I snagged this one while trolling on the Illinois River Sunday. Man are these fish ugly and very slimy. It was around 15 to 20 pounds. The river is just thick with them. It’s wild, people with bats, bows and nets catching these things. It’s a blast watching them do this.
yeah, those damn things are getting really thick in the illinois.
i hooked one under the lip saturday. talk about some screaming runs. took about 20 minutes on 8/1 power pro, but i finally got it to the boat so i could save my shad spoon.
it was at least 20 pounds.
was gonna take a pic but i was by myself and didnt want to risk dropping the camera or losing the avid. snagged a few others pulling cranks, too.
whats odd about those carps is they dont seem to be affecting the game fish populations like everyone feared. stills lots of saugers and wallys in the illinois – for now, at least.
Asian Carp are filter feeders. They don’t eat the gamefish. However, they are an exotic invasive species and eventually will creat a monoculture in the water system. Eventually by eating all the plankton and other nutriens they will out compete minnow species that are the forage basin for the game fish which will subsequently lower the game fish population in due time. Coarse I have been wrong once before. 
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Asian Carp are filter feeders. They don’t eat the gamefish. However, they are an exotic invasive species and eventually will creat a monoculture in the water system. Eventually by eating all the plankton and other nutriens they will out compete minnow species that are the forage basin for the game fish which will subsequently lower the game fish population in due time. Coarse I have been wrong once before.
DID YOU MAKE THAT UP 
ya, i know they dont eat gamefish, joe.
like you said, its the effect they can have on the lower end of the food chain thats gonna cause problems eventually.
But all the poop they’ll be generating will generate more plankton and all will be well. It’s the circle of life.
IlliniWalli what area of the Illinois were you fishing on Saturday? Sunday we put in at Hennepin and went down river from there.
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But all the poop they’ll be generating will generate more plankton and all will be well. It’s the circle of life.
Not to mention good for the Really Big Flathead population. 
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