Thread: Asian Carp

I've sat back for several days, watching sniping going on by a most renowned expert in his own mind, criticizing what we who have been on the lakes most every day are seeing with our own eyes. If I say the crappie are starving, it's because I'm seeing it with my own eyes, not what somebody on a website says. I recently cleaned 9 nice crappie, one 15" and 2 more over 14" with the rest 11" and above that when filleted all fit into ONE quart ziplock bag with room to spare. Last year that same catch would have almost filled 2 quart bags. There is obviously a reason for that.

There has been nobody here who has advocated more for commercial netting as a stop-gap for the carp invasion. I have zero illusion that netting alone will even slow down what has already gotten out of hand. I've attended meetings with F&W and the Tourism Board where talking heads all patted each other on the backs, walked out of the building, then did absolutely zero that I can see of what they proposed in front of the commercial fishermen and guides present.

The commercial netters are required to mark their nets very well with buoys PLUS stay within sight of the nets the entire time they are in the water. Does anybody really feel that netter is going to sit back and watch somebody cut up a piece of gear worth several thousands of $$ to get a crankbait or jig out? I'm almost 62 years old and have spent over 50 of those years on these lakes and so far have never found a reason to cut up a trotline or net unless it was an old one that had been left unattended for an obvious long time. That commercial fisherman has exactly the same right to be on the lakes when pursuing his legal trade as the guy who fishes the lake 1 day a decade or 5 days a week. Netters are going to be a daily occurrence once the price for Asian carp in the rough gets up closer to 20 cents/pound. I will welcome their sight and try my best to work with them and around them to prevent any interference and expect others to do the same. It's going to take educating the public, not harping on some web site.

Info...Asian Carp Response in the Midwest | AsianCarp.us

I will be there.

I will be there.

Thanks to all for voicing your concerns and support regarding the Asian carp issue. There are a few new public groups starting up right now to help with the many facets of this issue. Kdfwr is still laying the groundwork for how we can interact and work together on this issue. The TWRA meeting should also shed some light on the ways Tennessee is fighting these fish. Hopefully I will see some of you there.

Kdfwr has had very few conflicts reported between commercial fishermen and recreational anglers on the big lakes. This is not the case in some other areas of the country and I’m always proud to hear that people on our lakes are getting along for the most part. If a conflict does arise, give us a call and let us know. There are specific regulations designed to limit these conflicts, but we all know conflicts still happen. There is little doubt in anyone’s mind that we need much more harvest and removal of Asian carp. Current goals are to at least double the current harvest to five million pounds a year. Price must go up or operating costs must go down to make this happen. (We are approaching that from both sides).
New harvest methods are also being tested as well as the new sound barrier technology.
My main concern this year is the increased chance of a successful spawn due to high flows in the lakes and tailwaters. Another successful spawn would be extremely detrimental to our efforts. It really needs to stop raining.

I was very fortunate to come down last week and spend a couple of days fishing on Kentucky and Barkley, although the crappie were not as cooperative as i would have liked them to be, i did manage a handful of keepers each day and had fun being out on the water. I am always amazed with how friendly the people of West Kentucky are, and the hospitality they show towards the out of towner's. Thank You for always making my trips enjoyable regardless if i leave with a cooler full of fish! With that being said, i left with the impression the carp situation is beyond the point of being controlled, I don't think the entire crab fleet from the Deadliest Catch TV Show could catch all them carp. Sig Hanson is good but couldn't put a dent in there population. These are a couple of screen shots i took of one bay of Kentucky Lake, and Barkley is no different.

It's scary the thought of an another successful spawn in the lakes.

I’ve fished Ky lake for the past 15 years and always been pretty successful at catching crappie. Not so much this spring so far as most others. I fished Blood River last Friday April 20th for about 5 hours. Had 1 keeper and 8 throwbacks. We packed up and headed south to Big Sandy. We fished another 5 hours and had 4 keepers and 18 throwbacks. Before I trailered the boat I released all 5 as they weren’t worth filleting. Saturday we went to Johnathon creek. Fished around 7 hours. We caught 32 with 8 keepers. They were all released as well being very poor.
To sum up our trip we caught 58 total with 13 keepers. The biggest fish was 11 1/2”, the other 12 were between 10-10 1/2” so no slabs.
The water temp at blood river, when we started was 54, it warmed up to 57 around 11:30. Big sandy was 58 when we started around 2:00 and warmed up to around 61 by late evening. Johnathon creek was 57 early Saturday morning and way 62 when we left around 1:30.
I seen several “shad” balls on the graph that very well may have been Asian carp.
All the crappie we caught were paper thin. I milked a couple and their eggs were very immature looking. Reminded me of fall looking eggs.
I’m afraid the economy is gonna go south very quickly unless something is done about these carp. I have no answers at all. I’m not sure anyone does at this point.
We were long line trolling with 9 lines in the water from 14’ down to 5’. Gonna head back this Friday and Saturday for round 2.
The main thing we had fun and an uneventful trip. Hope this helps.
Safe fishing!!!