Mississippi River stories and news
Carp in the News
(Big River, Jan. 2010)
Carp -- Queen of Rivers or Pig With Fins?
(Big River, Nov. 1993)
Stop carping and start cooking - recipes
and tips for cooking carp
(PDF, Big River, Sept. 2004)
Asian carp are more abundant than last year. Consumers have less money to spend in restaurants. Restaurants are serving more local, naturally grown foods. Local commercial fishermen are selling carp cheap. All of the forces are aligning to create a new interest in carp dishes in the Upper Midwest.— Reggie McLeod, Big River editor/publisher, aka "The Carp Guy"
Big River and the Carp Contest in the news!
"Asian carp: Take that carp and fry it" Chicago Tribune (also in the LA Times and others)
"The Carp Special?" WXOW in La Crosse, Wis.
"Magazine Editor becomes Carp's Champion" Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
Big River's Carp Challenges 2010
The first annual Big River Carp Connoisseur Challenge garnered exactly zero entries, but, undaunted, we are launching two carp contests, Name That Carp and Carp Connoisseur Challenge II.
Name That Carp
We think more people might enjoy eating carp if they had more tantalizing names.
A panel of distinguished carp experts have selected the top three names for each species from the entries sent to Big River last month. Voting is closed for your favorites.
The winning name for each species will appear in the July-August issue of Big River and online here. The person who submitted each winning name will receive a limited-edition Big River “Name that Carp” t-shirt. Duplicate entries of winning names will be decided by a drawing.
Silver Carp These are the notorious “flying carp” on those unsettling YouTube videos. Like their cousins bighead carp, they are filter feeders, eating mostly algae, as well as zooplankton and detritus. Also like their cousins, their eyes are low on their heads. |
Common Carp Even though common carp is an invasive species, it’s been in North America for more than a century. It probably originated in Central Asia, but it’s hard to pinpoint, because common carp have been domesticated for thousands of years. |
