Castor River, The Deep End!

[Tim Smith]

They reproduce in the Mississippi, and have been for a while. I catch a few every now and then on the Illinois side. Here is one I caught with a crappie jig in a creek across the river from cape. The body shape and coloration is a little bit different in river fish vs. pond fish. It is surprising what they will eat sometimes, because I have caught them on everything from nightcrawlers to jerkbaits. I am sure they eat things other than aquatic vegetation.

You know I've heard Larry Page say that about the Mississippi but then when you ask him how he knows that, the best he has is "Well there are diploids there."

He' probably right but I'd like to really see what the fish farms are stocking before I buy that entirely.

Agreed about the foraging patterns. "Fictional foraging groups" is more accurate that "functional foraging groups". Everything strays in eating habits from time to time.

[Kayser]

I catch grassies out of the MS and backwaters with some degree of regularity (when I fish there), they are just another one of those things that got in the river system from a stocking somewhere, and have now taken hold. But they fight well, and taste alright, so I'm more than happy to catch them.

Rob

[Tim Smith]

I catch grassies out of the MS and backwaters with some degree of regularity (when I fish there), they are just another one of those things that got in the river system from a stocking somewhere, and have now taken hold. But they fight well, and taste alright, so I'm more than happy to catch them.

Rob

Do you ever see juveniles? Are there really so many they have to be breeding there?

[Guest]

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[Tim Smith]

I have caught several small grass carp in the 18-20 inch range from Mississippi river tributaries. Plus, nearly everytime I walk flooded cropland after floods recede I find them from juveniles to large adults.

Alright then I'll put my skepticism aside.

It's too bad they're established, really. There aren't any other fish herbivores that size among our natives. Gotta wonder if that's going to lead to trouble in the long run.

[Guest]

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[Tim Smith]

No surprise that they have established themselves like the rest of the carp family. Some states had no restrictions on diploid grass carp until the middle 80's. They have started to show up in the upper Mississippi in the past few years, and I am sure that they will continue to expand for quite a while. All the more reason to keep black carp from invading. They could put a serious hurt on the mussel population in the Mississippi river basin.

Hopefully it's not too late (probably is) for black carp. They're being caught all over the Mississippi basin and more than a few are diploids.

Nico et al. 2005. Black carp: biological synopsis and risk assessment of an introduced fish American Fisheries Society Special Publication 32. 337 pp.