There are other posts that say that place is closed for remodeling and won't be open until next year.

They sell buffalo in just about every Asian and Hispanic grocery store so quite a few people eat them.

I've never eaten alligator gar, but I have tried longnose gar and found the meat to be surprisingly good - firm and white. It's worth the trouble of cleaning them (which is kind of fun as a new experience the first time you do it - requires a hack saw and metal snips).

Carp are a different story. I wouldn't say that their meat is bad as such as long as they come from clean water (and as long as you cut out the dark, bloody and fatty tissue along the lateral line), it's just kind of bland and flavorless. It reminds me of tilapia, actually.

The big drawback of carp isn't so much their flavor as how bony they are: their fillets are full of thin, y-shaped bones that you (or at least I) can't really get out. If the meat were delicious, it would justify the trouble and effort of dealing with the bones. Since it's mediocre at best, to me it isn't.

Having said that, I'm thinking of trying to pickle some carp the next time I catch them - gets rid of the bones, and if it can make herring tasty, it can make anything tasty.