Just wanted to let everyone know The Red Wing Enviromental Learning Center is hosting an exotic Species Forum this coming Tuesday, March 16, beginning at 7:00 p.m. at the Izaak Walton League Clubhouse in Red Wing. The Minnesota DNR will be there to fill us all in on what we can look forward to.
Let us know what you hear. I’m interested in hearing how well and how accurately Minnesota is getting out the word. My impression so far is that, after a rough start on the potential barrier, they are really getting their legs under themselves now.
They talked alot about Zebra Mussels, heres a little of what I got out of it.
Zebras do best in lakes! In the Mississippi they are transported mainly by barge! Lake Pepin is pretty much the (how do I say it) Spawning grounds. you dont find many at all north of pool 4, there are some but nothing close to what is south of us! They grow in Pepin and the current brings them down stream. When they are adults they can over populate in a hurry I mean 10,000 in one square meter.
(you will mainly find them in the southern parts of pepin and pool4 not many above the head of the lake!
Young Zebra mussels are like paracites they float have no shell and you can suck them up in the live well, bilge, bait bucket, well anything you get wet! So alway drain all water before going to differnt water ITS A MUST!!!
the only good news is since 2001 the population dropped big time and has stayed low since. Hope it stays that way!!!
They talked about the asian carp explaining how they got here what they looked and what they eat. They eat large quantities of bluegreen algae, zooplankton, and aquatic insect larvae and adults. Direct competitor with the native paddlefish, bigmouth buffalo, and GIZZARD SHAD..
There has only been one caught in Pepin so far! If you were to run across one KILL IT dont release it and do not transport it live. And definately notify the DNR!
One of my biggest ?’s was can they handle the cold will they survive in the northern parts of the Mississippi.
YES
they are at the same longitude as they are found in Asia. From Northern Minnesota down to southern Texas they can handle it all. They also handed out a bunch of information packets to every one, this is the only one that I have been able to scan.
Some of these carp can weight up to 90 pounds. We got to see the pictures of the one caught in pepin it was pretty big! 
Thanks, B –
Those pictures of the fish are pretty good, except that bighead looks like it has a crease on its head; that is not normal. At this link is a thread where I posted pictures of the juveniles. Note how similar the silver carp is to the shad. If you catch your own bait, please use it in the place you caught it, both for reasons of zebra mussels and other invasive species.
http://www.in-depthangling.com/forums/river/showflat.php/Cat/0/Board/pool4/Number/65908/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/7/vc/1
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