Invasive fish

I’ve seen a lot of media on the big head carp lately. How far will they reach on the Mississippi and how will they affect the Walleye and fishery in general?

Or my question would be….how big do them suckers get

Not to take away from the post but, I believe if the new virus makes it way through the river too cull things out, we will be asking: what’s left to catch?

I bet there is more biological research on vhs than invasive species at the moment.

Just a thought

Bret

I’m hoping that colder winters will stop the carp somewhere south of us. I believe they are from a warmer climate, but I might be wrong. What adds insult to injury is that these carp are filter feeders; unless you snag them don’t expect to see one with a hook in it’s mouth.

VHS is likely more serious on the short term, but some fish will survive it. It will likely (hopefully) run it’s course and the fishery will rebound. VHS in the Mississippi is probably not an issue of “if” but “when”.

If the carp can survive our winters (or our winters substantially warm up) IMO they pose the larger problem. While the virus will run it’s couse, the carp will be here to stay.

The only last comment I have is that more needs to be done to prevent these fuggers (invasives) from getting into our waterways. Thats the best strategy to controlling them; keep them out in the first place.

They will make it here eventually.. its inevitable. Nobody really knows what it will do the the fishery.. only assumptions.

vhs is the same way. We know what will happen if it gets into a body of water, but nobody knows the long term effects, or how long it will take a fishery to rebound from the effects. In time, vhs will be old news, and something else will take its place.

ARE THESE THE CARP THAT I HAVE SEEN ON GETTING CLOSE WITH LEE AND TIFFANY ? THEY WERE DRIVING AROUND IN A FLAT AND TRYING TO SHOOT THEM IN THE AIR WITH A BOW ?? THAT LOOKS LIKE FUN BUT STILL I WOULD RATHER TRAVEL SOMEWHERE TO DO OTHER THAN HAVING THEM HERE IN OUR FISHERY.

BY THE WAY IN THAT SHOW TIFFANY WAS IN A BIKINI SHOOTING FISH, DOESNT GET MUCH BETTER THAN THAT

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BY THE WAY IN THAT SHOW TIFFANY WAS IN A BIKINI SHOOTING FISH, DOESNT GET MUCH BETTER THAN THAT

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I have to agree with that!!!!

These fish scare me what they do to a fishery from what I have seen first hand! Every year till last year we would travel to southeastern Iowa to go snaging paddlefish something we started in high school for fun. The past few years the DNR has been coming around and reminding us each carp needs to be killed on the spot! They are doing studies and showing that these fish are starting to affect the walleye and other game fish populations down that way and they are THICK we snag on average 100+ a day the last couple years compared to few to none for a weeks time 10 years ago or so. Snagging in my mind is not a real tough sport but just a past thing we did but no longer for all the critics out there, anyways the smell all along the river system is NASTY and often times need to wear a mask to breath. Last year though after a long talk with the DNR down there they were saying there very nervous about the fishery and where it is going because these fish are over running the sytstem and eating all the plankton and ect. that plants, baitfish and paddlefish feed off of and in a hurry! We have snagged fish in excess of 60 pounds, fun yes, but scary how much they eat in order to gain this weight overall we need to stop these things because until you see it first hand you have no idea what it is like. People do not travel in boats much there without helmets and prop guards for them it is not a good deal at all, and I pray they do nto reach up here in the numbers they have there!

I haven’t yet seen any of the Big Head Carp here at Dubuque. I’m hoping they don’t make it this far north. I’ve talked to friends who have fished tournaments on the Illinois River at Spring Valley and the carp are thick down there. One of my friends did catch one and he said it went ballistic inside of his boat. They have taken over habitat of panfish and bass. I too saw the video of the guys bow-fishing these things but in those numbers I think a 12 gauge with steel shot is a much better answer.

We do have an invasive fish species here at Dubuque. It is called the Large Mouth Bass and I’ve caught several recently while walleye fishing. These are extremely slimy, skummy creatures that seem to enjoy chasing after whatever I’m trying to catch walleye with. I have found that they aren’t too-bad eating once they reach the 3 to 10 Lb range. I keep a bucket in the boat for them as I don’t want them stinking up my livewell.

One Big head carp was found in Lkae Pepin in october 2003. So far there is no evidence of them reproducing in MN waters though.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/marapr04/fncarp.html

Big head carp are a problem, but it’s the Asian carp(silver carp) are likely going to be a bigger factor. Unfortunately, the silvers love cold water, and may become a horrible problem in the great lakes as they take out the lower end of the food chain (plankton). The silver carp are the ones that jump when frightened. Check out youtube or other searches for video of these nasty fish.

My mistake, I’m speaking of the ones that jump out of the water.

Check this out “Aerial Bowfishing”