Thread: Asian Carp?

Fished Kentucky Lake last weekend and about 30-40 minutes before dark a few schools of pretty good sized fish came up within casting distance. At first I thought they were bass but a buddy of mine said the same thing happened to him the week before and he got a good look and said they were Asian Carp. The glare of the sun kept me from identifying them for sure.

Are some of you seeing the same thing? I think most of us feel this problem is a lot more serious and it doesn't look like there is much they can do about it. A couple of weeks ago, I talked to two different people on Barkley that had them jump in the boat with them.

Both of them said they were only going about 10-15 mph when they got in the boat. If they ever start jumping in front of a bass boat or jump up and hit some kid on jet ski's, someone is going to get seriously hurt.

Heres a reply to an email that I sent to KFWD about the Asian`s in Ky and Barkley. I wanted to see if they had any ideas on trying to control them. Thought you guys might wanna read it also. I`m not sure about the taste test...but any of ya`ll try one let me know. Maybe I`ll go back with my ballglove and catch me a few , LOL



Unfortunately, we are already aware of Asian Carp (silver and bighead carps) in Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake. At the current time, commercial fishing is the only logically means for taking these undesirable fish out of the lake. Other means of removal includes bowfishing and incidental catch by sport fishermen. We encourage sport fishermen to either remove their catch of Asian Carp from the lake, or kill the carp by running a knife through it, making sure to hit the air bladder, before returning it to the lake. Puncturing the air bladder will ensure that the fish does not float when dead.

We have adjusted our commercial fishing regulations slightly in the past few years to ensure higher catches of Asian Carp by commercial anglers. I expect a few more changes in the next year to liberalize the regulations even more to allow these anglers greater access to harvested these undesirable fish.

Commercial fishing may never eliminate these carp from our waters, but there is great potential to reduce their numbers.

I keep using the word “undesirable”. But actually there are many people who eat these carp. There is a large market for them over seas as a food fish. Locally there is also a market for these fish as a food source, and they are used in other products like fish meal and fish oils.

Despite the name “carp” which to most makes them seem like an undesirable fish; they actually do taste good. After hearing some people talk about how good they were, I had to conduct my own taste test to become a believer. One slow day last winter, we fried up a few crappie and a few silver carp at our office. A group of about 12 participated in the test. The results were that the carp were quite tasty. Some commented, my self included, that the carp meat was just as white and good as the crappie. I should note though, that the carp have a lot of bones. There is a “Y” bone in the meat that you have to deal with either in the filleting process or in the eating process.


Paul Rister
Kentucky Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Resources
Fisheries Biologist - Program Coordinator
30 Scenic Acres Drive
Murray, KY 42071
(270)-753-3886




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