Bear lake monsters

[TubeDude]

Carp from clean water are fantastic smoked! Just sayin! 

I need you to elaborate on this.

Carp from clean waters are a good food fish...period.  Their flesh cooks up firm and flaky, with little or no "fishy" taste.  Trout from weedy waters like Strawberry are worse tasting than carp from clean water.  The main problem with them is the bones...lots of small flesh bones.  

To process carp for cooking or smoking you need to first fillet and skin them.  Then you need to feel out the rows of tiny flesh bones.  Either cut them out...leaving strips of boneless flesh...or cross score them with a knife to help them soften during cooking.  I prefer the boneless strips method.  Time consuming to do it, but worth it...especially if others will be eating the end product.  Carp that are slow-cooked in the oven for a long time...or bottled...have the bones softened to the point they are edible...like canned sardines, etc.  Pickling also neutralizes the bones and makes a surprisingly good product.

A good story for ya.  While living in Sacramento I usually had smoked salmon and steelhead in my refrigerator.  My buddies would always raid my stash when they came over.  One afternoon I took my daughter fishing on Nimbus Lake...on the American River just east of Sacramento.  Good clean water.  My daughter brought in a couple of big carp...along with some nice rainbows.  I kept the carp and prepped them for the smoker.  The end result was pretty darned good.  So I put them in the "smoked fish section" of my refrigerator.  

You guessed it.  When the buddies showed up for Monday night football they hit the smoked goodies (carp) and snarfed it down.  They all agreed it was some of the best smoked salmon I had turned out.  Imagine the looks on their faces when I informed them that it was "bugle-mouthed" salmon.  To their credit, none of them ralphed on my living room floor.  And all but one readily agreed they had a new respect for carpkind.  The other guy just remained quiet for a while and left before halftime.  After that they were a bit more careful to inspect the smoked stuff before cleaning me out.

Carp is a heavy-fleshed fish...like catfish.  And like catfish it smokes up well...but takes longer than you would smoke trout or salmon.  And a dry rub salting and seasoning works better than a wimpy brine solution.  Stronger tasting wood...like hickory...seems to work better than lighter fruit woods or alder.  But it always a matter of personal taste...said the old maid as she kissed the cow.