How to catch grass carp: top secrets from experienced fishermen

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White carp is a large and beautiful fish from the Carp family. It is valued for its beneficial properties. It grows quickly and adapts well to the ecological niches of various fresh water bodies. It is a commercial fish. Possessing excellent taste, it also brings additional benefits to water bodies, effectively clearing them of excess aquatic vegetation on which it feeds.

Origin of the species and description

Photo: White Cupid

Grass carp (Ctenopharyngon idella) belongs to the Carp family, order Cypriniformes, class Bony fish. This species comes from East Asia, where its distribution is still high, starting from the Amur River and reaching the southern Chinese borders.

Video: Grass Cupid

Belamur appeared in Russian rivers under the Soviet Union, when in the early 60s it was introduced and acclimatized to effectively combat abundant aquatic vegetation. It cleans water bodies very effectively, eating up to 2 kg of aquatic plants per 1 kg of its body weight within one day. On average, a large adult individual can eat about 20-30 kg of algae per day.

Interesting fact: Grass carp is able to eat not only underwater plants, but can also eat terrestrial vegetation, for this purpose it goes to places where rivers flood. Cases have been recorded of representatives of the species jumping out of the water to grab land plants.

This species is found in central irrigation canals and ponds used for cooling power plants. In such natural conditions, the fish is not able to spawn, and its reproduction occurs with the help of larvae brought from the Krasnodar Territory and Moldova.

White carp is a useful fish that is bred for commercial purposes. Has excellent taste. The meat is fatty, tasty and dense, white in color, nutritious. The liver of grass carp is also valuable; it is also used for food; the liver is large, with a high fat content.

Use in cooking

White carp meat is a universal product, so it can easily be processed in different ways. And the dishes always look appetizing.

Cooking

A traditional fisherman's dish made from river fish is fish soup.

Ingredients:

• White amur;
• onion - 1 pc.;
• potatoes - 2-3 pcs.;
• carrots - 1 pc.;
• salt, pepper, bay leaf.

Grass carp ear.
Recipe:

1. The carcass should be thoroughly cleaned, so scales, fins, entrails and gills are removed.
2. The fish is cut into small pieces and a little salt is added.
3. Before placing it in boiling water, wash it again, removing excess salt and remaining mucus.
4. Add an onion, finely chopped or whole (to taste), to boiling water.
5. Add large potato cubes and carrots, whole or coarsely chopped. Cook everything over low heat until the potatoes are completely cooked.
6. Add pieces of meat and cook for about 20 minutes.
7. Add salt and spices, close the lid and remove from heat. Let it brew.

Baking

There are many recipes for baked cupid on the Internet. For example.

The carcass is washed well, gutted, cleaned of entrails, and the gills are removed. The finished carcass is salted with coarse salt, spices are added, sprinkled with lemon juice, wrapped in foil and placed in the oven for 30-45 minutes at a temperature of 180-200º.

The Amur delicacy dish is ready to eat, while all the vitamins and many useful substances are preserved. Suitable for people watching their weight.

Grass carp baked in foil.

Frying

The product contains fat, so after frying the dish remains juicy, but its calorie content increases. Therefore, it is not recommended for people who have health problems or are overweight.

Algorithm:

1. Prepare the product: remove scales, remove entrails and gills.
2. Cut the carcass into pieces.
3. Salt all the pieces with coarse salt, add spices to taste, sprinkle with lemon and leave to marinate for 15 minutes.
4. Roll the pieces in breadcrumbs or flour.
5. Fry in a well-heated frying pan over high heat until a crust forms.

Pickling

The condition for good salting is fresh fish, just caught from the reservoir.

They gut the carcass, trying not to damage the internal organs, remove the gills, and wash them well. A large specimen for pickling is cut into large pieces. Small - salted whole.

For salting, fish is cut into large pieces and rubbed with coarse salt without additives.

All pieces are rubbed with coarse salt without additives. Then a layer of pieces is placed tightly on the bottom of the container, a lot of salt is added and the next portion is added. The steps are repeated until all pieces of meat are in the container.

A wooden circle or lid is placed on top, which fits freely into the container. Install heavy oppression. Place in a cool place.

After a few days you can try the delicacy.

Appearance and features

Photo: Grass carp fish

Grass carp is a fairly large fish, reaching a length of 1.2 m and a weight of up to 40 kg. The body has an elongated valval shape, with some flattening noted on the sides. The head is low, the mouth is set straight, the rear edge of the mouth does not extend beyond the front edge of the eyes in a vertical line. The forehead is very wide.

The teeth are special - pharyngeal, arranged in 2 rows, compressed in the lateral direction, the edge of the teeth is very sharp, can be compared to a saw, with an uneven serrated surface. The scales are large, dense, with a dark stripe located at the very edge of each scale. The scales on the abdomen are light, without a rim. The back and belly between the fins have a rounded shape.

Fins:

• the dorsal fin has a somewhat rounded shape, starts slightly in front of the ventral fins, the fin is high, but not long, has 7 branched rays and 3 unbranched ones;
• pelvic fins do not reach the anus;
• the anal fin has a slightly rounded shape, small size, has 8 branched and 3 unbranched rays;
• the caudal fin is large, its notch is medium.

All fins are light, except for the caudal and dorsal. The back of grass carp is green with a gray tint, the sides are light golden, with 40-47 scales located along the lateral line. Above the gills there is a gill cover, on which stripes diverge radially. Gills with sparse and short stamens. The eyes have a golden iris. Grass carp has 42-46 vertebrae and a dark, almost black peritoneum.

Where does White Cupid live?

Photo: Live grass carp

The natural habitats of the fish are East Asia, namely, from the Amur River and south to Xijiang. In Russia, Amur lives in the river of the same name, its middle and lower reaches. For the purpose of acclimatization, in the 60s of the 20th century, fish were released into many rivers of the USSR.

Among which:

• Don;
• Dnieper;
• Volga;
• Kuban;
• Amur;
• Yenisei and others.

The move-in was carried out with the aim of clearing plant accumulations.

The introduction of fish into freshwater bodies was also carried out:

• North America;
• Europe;
• Asia;
• on Sakhalin.

The main purpose of the introduction is the reproduction of fish as an object for fish farming. It spawns mainly in the Songhua River, Lake Khanka, the Ussuri River, in the rivers of China, on the Don, and on the Volga. Now grass carp lives in almost all reservoirs, large lakes and river-lake systems:

• Moldova;
• European part of Russia;
• Belarus;
• Central Asia;
• Ukraine;
• Kazakhstan.

The presence of fish in rivers, reservoirs and pond farms is ensured only through artificial propagation.

What does grass carp eat?

Photo: Grass carp fish

An important condition for the existence of fish is the presence of abundant higher vegetation, since grass carp is a herbivorous fish and feeds exclusively on plants. The food for young grass carp initially consists of zooplankton and small crustaceans. As it grows, upon reaching an intestinal length of 6 to 10 cm, the fish switches to feeding on plants.

Plant food is the main component of the diet, but sometimes individuals of the species can eat young fish. Unpretentiousness to food is the main feature of eating behavior. While in the pond, you can happily eat the food that is designed for carp.

Plant food preferred by grass carp:

• soft grass;
• elodea;
• duckweed;
• thread;
• chilim;
• hornwort;
• pondweed;
• reed leaves;
• sedge;
• hard algae.

It prefers easily accessible food, so it likes the soft stems and pre-cut leaves of reeds. However, when there is no “favorite” food, cupid begins to eat everything, indiscriminately including emergent plants, which it pulls and uproots. He eats some of it, but spits out a lot of it. It can eat beet tops, cabbage leaves, and clover.

The temperature range from 25 to 30° C is best suited for active feeding of carp. The weight of food eaten at this temperature range is up to 120% of its own weight. The digestion process in this species occurs quickly; food passing through the short gastrointestinal tract is not completely absorbed. Very rarely, as an option, it eats insects, leeches, and mollusks.

Interesting fact: In the winter, when the temperature is low and there is not enough, and sometimes no plant food at all, it may not eat at all. This occurs due to the fact that the body has accumulated a supply of nutrients during the period of active nutrition. At the same time, there is a decrease in metabolism and all body functions of individuals.

Features of breeding in ponds

Recently, a decrease in the natural population of carp has been observed, so its artificial breeding has begun actively. This is facilitated by interest in its excellent taste and ability to quickly increase weight. During the day he eats as much plant food as he weighs. Its significant weight attracts fish farmers.

The fry grows quickly, gaining 300-800 grams by 2-3 years of its life, which is significantly ahead of its relatives.

Breeding this type of carp on farms requires a lot of attention and support of a natural diet. A voracious gourmet consumes artificial food with an appetite, but such food is poorly digested, as a result the taste of the meat deteriorates. If there is little vegetation in the pond, it eats the eggs of other, smaller fish. Therefore, it is necessary to additionally feed - add terrestrial plants to the water: cereals, alfalfa, clover, reeds.

Grass carp cannot naturally reproduce in artificially created reservoirs. With regular catching, the breeder independently replenishes the number of individuals by raising fry from eggs. And this is a rather complicated process. Even the most favorable conditions for growing eggs produce no more than 60% of fry.

Features of character and lifestyle

Photo: Grass carp fish

Belamur in its natural habitat migrates depending on seasonal frequency. When it is warm, it is found in the appendages of rivers, and closer to cold weather and during winter it lives in the river bed, where it can gather in flocks in holes in the river bottom.

Grass carp is a stenophage, that is, it uses a definitely narrow range of food for feeding - these are mostly aquatic plants; it can also use terrestrial plants growing on the slopes of rivers and reservoirs. To tear off the plant, it uses its jaws, and with the help of its pharyngeal teeth, the plant fibers are ground. Young animals less than 3 cm can be used to feed on small crustaceans, crustaceans and rotifers.

Sexual maturity occurs at different times in different habitats. So, in its native environment - the Amur River basin, sexual maturity occurs by 10 years. In Chinese rivers a little earlier, by 8-9 years.

Interesting fact: Representatives of the species living in the rivers of Cuba reach sexual maturity very early, at 1-2 years of age.

The eggs are spawned in portions, the spawning is spread out over time:

• in Chinese rivers from April to August;
• in the Amur basin during June and July. Simultaneous spawning is also assumed.

The eggs are pelagic, meaning they float in the water column. 3 days after the eggs are laid, the larvae hatch from them; it is important that the water temperature should not be lower than 20°C. The fry soon move towards the shore, where they have all the necessary conditions, including food - insects, larvae, small crustaceans, algae. After body growth of 3 cm, it switches to feeding on vegetation.

Belamur is not shy, but very cautious. He has places to hide, for example, at the bottom of a river hole or in branches. The routes along which the fish swim are the same. In sunny times it likes to swim in the upper warm layers of the reservoir.

Spicy fish with a crispy crust

Required:

• grass carp carcass or fillet – 3-4 kg;
• hot pepper pod;
• several garlic cloves;
• seasoning: ground (black) pepper or original hops-suneli;
• table salt is added according to personal preferences;
• baking flour, premium – 3 tbsp. l.;
• vegetable-based oil - 50 g.

By clicking on the link - - you can find out how to quickly clean the scales of river and river perch. The easiest way is to treat with boiling water. Read more about this.

After reading the article “Soy meat: benefits and harms,” you will learn several recipes for its preparation, and you will also know that it can easily replace natural meat. This is especially true for those losing weight.

How to cook:

1. If you take a carcass, you will have to gut it thoroughly. The fins of the fish are cut off because it will be more convenient to eat this way. You also need to remove the skin and scales. The gills, like the entrails, are necessarily separated from the fish. The meat must be washed with running water. Dry it with a paper towel.
2. The pepper is cleared of seeds and stalks. Then, using a blender or food processor, it must be turned into a mushy mass.
3. Pepper gruel, seasoning, salt and garlic pressed through a garlic press are mixed in one container, adding vegetable oil.
4. The prepared grass carp fillet is rubbed on all sides with the resulting mixture, and soaked in it for an hour and a half.
5. The soaked fish fillet is cut into portions or left whole. It is breaded and placed in a silicone or metal baking dish.
6. The oven is heated to 2000C. The “semi-finished product” is placed in the oven for 30 minutes.
7. An excellent side dish for the finished dish would be boiled potato tubers, fluffy rice, fried, or fresh vegetables in the form of a salad. You can also make a simple horseradish-based sauce for the fish, or use mayonnaise, mustard or soy sauce as an addition.

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Social structure and reproduction

Photo: Belamur

Adult individuals of this species can gather in schools, this is especially noticeable during wintering, which the fish spend in holes at the bottom of the river.

Interesting fact: During the cold winter season, special skin glands produce a viscous secretion, the whitish threads of which can float in the water, thus revealing places of significant concentration of fish.

After reaching sexual maturity (on average 7 years) in the summer, grass carp goes to spawn. It should be shallow water, with a hard bottom, the base of which is stone or clay. An important condition is the presence of an adequate current and a water temperature of 25°C.

On average, the female spawns about 3.5 thousand eggs, floating in the upper warm layers of water, which then spread with the flow of water. After 3 days, larvae emerge from the eggs.

Within a week, the larva, having previously secured itself on the underwater plants of the reservoir, grows into a fry. The fry, being in the coastal zone, feeds on zooplankton and benthos organisms. When he reaches a height of 3 cm, Malek switches to a vegetarian diet.

Interesting fact: Under unfavorable conditions - lack of food, strong currents, sharp temperature fluctuations, reproduction stops and the eggs are destroyed, the so-called resorption.

Natural enemies of grass cupids

Photo: White Cupid

The adult White Cupid has an impressive size, thanks to which it has no natural enemies in freshwater rivers. But for still small, growing individuals there are many dangers, including:

• unfavorable climatic conditions, sharp temperature fluctuations, changes in flow speed, droughts, floods;
• insects, amphibians, and other animals that can feed on eggs. Considering that not so many eggs are spawned, this may even threaten the existence of the population;
• for small and medium-sized fish, the threat is posed by predator fish, including pike and catfish, only if we are talking about open reservoirs;
• birds living near bodies of water, as well as waterfowl, can feed on small and middle-aged representatives of the species, which also negatively affects the quantitative characteristics of the population;
• a man with his careless and sometimes greedy attitude towards fishing.

Since White Cupid is a very tasty and healthy fish, every fisherman strives to catch it. Environmental problems, unfortunately, appear on an alarming scale. Waters are polluted by waste and discharges from chemical production; to increase benefits, growth factors and hormones are added to feed, changing the entire biocenosis of ecological systems.

Benefits and harms

Since grass carp is a vegetarian fish, its liver does not contain toxic substances dangerous to human health.

The presence of vitamins A, B, C, E in meat has a complex effect on the protective properties of the human body from viruses and infections, on the functioning of the thyroid gland, and maintaining the intensity of metabolic processes.

Potassium, magnesium and sodium regulate water balance, phosphorus serves to strengthen bones and maintain healthy teeth.

Nutritionists advise increasing your weekly fish intake when treating rheumatoid arthritis to reduce inflammation and pain.

Cupid meat contains folic acid, omega fatty acids, riboflavin, calciferol, and pantheic acid that are beneficial to humans.

Valuable protein is easily absorbed by the body.

Including grass-fed carp meat in the diet at least 2 times a week quickly restores the human body after increased physical activity and has a positive effect on the functioning of all systems:

• the risk of developing atherosclerosis and diabetes mellitus is reduced;
• the level of bad cholesterol drops,
• memory improves,
• aging is slowed down thanks to a whole complex of antioxidant compounds;
• the functioning of the cardiovascular system is normalized;
• Visual acuity increases due to retinol present in meat.

Being a rich source of selenium and zinc, belamur meat products strengthen the immune defense and increase the body's resistance to infections.
The popularity of the product in dietary nutrition is explained by its ability to accelerate the breakdown of fats and stimulate the metabolic process. Pediatricians advise starting to feed children grass-fed carp from 10 months, as it does not cause allergic reactions.

A related beneficial fact for humans: as a result of cleaning water bodies from excess vegetation, breeding grounds for mosquitoes are reduced,

But there are a number of nuances when grass carp can cause harm.

Doctors do not recommend grass carp dishes to the following categories of people:

• having allergic reactions to seafood and protein;
• with some diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and liver;
• obese.

There are cases of poisoning when the storage conditions of the product are violated - you can freeze fish meat only once, otherwise it loses its beneficial properties.