There are a lot of jokes about eating Carp, like cooking it on a plank of cedar, then throw the carp away and eat the plank! But I had carp once at a local Ramada Inn Seafood Buffet once that surprised me totally.
A Black Chef there had cooked a bunch of "fish steaks" with no other name on them. I ate one and loved it. Asked him what Kind of fish it was and he told me Carp.
Changed my mind on it for sure. It was excellant. Must have been about a 20 pound fish alive.
"I've never eaten carp, but I've been told, often, that it's a junk fish. Where I grew up in WNY they came out of shit rivers and waters like the Barge Canal."
Mostly IS the case. I spent 5 yrs on the East side of Ark. (near the Miss.) north of Memphis. There were a lot of streams and rivers ran into the Miss. that weren't sewers. Lot of Catfish and Carp in them.
Also a LOT of Water Mocs. That's what I went after. Killed some 6 footers.
Anyway, I'm on TableRock Lake now, crystal clear water. The bottom feeders here are extremely good; catfish, paddlefish, carp. Really no mud-vein in them. Better than Pond Raised.