MoCarp

should jack up the fishing for the rest of the summer

FERRISBURGH, Vt. (AP) — A 10-year-old who reeled in a giant carp says he knew it was a record contender before he ever got it ashore. Chase Stokes’ fish did indeed set a state record in Vermont. It weighed in at 33.25 pounds. The Rutland Herald reports the carp was weighed at a bait and tackle shop in New York in April. The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department made the record official last month. The fish was a quarter-pound bigger than the previous record holder. Stokes, now 11, said he likes fish for carp because they’re “hard to find.” Shawn Good from the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department called the boy a “fishing maniac.” He said Stokes has landed the most trophy fish in Vermont’s Master Angler Program.

They weighed some monsters in the Big Stabbing tourney BassPro holds, I have never seen a grass carp on TR or BS ever.....I was told that some of the guys may have trailed to one of the belle vista HOA lakes and shot some of the big Grassers there....its not like anyone would cheat didn't a few years back a guy overnighted a 10 pound bass and was busted when the DNA said it was a florida bass?

Grass carp, english peas mixed with chopped bread works great for them

They Promote Catch and Release of Trophy Commons & Buffs for 10 years now with no ill effects, which of our area states will be the 1st to follow?

Fishing gets really good in the 1st of October, caught some of the best big sallies then

I did hear of some floaters at Stockton earlier in the year, hope LMB virus hasn't hit.....

Its crazy over there and will be here...

you don't......this was for fly fisher people.....interesting results so far

Back in the early 80s I was wade fishing elk river at the last take out before grand lake, saw a pod of Gator Gar, My brother and I being from Mobile Al, knew exactly what we were seeing it was a big female followed by 3 males, the big wide head and kinda hooked beak sets them apart from a short nose, fish are WAY heaver body than most gar, female was 7 foot or so males prob 5 foot....for a while people would hang lanterns off the Highway 10 bridge and shoot gar, never saw them take any gator gar, but was only their twice at night that time of year...I usually saw a few just after the white bass ran, late April if we had enough water..never saw any more after 85-87..saw gar but no big logs, wasn't long before they had no-fish signs from the bridge...heard hat they where taking to many fish...at that time I thought BS only gar....perhaps then knew of the big gar then? I also came across an old flyer about the kellogg lake monster and a 5 dollar reward pre ww2 had a drawing of a gar and was described over 5 feet..I try and track it down,..From time to time the river floods into the lake.....the spring river is part of the Neosho river drainage prob had a few before the dam was built at Riverton, KS, I also heard eels were caught as high as big sugar before the dam was built at disney (grand lake)

It was anecdotal evidence that started the gator gar examination, also there are those on this forum that pointed out that in some lakes the Buff are noticeably less .....same thing that happened to gator gar.......

heres a drum for you, I was still in my 20's, first big fish I caught on a euro outfit a 1.75 test curve rod cabelas used to sell

I caught them using a pinch of crawler a 3/8ths bullet weight, a small black swivel with a hook link about 10" of fluorocarbon 8lbs......... main line was 6lb mono..the stiffer FC help with it from getting all rapped up in a cast, caught 6 fish about 1-1/3/4 pounds

well boyz.... I had some last night.....these came from elk river, downstream from Noel Dam, and did the chunk boil in salt water with a pinch of sugar.. worked GREAT.......the meat its firmer than say walleyes or crappies raw so it help hold it together well, take it out as soon as it goes translucent to white I kept cutting a chunk in half to make sure it was done didn't take long.....just a few minutes depending on chunk size, so next time ill be better, by making the chunks closer in size..Ill tell you real close to lobster in consistency, dipped in butter...I am telling you the firmness of its meat was MADE for this......ill tell you once this gets out drum are in trouble!!!!!!!!

and dipping them in melted butter!

Doing some research, how many fly fishermen?....thats is own a fly rod and use it at least 2 trips a year

It takes a long time to grow a huge fish like these, but stabbing one takes it out of the system forever, perhaps the huge jump in Bighead and silver (carp) would never have happened had the gar and big cat populations had not been fished down.....I had a chat with a fisheries person recently, said the Hypophthalmichthys had been in the big river systems earlier than the great floods of 93, what kept them in check? stabbing sports on fish are not like hunting, most fish are considered "undesirable" are legal, with the shrinking outdoor disposable income, bow-fishing equipment providers boats, bows, etc have a vested interest to have liberalized limits on Gar, buff, commons....no-one wants a fellow outdoorsman's sport taken away..at least till their sport takes away your sport.....limits come into play..I'd give my eye teeth to have bow fishermen pound a lake for commons under 33" it would make fishing for big fish better in some lakes say Montrose, but in waters like that (stained) its not as easy as the clear waters of the Ozarks, the places that have the large populations of the jumping (carp) don't seem to be very clear....IDK what the answer are

I suspect 'gator gar once was in the white river, I don't find any reports on why they went extinct in most of Missouri, I am sure many people would love to see them back.....the 20 fish limit in total that has worked in Missouri gets violated every night, shot tossed back etc.....the images of dumpsters full of fish that could be used as food kills us vs the peta crowd, gar though hard to clean, have some excellent eating meat, where I grew up (Mobile AL) huge gator gar where common, google mobile bay and see just how big that is, and once people had a market for gator gar meat it was shot up like a saddam hussein convoy during Gulf-war I....An Alabama Conservation employee noticed he wasn't seeing the big gar Surfacing in the Blakely Rivers, that made biologists take a look at the whole dynamic.....its still a huge issue..... https://www.fws.gov/natchitoches/alligator_gar.html https://mdc.mo.gov/newsroom/conservation-department-continues-alligator-gar-restoration

I have seen shad follow white bass while they spawned sucking up eggs, I would say most any fish eats eggs if they can, sunfish big time! its what daddy bass guards the nest.....lots of times over harvest of bass, walleyes etc, gets blamed on fish eating up the eggs-n-fry....when in reality its billy and bubba filling their ice chest with fillets..Drum are great eating no floating bones, no nasty blood lines....a firm sweet white meat...I think I may go catch some to try a red fish recipe this weekend...I like them better that store bought tilapia Minnesota also elected Jesse Ventura as Gov all kidding aside when someone has a huge fight on the end of their line...can't see what it is...they get salty when its a drum or common carp ....When they thought it was a Trophy walleye or bass.....its..... its..... ITS! a drum! ....... stab stab stab stab stab like Sharon Stone in basic instinct

Most people fish to shallow or too fast for walleyes..invest in a drift sock, slowing down works, also slip bobbing can be your friend, and not all bait is created equal get this book, think its had 3 printings, pricy paperback look one up on eBay.....but its the bible of Crawlers I guard my copy bought in the 80's like a gold coin,

The whole elk river drainage needs protection, its always been poachable, headlight bow fishing has taken out many a big smallmouth there, been fishing at night seen it, even told them I had their license plate and if I ever saw them even drowning a worm I'd turn them in.....the Neosho Strain smallmouth should be zero harvest for the next 5 years..IMHO....the influx of the newly american in that area has put a tremendous strain on the fish stocks there.....I would pay 4 times the License fees to hire more CO's to inforce regs

Question, I need to mold spheres in the 14mm-25mm size range...custom moulds? suggestions?

from what I hear the "rough fish" are getting smaller....you have X numbers of lets say Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio), pounds per Hectare, you can have four or five... 20 pound granny carp....or 12-15 five pound teenage carp...which.... I have a study somewhere..... shows more small carp can release more nutrients than fewer older large carp, the spawning success of numerous smaller common carp vs fewer old Large Carp is well documented. Our highland reservoirs (think Beaver/ Table Rock & Bull Shoals) don't have the silt/ nitrates/phosphorus pump...that can cause algae blooms in some eutrophic lakes (think Montrose Lake) or the weed issues for waterfowl that wetland/shallow natural lakes experience in Minnesota, Iowa or Wisconsin....Common carp migrate to the shallow wetlands to spawn, and if a bad winter kills all the baby carp eaters, the recruitment goes through the roof, and down stream back in the main lake gets overpopulated....exacerbated by over harvest of baby carp eaters, or worse pre-teenage carp eaters Carp being broadcast spawners have large egg production, "Fecundity" millions of eggs produced get eaten, young of the year feed walleyes-bass-crappie-catfish-white bass, sunfish eat billions of highly nutritious carp eggs, in some waters predator growth rates and recruitment crash when common carp where removed, lake booms with the initial renovation, but crashes because recruitment is poor, unless supported with supplemental stockings, in some states the carp removal..renovate...cycle is great job security for the renovation depts, with little motivation to fix the root causes. so how do we fix? greatly reduce harvest of the largest fish be it common carp or huge gamefish...this gives anglers more trophies and preserves/maintains better genetics....limit forms of harvest that makes it easy to poach or harvest the largest fish from a watershed....... so should studies be done? yep....will they? nope...at least till the strange reduction of fish sizes and numbers gets someones attention.......