Thread: KY F&W Meeting 25 Oct Grand Rivers

Originally Posted by smashdn

Not sure how whether or not asian carp are eating game fish matters or not? The lakes and waters can only support so many pounds of fish. The carp are eating and out-competing native fish for the bottom rung of the food ladder. Seems like simple math to me. When there are bajillions of the things roving around in huge schools out there there is simply going to be less of the sport fish that draw people to the area.

On three separate attempts this year I tried to catch skipjack below the dams and came up empty three times. I can't lay all the blame on the asian carp. I have no way to prove it. But something is up when you can't go down there in three different months and catch a single skipjack doing what has worked in the past in the places it has worked in the past in similar conditions.

Smashdn,

I thought I explained it pretty well. Here is another way of saying it. They don't have the proof to show a bunch of office non-sportsman that this species is endangering the native species.
They need proof. They do alot of testing and have days on the water, but the fisherman combined have much more exposure and examples to share.
So, there you have it. If we want change, then we need to help. If you don't think it's your place or job, then that's fine as well. But, when the only fish in the future your kids and grand kids are able to catch are Asian Carp, you best have a bunch of crappie fishing stories and photos to share because that's all they will have. Don't be the one's sitting on the porch or meeting at Hardee's every morning whining about "back in the day".



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I really wanted to go last night but being beat down from a long weekend and after having a long conversation with somebody who knows Asian carp much better than 99% of the people alive and the politics of them, I figured it would be the same ol'BS politics dog-n-pony show we will see from F&W until they find a way to line their own pockets from the demise of sportfishing anywhere the Asian carp live.

We could go out there, net 10K of the Asian carp, cut the stomach contents out of every one of them and prove to F&W that each one of them was full of bluegills and crappie and it still wouldn't fit their narrative.

Do I think they are eating gamefish? Not as a normal part of their diet.

Do I think an 80 pound bighead swimming thru a shallow area right after the spawn will spit out that mouthful of crappie or redear minnows it just sucked in? Not a chance.

Do I think they bully gamefish out of their spawning and feeding areas? 100% sure of it.

Do I think anything is going to change until the politicians at the top of the heep find a way to profit from the attempted control of the Asian carp? Never!!!

Originally Posted by Clint

I am curious if they are looking into something other than the Commercial Fishing Industry to control the Asian Carp. I know it would be nice if someone else solved our problem, but the commercial aspect is affected by too many outside economic influences to be sure fire cure for that which ails us. Other countries have gone to biological methods - Australia has developed a strain of herpes virus that is controlling their particular species of carp. I know that approach is risky, but if we don't do something this epidemic will steamroll into economic disaster when the carp reach the Great Lakes.

I don't think they would proliferate in the Great Lakes. They are re-spawners and have to have 60 some odd miles of free flowing current to spawn.

What if we showed the politicians how profitable commercial crappie and bass fishing could be?

Love to have gone to the meeting, but it's a 3 hour drive and I had just gotten home from North Carolina the day before.

My observation is that every time I'm on the lake there are more of these danged things. Big ones you see on the electronics and little ones that just swarm the bays.

What kind of scares me is it seems I never see game fish like white bass or birds busting into these things when they are just sitting at the surface with their fins showing. Does anything eat them?

I don't see commercial fishing making much of a dent unless somebody comes up with a way to target only them on a scale I can't imagine right now.

I think they would make a great fertilizer. Or even an additive to pet or livestock foods.

I haven't heard one sole in government holding the idiots that infected our rivers with these fish accountable for their actions. They should be the one's footing the bill for the removal, not the American public, and not the sportsman either.

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Originally Posted by bandchaser

Smashdn,

I thought I explained it pretty well. Here is another way of saying it. They don't have the proof to show a bunch of office non-sportsman that this species is endangering the native species.

I understood what you said perfectly well.

I think if what they want is an asian carp with a gullet full of crappie or bass to convince them to do something they aren't going to find that. Those carp aren't going to just turn into ravenous predators of gamefish.

Well, here's one way to help slow down the flying silver carp!! Skeet Shooting with Asian Jumping Fish - Amazingpal.TV