They taste good. They get big. They are so abundant that they actually jump in your boat. So what’s the hitch?
This fish is almost too good to be true.
The hitch is bones. Not bones like bass, crappie, speckled trout and redfish have. They have only backbones and bones at the base of their fins.
Silver and bighead carp have intramuscular bones that are not attached to the rest of the skeleton. They are found free-floating in the flesh, which makes them hard to find and remove.
Both these species, as all other carps, are members of the minnow family of fishes, Cyprinidae. All cyprinids, from the smallest shiners to the biggest 100-pound carp, contain these y-shaped intramuscular bones.
Today, in the day of the boneless fillet, most people are not bone-friendly.
But not all bones are equal. Fortunately, in both silver and bighead carps, the intramuscular bones are large and easy to find. Choking on one isn’t likely.
In the fried strips of carp wings that were served at the silverfin promotion, I simply broke the strip in two, and the large, easy to see bone popped out. It was simple to lay the bone aside and enjoy the mild delectable taste of the flesh.
Producing these silverfin wings can be mastered very easily by following the steps in the illustrated instructions.
Silverfin can also be cleaned to produce boneless pieces of flesh, as the video below shows. Recipes and much other information on silverfin are available www.wlf.louisiana.gov.
Editor’s note: This story appears in the August issue of Louisiana Sportsman, now on newsstands across the state. Click here to ensure every information-packed issue is delivered right to your doorstep.
