Asian Carp: Another Stream Invasion

[Jerry Rapp]

that was a grass carp, not an asian carp.

[Chief Grey Bear]

RPS, someone else told me they were good eating. Big, ugly, smelly fish (no walleye). Not sure I would have much of an appetite for it.

Ahh heck yeah, just call it FISH SPAM. It'll be flying off the shelves much like the carp themselves were just hours before.

Mmmmm, FISH SPAM Taco's!!!!

[moguy1973]

Certainly made me sad and think of how man (someone had to release the first Asian carp)is continually destroying the delicate balance of nature.

I think I read/watched a story on the Asian Carp invasion, and somewhere they think that it wasn't someone specifically releasing them into rivers, but they did import them to the US to put into commercial fish ponds to help keep them clean. These ponds were near the Mississippi river and during the 90's floods were inundated, thus letting the asian carp escape from the ponds into to river systems. And so the invasion began. And it really sucks.

[Old plug]

In an attempt to think happy thoughts....Maybe the Asians will eat themselves out of house/home (to a degree), and a healthy balance will someday result. Maybe our waters are too plankton rich at the present time. Is that s possibility?

Well here is a happy thought looks like good chances of rain next 3 days wrench. Now if the Chief would just do a big dance for us we should be OK. Oh Chief can you put a few extra steps in there for medium steady rain.

[Haris122]

As far as balance goes, I don't know if malnutrition is really the cause of this, but at Unger Lake I noticed that in the past few years I've started visiting it, pretty much every winter I end up seeing a higher number than usual of them, washed up on shore. They don't look really starved, but it would make sense that some smaller, more isolated areas just end up running out of enough plankton in the winter months to support larger schools of such large fish, leading at least to a partial population crash. Not a very scientific observation, but it could be a contributor.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I think I read/watched a story on the Asian Carp invasion, and somewhere they think that it wasn't someone specifically releasing them into rivers, but they did import them to the US to put into commercial fish ponds to help keep them clean. These ponds were near the Mississippi river and during the 90's floods were inundated, thus letting the asian carp escape from the ponds into to river systems. And so the invasion began. And it really sucks.

I think that is the official story and probably true. The problem I have is that they were ever allowed in. The same thing with snakeheads in the east. It would take and idiot, or government official that could care less to not know that eventual escape was likely.

The early grass carp introductions were guaranteed to be safe because they were either sterile or one gender, it depended on which official report you read. They have worked well in ponds where only one was present and there was no danger of escape. Mart your friend will probably regret removing the grassie, especially if there are cattle near the pond.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Well here is a happy thought looks like good chances of rain next 3 days wrench. Now if the Chief would just do a big dance for us we should be OK. Oh Chief can you put a few extra steps in there for medium steady rain.

I suck at dancing. But the longer the night, the better I get. Or so I think. I'll give it a wirl though.

On a serioius note, dancing by the plains Indians was patterned after the Prairie Chicken.

[stlskyline]

I did see that they were putting in a commercial processor near Alton, IL to process/ can fish and send them to market in. Asia where they are eaten.

[Mart]

Jerry, thanks for the clarification. It was still big and smelly.

Wayne, maybe so. My friend has no cattle. I know of a lot of weedy ponds with clear water and healthy bass populations. My friend's pond was mucky and the bass were skinny.

Q for all. How could my friend tail snag this monster on a rattletrap? Right place at the wrong time? Or did the disturbance of the lure attract the fish? Do we know for sure they don't eat other stuff than plankton and weeds? Aren't they known to graze on gamefish beds? Seems like a very big fish for a small pond.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Mart it's hard to say, but the primary diet of grass carp is vegetation, especially moss. I mentioned cattle because if the water shed has them it can be rich in nutrients. I would worry that a 47 pound plant eater might be eating things you don't want too much of in the pond. Common carp aren't known to bother bass nest that much. The male guards them, unless a fisherman pulls him off and lets the perch run amok in it.

The problem with ponds more often then not is C & R. They get stocked and protected far beyond the period where the stockers spawn and restock it.