Stinky Rotten Carp and Catfish at Utah Lake

[Fin-S-Fish]

Well, I went down to Utah Lake State Park to see what was going on and the water has come up significantly, 6ft +. However, the dead carp are floating all over the harbor and it stinks worse than willow pond last year with the dead goldfish. Almost couldn't stand to fish there but saw some kids pulling in good sized channel cats with walleye curl tail grubs. Weird! In that murky water! Well I thought it a bit early for the cats with no warm spring there but after seeing several caught with my 12x binoculars, I decided to try it for a bit. Caught a 3lb cat about 21 inches within 5 minutes. I was quite suspicious of the water what with so many stinky winterkilled carp around so I gently put my nose close to the fish's back. Pheeehew, it stunk pretty bad. So I started to release it when it spit out the culprit of the stench. You guessed it, a big chunk of rotten carp complete with giant scales came out of its mouth. I couldn't believe it, they were willing to eat that rotten flesh. I caught several more that also went back right away, smelling the same way. I had now uncovered why so many channels were in there as they never have been before. They were gorging on the dead, rotten, stinky carp. Yuck!!! There was a guy there that kept several of the contaminated fish, LOL! Yummmy dinner for him. By the way, no lmb, walleyes, or anything else. Tried the dikes too, no walleyes seen caught by anyone.
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[hedgesd]

Thats funny but what did you think catfish eat? Anything they can but mainly bottom scavengers.
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[cat_man]

LOL!!! [cool][][][][laugh][crazy][sly]

Well that's exactly what a lot of people use for bait when catfishing -- stinkbaits!!! Many have gruesome recipes where they let carp meat rot in the sun all day, add this and that, etc. I actually prefer using fresh meat but cats will eat anything they can living or dead. They're slightly more picky than the carp though, they won't eat plant matter and algae. lol

Even though I love catfishing, I've never actually eaten catfish. I've let them all go or given them away. I prefer fish like trout, walleye, perch, etc. to eat.
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[glassyeyedPaul]

One man's junk is another's treasure translates to fish... carp is treasure to those cats! Let's be glad we have carp so those cats can get real heavy and break our poles...
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[catchandrelease]

I love eating catfish. They are some tastey stuff. I have had bad ones, but for the most part they are really good. Skin them and you have a delicacy! Cajun spices and you're set!
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[kokeking]

Sounds like them cat's will be gettin big and fun to catch.Mother nature at work,what killed the carp,winter kill?
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[hedgesd]

I love the sweet flavor of cat fish. Carp is suppose to be good but never tried it, yet. Can't really knock it til I try it.
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