Nice catch!
Where are you located? Did you release it (are you allowed to?)? What did you do with it otherwise?
this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2026
10 points (100.0% liked)
Fishing
645 readers
1 users here now
A place for anglers to discuss their catches and techniques.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Thanks! I caught this in western USA. I generally fish to eat but for carp I always release them back. Not a huge fan of the taste of carp
Understandable. Even though they're considered traditional edible fish were I live I'm not a huge fan of the taste either.
However, there are two recipe ideas that I think make them quite edible:
1. Fish cakes
(I pre-cook the fillets in a shallow pan with a little water, remove the bones from the cooked fish and then mix it with egg, breadcrumbs, dill, onions, garlic, salt, pepper and various spices... this way, you can get rid of the slightly unpleasant taste quite well. And, very practical for me, you can freeze the finished cakes and then have homemade fast food when you don't feel like cooking ^^)
2. Carp ham
(The fillets are salted in brine and then cold-smoked... supposedly very tasty, and I had planned to try it this spring. Maybe I'll remember to post here about how it turned out).
/edit: Am I right in thinking that the fish is hooked on a treble hook? Are you specifically fishing for carp this way, or was this a bycatch and the bait actually intended for another species?
Interesting! I’ll have to try one of these next time I get a carp. With the price of fish in the grocery stores it has me reconsidering what I throw back
What did you catch it on? Were you casting from the bank?
Yup just from the bank. I was using a carp dough bait.