carp have a long tradition of being eaten in europe. if any of you are of eastern-eurpoean descent, your ancestors ate it as part of celebrating christmas and at other times of the year as a regular component of their diet. i can refer any of you to recipes that are hundreds of eyars old for carp, if you deisre. they are still eaten quite a bit in those same areas.
in the US, smoking carp was and still is a long-standing tradition. in many parts of the country. catfish are also bottom-feeders but people have been eating them in across the world for millenia and continue to do so today. there are many, many other species of fish that are not classified as bottom-feeders, yet eat whatever they can find, on the bottom or otherwise. we eat them every day.
it's just a fish and fish are made of meat. whether it tastes any good or not is up to the person eating it. use the same cautions that you would use with any other fish regarding pollution etc and if you don't want it to taste muddy, than catch/eat it in the winter, spring or early summer. if you are starving, then eat all you can catch, regardless of the time of year.