Going to China in June

The govmt will be sending me to China in June. Will meet with some scientists there who are the real specialists in Asian carp ecology. I hope to be able to wet a line while I am there. My life list is now at 216 species on a line, so it is starting to get hard to add new species without making a trip. Almost anything I could catch over there (with the exception of bighead, silver, and grass carp, and various invasives like bass, bluegill, and tilapia) would be new species. I am really excited about this trip. I am hoping for new scientific, piscatorial, cultural, and culinary experiences. I’ll be gone for two weeks.

Safe journey to you

I guess you’ll be eating Chinesse food for a few weeks. I wonder how the buffets are over there.

The toilet facilities will be interesting when you get into the countryside. Start doing leg bends and squats now.

We had some guys go over to collect plant materials. The food, water, smells and such are interesting.

Now the toilet business doesn’t sound exciting – I hope my aging and damaged knees can take it. So I guess they don’t do much reading on the john there?? I can and do eat dang near anything – I kind of have a reputation for that, so not too afraid of the food angle. But the john thing, now there is something that bothers me, (as it should, for a guy who will eat dang near anything).

Carptracker,

Do you have any information about the type of water the Asian carp are most adaptable to? In reference to the river, is there any information that indicates they would prefer the main channel, backwaters, moving/still water, vegetation? I’m just curious where they are most like to appear in numbers in the future…or if they will be “all over the place”.

They like low velocity water. They like eddies, where they will often be right at the center. Sometimes they will be in large numbers in completely non-moving water, but only if that water is well-oxygenated. In the winter, many bigheads move into smaller tributaries from the mainstem river. Silvers do the opposite. Below dams is a good place to look for fishable bigheads. Bigheads will often eat that white or brown organic foam that builds up in slack water near turbulent areas; they can be shot with a bow and arrow when they are doing this. Bigheads also spend a significant amount of time in some places filtering the surface film in eddy areas, and you can shoot them there if you are very stealthy. These fish bring a whole new element to the idea of boat-shy, and will run long distances from gas OR trolling motors.

Scorpions, silkworms, and 3-snake wine! Worked for me every time I was there. Good luck with that! HAHA!!

Mark

Thanks for the info cp. It sounds as though backwaters will be the prime habitat of the bigheads and the main channel for the silvers. I hope to gosh I never catch one on Pool 4, but it seems inevitable.

rvrrat – seems like the tributaries in the winter for bigheads and the big river for the silvers in the winter. In the summer, they switch places to some degree, although either can be found in either habitat in the summer. They are tough fish to catch on a rod and reel, or by any other method for that matter. You probably won’t catch one until it either jumps in your boat or they become very densely populated. Being filter feeders primarily, they don’t eat a lot of walleye baits, although I did catch one inside the mouth on a 3″ diving plug once. With the tiny throat these things have, there is no way it could have swallowed such a large bait. Who knows what it thought it was doing. Sometimes people catch bighead carp pretty good on trotlines baited with cheese. I think the fish are trying to knock off bits of the cheese and finally get hooked.

Word of caution..don’t drink the water……seriously…
I have a brother in law that travel there on business yearly and packs his own water…Never enough though….
Lets just say he has found an easier way of losing weight….An unhealthly way…..Good luck and safe journey..