eating tench

adonis

hey,
i was speakinig to a french girl who said tench are really nice to eat.
has anyone ever tried to eat one?

supposedly you have to marinade them in vinegar for a day before baking in the oven with potatoes..

i might try one sometime soon

beer enigma

The majority of course fish are classed as a delicacy in some part of the world, especially Carp, Perch & Pike. Tench are less favoured as they tend to have a muddy taste (so I'm told).

That said....I'm not about to try eating them !

ButcherOfNog

people in Leitrim eat their young, but am not about to try that either.

ek942

Wouldnt have the heart to kill a tench.Go to a take-away if you want to eat fish.We have enough problems with illegal netting,poaching and certain European visitors killing our coarse fish.Might be the norm over there,but most anglers i know would frown upon it.In fact,many of them would kick the s**t out of someone if they seen them killing fish!

beer enigma

Reflections of the great Pike & Zander debate in the UK.

I'm heavily involved in the ructions over there & there is now work being commissioned into bringing out more Pike & Zander recipes as a way of stock control. Now that's total lunacy !!

adonis

i was also in spain and they had tench on the mneu...
apparantely its a delicacy in certain parts...i was in segovia..

im gonna knock one on the head next time, and fry him up with olive oil and garlic..
i dunno what size would be a good size to kill him though..

is it actually illegal to do it?

ek942

The only by-law regarding coarse fish is the one relating to pike. .i.e You cant take more than 3.5 kilos of pike per day or a specimen fish.This is also crazy as the bigger specimen fish are the breeders.If there was a law against killing coarse fish then theoretically you couldn`t even kill roach for dead baits so its a good thing there isn`t.

jd

Originally posted by ek942
.This is also crazy as the bigger specimen fish are the breeders.

I have thought about this in relation to the bass bye-laws.
Maybe it would be better if the only ones we could keep are the small ones! any ecological modellers out there
jd
note- Please respect the current bye-laws

ButcherOfNog

theres pressure for a new bye-law that will protect all coarse fish, not just pike. if the rate of killing of fish continues in irish waters, esp as most are not stocked, good coarse fishing will dry up sooner rather than later.

LastIrishMonkey

i also heard there stomuchs contains poisons and if u dont gut em and cooking em properly u can get very ill !:D

beer enigma

That applies to most fish, although the salt water passing through a sea fish tends to kill off more of the toxins in it (unless it swam past Sellafield).

It's essential to thoroughly clean any fresh water fish before eating & you'll find that most restaurants that do serve fresh water fish (esp. carp) will wash them in a salt water solution before cooking. Personally I wouldn't advocate eating any of them.

samonwalkabout

I was in Prague for Christmas last year and a traditional christmas dinner was Fried Carp. Didnt fancy it myself but the locals seemed to love it. I seem to think that monks used to keep carp ponds for food stocks (althought that could be a figment of my imagination). So if anyone want to save time cooking this christmas Carp n spuds could be the way to go

2Poc

Wouldnt have the heart to kill a tench.Go to a take-away if you want to eat fish.We have enough problems with illegal netting,poaching and certain European visitors killing our coarse fish.Might be the norm over there,but most anglers i know would frown upon it.In fact,many of them would kick the s**t out of someone if they seen them killing fish!

I have to concur with this. Personally, if I saw someone killing a tench they'd get a kick up the arse...

Lads - it's not as if it's the feckin' potato famine, we're far from starving..

I lived around the Kilmainham area for a while & there were a few nice Tench nearby in Rialto. Needless to say that certain 'Eastern Europeans' noticed the Tench & started to foul hook them for eating.
I saw one of these same 'Eastern Europeans' getting the crap kicked out of him for doing so.

We have plenty of put & take trout fisheries for those who like to eat what they catch but if you really need to eat some ornamental fish then please - try some goldfish rather than depleting the wild stocks...

bribren2001

2Poc wrote:

I have to concur with this. Personally, if I saw someone killing a tench they'd get a kick up the arse...

Lads - it's not as if it's the feckin' potato famine, we're far from starving..

I lived around the Kilmainham area for a while & there were a few nice Tench nearby in Rialto. Needless to say that certain 'Eastern Europeans' noticed the Tench & started to foul hook them for eating.
I saw one of these same 'Eastern Europeans' getting the crap kicked out of him for doing so.

We have plenty of put & take trout fisheries for those who like to eat what they catch but if you really need to eat some ornamental fish then please - try some goldfish rather than depleting the wild stocks...

agree with this and what was said before 'we are not exactly in the famine'
the same should be said for taking wild trout- ive heard many people saying i take trout because they are nice to eat and i give them them to my friends who like them- that really drives me mad!!
Couldnt they go up to a trout farm and catch a bag of them and give them to there friends!
We are now at a stage that we cant afford to be killing trout or any other kind of fish.

if they want fish- go to a fish farm or the chipper.

jd

2Poc wrote:

... Needless to say that certain 'Eastern Europeans' noticed the Tench & started to foul hook them for eating.
I saw one of these same 'Eastern Europeans' getting the crap kicked out of him for doing so.

I think education would be better. Remember some of the eastern european countries only have inland waters, so it may be quite normal to eat tench over there...

2Poc

I totally agree that education would be a better solution for foreigners, but this thread was started by Irish people - who really should know better..
Unfortunately we're in a situation where the law doesnt cover the killing of these fish, as a nation we really only bother with our Salmon & Trout stocks so there is nobody to Educate/Police the course fishing unless it's on a private water.
With the dwindling Salmon populations maybe we will realise the importance of course fishing to the economy as it's certainly not worth coming here for Salmon fishing any more. We really need bailiffs patrolling/educating - I would happily buy a course fishing rod license (if there was such a thing) if the money went into preservation+education.

On a separate rant... the one other thing I hate to see are pictures of these huge ferox trout that are caught in Corrib every year - dead.. Do people not realise that these huge fish take years to get to this size & are prime breeding stock? There is far more satisfaction involved in watching that huge fish swim away then looking at it stuffed in a glass box. Again - maybe education + legislation is the key..

bribren2001

2Poc wrote:

On a separate rant... the one other thing I hate to see are pictures of these huge ferox trout that are caught in Corrib every year - dead.. Do people not realise that these huge fish take years to get to this size & are prime breeding stock? There is far more satisfaction involved in watching that huge fish swim away then looking at it stuffed in a glass box. Again - maybe education + legislation is the key..

Agree again!
Ferox Trout take years to become that size and are invaluable for there breeding. Also i have heard that there flesh is very dark and does not taste that nice so are not really known for there eating quality.
Instead of carrying a priest, why not carry a camera!

there are three things i enjoy most about fishing which are:
- getting out with nature
- initial connection with a trout
- releasing the trout for another day.

taking trout is not one of the above, i think the generation before us has to be educated to the fact that gone are the days when you could take home a bag of fish- but i suppose you will always get the c**ts who will just do it anyway. ive heard on corrib that certain dappers that have come in with huge amounts of dead trout have returned the next day to find there boat gone or found floating out in the middle of the lake- they get no sympathy from me in that regard!

sorry folks for the rant but i feel strongly about it!

robinwing

Have the stock of lake and pond fish depleted much in the last 10 years or so by people killing instead of returning ?

dodderangler

Jayzuz a 10 year old thread?
Start a new one mate. And there'll be more answers because usually mods lock these up and suggest the same.
Not trying t be a mod here m

bitemybanger

10 year old super duper zombie thread. thats a new record.
Closed