Linesville,Pa. carp

This is the Linesville ,Pa. spillway at Pymatuning Lake. This place was written about in Ripley's -Believe-It-Or-Not as the "place where ducks walk on the fishes' backs. When you throw a loaf of bread in the water it literally disappears in five seconds or less. When they feed it sounds like a bunch of hogs. I've been told that they are occasionally dipped out and sold for fertilizer and pet food, but I don't know that to be a fact. The place is a big tourist attraction. But why,oh why, couldn't they be walleyes. LOL Dan

Here is another picture.

One more pic. I'm not sure I would want to fall in there. lol They are so thick that many have their scales knocked off. The ducks and geese were giving them room that day.

Resin, I've heard of the carp that you are referring to. The carp at Pymatuning are just "garden variety"carp. The ones I mentioned are not completely scaleless, but many are missing 50-75% of their scales. I have watched them spawning at night in shallow water. The noise they make splashing against rocks makes me wonder how they have any scales left at all. Dan

Wow, that is the most surreal fish sighting that I've ever seen or heard of.

are the carp enclosed or can they get out of that area?

The spillway goes underneath the highway bridge into the main lake . The lake is almost 15,000 acres. The fish have a lot of room to roam, but know where to come for a free meal.

Hmmm not the ideal fish for a lake...they eat the egg's of the resident species...and basically have no predator's to worry about once they get so big. I think all carp at one time were for small and large ponds but not for sure on that.

They are the most perfect fish to introduce kids to fishing. They are easy enough to catch and if the kids catch 50 or so of them, they taste great rolled in cornmeal and fried!

Burd Fotos, They certainly aren't the ideal fish for any lake. I was at Pymatuning early one Spring and some guys from the Pa. Fish Commission were in a boat close to shore checking the trap nets and stripping the eggs out of walleyes to take to the hatchery. There were about ten times as many carp in the trap than walleyes. I asked one of the workers if they had any idea what percentage of the walleyes in the lake were from natural production as opposed to artificial stocking. He said probably less than one per cent. The lake has a lot of mud flats and as you said the carp are no help. There used to be some carp fishing tournaments and some with bow and arrow but obviously not enough. They are great fun for the kids . The only one I ever tasted was smoked and I didn't know what it was. lol

Don't get me wrong smoked Carp can taste very good but it take's a couple of days for people to be friendly to you again. lol And very true kids do love to catch them. ;)

i lived on Bull Shoals lake in Arkansas back in the 80's and i've seen carp swarming around the boat docks like that, waiting for a tourist hand-out of fish food. it was a big draw. personally, they were too eerie and creepy for me! lol ....and those pig noises....ick!

i have to say that i've eaten a lot of smoked carp though, and it is mighty tasty! a friend used to pickle and can it using the old time water bath method in the ball jars...that too was really, really good.

A good friend of mine used to smoke fish all the time. He mostly smoked the salmon and steelhead I gave him, but he said any oily fleshed fish would work.He also smoked carp,sheepshead (drum) catfish, and white bass. About all I could taste was the salt and hickory smoke flavoring ,so I suppose it didn't matter what type of fish it was, except in my mind. I'm sure everyone has heard the joke about cooking carp. It starts with putting the carp on a board ,adding the salt, pepper and whatever else. Then placing it in an oven at such and such a temperature for however long and when you take it out of the oven ,you throw away the carp and eat the board. I do know several people who swear carp are very good eating.

Like with anything, it is all in how you cook it. My Dad would put lots of salt (flavor) and pepper in the cornmeal and fry them in peanut oil -this is the southern answer to everything funny tasting ^_^ You mostly taste the "fried" flavor. It made us kids feel great that WE provided the food for the party. With a limit of 50 per kid in Arkansas, us 5 kids and whatever cousins were with us could 1/2 fill a freezer with cleaned fish providing us with plenty of fish fry parties.

I have a soft spot for smoked/fried catfish. Have eaten fried sheep-head and fried perch egg's and liked both.

Burd Photos, how did you fry the perch eggs? Do you fry the entire sac? A guy I used to work with put salmon eggs in a blender with onions, green pepper and cheese and mixed it up. Then he fried it as an omelet. He said I should try it but I told him I thought I would pass. I'd much rather fish with them. LOL

JuneyBug, I've never cared much for baked fish so all our fish are rolled in cornmeal with lots of black pepper and deepfried. I'm sure it's not the healthiest way to eat fish but I love it. We ate some perch and crappie a while back that I had caught ice fishing back in March. I don't know if they tasted so good because they were caught in cold water or maybe because I hadn't had any in a while. LOL As my dad used to say "It was so good that you couldn't sit still while you ate it".

psudan...beer battered and deep fried...on a hotdog bun with ketchup...lol