Thread: Is my neighbor right? + a fish report

Originally Posted by mrdux

Tom, the carp may not be 100% responsible, but I think they are forcing the crappie/gills/redears to spawn deeper and stay out of their traditional spawning areas in shallow water. Lots of the 3-4 foot deep areas we were catching fish pulling planer boards 2-3 weeks ago are now wall-to-wall carp. There are tons of dead silver carp up this way and whatever is killing them I hope it keeps going.

I just returned from a visit to the local VSO (veteran service officer). He is a retired Navy captain and is also a professional bass fisherman. He said he catches the carp in the mouth with spinner baits and also rattle traps. He told me that he has seen the Asian carp chase minnows in the shallows in Eagle Creek. He also believes the carp are interfering with the spawn and probably feeding on the eggs or fry. He stated he witnessed a bass chase a carp and slam the carp in its side. I have no reason to doubt what he said.

The carp are out of control and the experts have no solution. They eat more than plankton.

Tom, you are not going to like this. A local kid shot a silver carp near Birmingham Point on KY Lake near here last weekend that was tagged in Il in 2014.The tag was in its lower jaw and was much bigger than a goose leg band. The tag number was 77. Another silver that was tag number 75 was found below KY Dam last week. They were from the same school that was tagged together. Solid proof they are migrating UP the river system. There is some kind of bacterial infection that is killing a bunch of silvers. Kudos to who or what made that happen since it doesn't seem to be affecting other fish.

Oh, they definitely travel "up river" (and not just the BIG ones) ... I've seen them below the spillway at Taylorsville Lake, which is just a dammed up portion of the Salt River. The Salt River is a small, winding affair that empties out into the Ohio River at West Point, Ky (just North of Ft Knox Military Base).

I'm telling you it's one of those things that if you could go back in time about 30 years and spend a week below the spillway at Kentucky Dam...then come back to now ...the full realization of what has happened would really sink in.

Thirty years ago on a day in April a trip below the dam and you would have seen....snaggers standing almost elbow to elbow at times from the dam to the point at the lock canal and about half that many on the West side. Snagging thousands of pounds a day of spoonbill including the occasional striper and bluecat. Guys snagging small channel cat against the wall by the turbines.Commercial fisherman gill netting thousands and thousands of pounds for commercial markets. And a look out on the lake from the dam would show a fleet of boats mussel fishing.

People casting into the boils for stripers and bait. 50 or more boats out on the water catching blue cat and rockfish by the hundreds and more.I remember some days catching more than a hundred blue cat. My wife and I use to take vacation in September and we would drift along the riprap line with a minnow and catch sauger and bluegill and bass and crappie. My Wife caught a crappie 17 3/4" long just a little below the wing wall on the West side one day. We would cast to small stripers and wipers until we got tired of catching them. Just a pitch or two of the net would catch enough yellowtail shad to fish all day.

Originally Posted by mrdux

Tom, you are not going to like this. A local kid shot a silver carp near Birmingham Point on KY Lake near here last weekend that was tagged in Il in 2014.The tag was in its lower jaw and was much bigger than a goose leg band. The tag number was 77. Another silver that was tag number 75 was found below KY Dam last week. They were from the same school that was tagged together. Solid proof they are migrating UP the river system. There is some kind of bacterial infection that is killing a bunch of silvers. Kudos to who or what made that happen since it doesn't seem to be affecting other fish.

Oh that sounds like bad news to me. These things are destroying the whole river system.

Copied from post on KY Forum:

KYFW post on Facebook this AM:

Staff are investigating unexplained deaths or reduced activity in Silver Carp fish in Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley.
Silver Carp seems to be the only species affected. If you see other fish species dead or behaving unusually in these lakes, please contact Jessica Morris at 270-759-5295.

Maybe we can trade carp for plutonium with Kim J Un. Or maybe drop FREE CARP leaflets from the U2 now flying over the Northern portion of Korea.

My solutions are better than nothing.

About the Same Here, Except No Asian carp that I"ve Seen!