Fishing in hot water

Carp:
It's so hot the rivers in Montana are closed to fishing most of the
day, and you really
don't want to mess with the poor fish even when it's open....they're
all half dead as it is.

So, some guys I know have rigged
a driftboat up like a flats boat, with a polling platform
in back, They've been chasing carp on various
hot and shallow irrigation impoundments.

You pole around looking for muds, where the fish are digging for
worms or crawdads. You sneak up on them and cast a woolly bugger.
Like bonefish they're real spooky and hard to catch. Unlike bonefish
10-15
pound fish are common. And they take you into the backing
every time.

The Chinese and Germans like to eat carp. I wonder if there
is a way to prepare them that works. I know I want to catch
a few. I might even try eating one.....once anyway.

Catfish:
Talking about carp reminds me of the last time it
got this hot. It was almost 20 years ago, in 1988,
the year of the big fires in Yellowstone Park.

The trout fishing wasn't much good anywhere that
year--by the end of the summer anyway. So a buddy
and I floated the Big Horn River from
Hardin all the way out to the Yellowstone.
It took four days of paddling and three nights
camping on the river. We caught big carp, a few
Sauger (wild walleyes), Goldeneye (fresh water shad)
and big catfish. We used spinning rods and night
crawlers most of the time. But we also brought
a slab of fresh, soft-white, un-smoked pork skin
we got from the butcher.

We rigged strips of that up like rubber worms, with
a big split shot, and cast them with 8 weight fly rods.

We caught channel catfish to 4-5 pounds on the fly rod.
Now that was a blast. They like to hang out in the
fast riffly water just upstream from deep swirling holes.

It could be the 15 pound cats are the the bottom of
those deep holes. But the 3-4 pounders seem to like the riffles,
where they're a lot easier to get at.

Might have to try that again soon too. The confluence pool,
where the Big Horn dumps into the Yellowstone, is supposed
to hold some of the biggest channel cats in Montana.

"salmobytes" wrote in message
oups.com...

The Chinese and Germans like to eat carp. I wonder if there
is a way to prepare them that works. I know I want to catch
a few. I might even try eating one.....once anyway.

Various species of carp have made their way around the world, imported
specifically as a source of food. Never cooked carp myself, but I've eaten
it. I've had smoked carp on several occasions and it was excellent. It
shouldn't be hard to find information on how to prepare it. Good luck.

Wolfgang

The Chinese and Germans like to eat carp. I wonder if there
is a way to prepare them that works. I know I want to catch
a few. I might even try eating one.....once anyway.

Our club here just had their carp fest. One of the things we had
after a long day of flailing at carp was carp cakes. Coming from
Maryland, you can understand my trepidation at ingesting a piscatorial
amous bouche coming from a non-Chesapeake bay beast. The carp cake
was AWESOME!
Evidently, the key with carp is to place them in a tub of fresh,
clean, aerated water for 5 days and feed them cornmeal. Then fillet,
strip out the bones and prep as you would for the crab cake.
There's a restaurant here called Joe Tess' Place that specializes in
carp. If any ROFFian is ever in town, I'll take 'em to lunch there.
It'll suprise you.
Frank Reid

Funny you should mention carp . . . .

http://home.mountaincable.net/~pcharles/P7280300.jpg

http://home.mountaincable.net/~pcharles/P7280304.jpg

Peter

On Aug 2, 12:22 pm, Peter wrote:

Funny you should mention carp . . . .

Holy smokes, I thought you were long gone from this mudpuddle...

Hope things are well in the GWN.

Jon.

Funny you should mention carp . . . .

http://home.mountaincable.net/~pcharles/P7280300.jpg

http://home.mountaincable.net/~pcharles/P7280304.jpg

Peter


Wouldn't the Brits have you thrown out of the Commonwealth for
catching coarse fish on a game fish rod?
Welcome back!
Frank Reid

On Aug 2, 3:07 pm, wrote:
On Aug 2, 12:22 pm, Peter wrote:

Funny you should mention carp . . . .

Holy smokes, I thought you were long gone from this mudpuddle...

Hope things are well in the GWN.

Jon.

Ya, we're managing, but with climate change 'n' all, figured I'd
better polish up the warm water skills.

On Aug 2, 3:57 pm, Frank Reid wrote:
Funny you should mention carp . . . .

http://home.mountaincable.net/~pcharles/P7280300.jpg

http://home.mountaincable.net/~pcharles/P7280304.jpg

Peter

Wouldn't the Brits have you thrown out of the Commonwealth for
catching coarse fish on a game fish rod?
Welcome back!
Frank Reid

on a salmon rod no less . . . . guess I've gone hopelessly
colonial . . . . happens to the best of us.

salmobytes wrote:


yow..."coarse fishing" in montana...who'd ever have thunk it? sounds
like fun, though disheartening to hear the reason compelling such outings.

....your post interested me in a boating expedition on my next trip west.
thus far, i've hiked and waded in montana, yellowstone park, and
idaho... i'd like to try some of what rw, danl, willi, and bruiser have
done in alaska...rafting, fishing, camping a scenic river system, but
without going to alaska. are there trout rivers in montana, idaho, or
wyoming...i assume the yellowstone is one...where you can spend 5 days
or so moving along in a drift boat/raft, stopping to fish and camp along
the way, without hiring a licensed guide? assuming one has all the
necessary stuff and boat, is it do-able and what are the best river
systems? thanks...

jeff

On Thu, 02 Aug 2007 14:31:55 -0000, salmobytes
wrote:

Carp:

snipped for brev

When I fished the Big Horn a few years ago, it was miserably hot. One
day it got to 104. The guide said it would be 106 the next day, so we
decided to go to the reservoir above the dam and fish for "lips". We
put in at the boat ramp and rowed to a sand stone cliff area where the
swallows were making nests. Part of the cliff overhangs the water, so
when the birds poop it lands in the water and the carp eat it.

I was casting a Madam X, big thing. When I spotted a carp on the
surface, all I could see were its lips moving slowly along. A cast
five or ten feet directly in front of its path resulted in a hook up.
The first fish scared the hell out of me. When I set the hook, it
took off like a tarpon, taking out all 90 feet of my fly line and
several yards of my backing. It was unreal. I recovered most of my
line/backing, only to have the fish dive straight down from the boat
to at least 120 feet. They are ugly, but man, what a fight. We
landed about a dozen in the next two hours, most 10+ lbs.

Dave