Are we seeing the beginning of the end on KY and Barkley?

[M R Dux]

I was trolling Bandits yesterday afternoon and the lake was slick as glass most of the time. I have noticed recently the huge swirls from an obviously big fish near the surface but Sunday was disheartening to say the least. There were schools of huge Asian carp on the surface that were as much as 100 yards wide. Many times the dorsal fins of these fish were out of the water in areas where it was 25 feet deep.

Twice I hooked fish on my down rods where the crankbait was only running 8-10 feet deep, the last time I never even turned the fish around before it broke my 12 pound line, taking a Bandit and 5 oz weight with it. I have zero idea how big the fish was but it was like I was hooked onto the rear of one of the many pontoon boats running around. Rather than let it empty my reel spool then break off, I just thumbed the reel down till either the bait pulled loose like the first one I snagged, or it broke.

I know these fish are here and causing trouble but it gets personal when they end up disrupting a fishing trip and costing me good $$ in lost baits when foul hooked. I really do fear we are going to see a huge down-turn in our fishing quality because of these invaders.

[kyjohn]

Unfortunately they are here to stay! The processing plant at Wickliffe is up and operating .. that might help. There's a bighead in Blood River with one of my crankbaits in its back!

[Wiskers]

They need to figure out a way to attack them on a genetic level.

[speckfinder]

Everybody says they will hurt the fishing, but the last 2 years have been the best crappie fishing we've had in several years.

[Greenwing]

I have been seeing large numbers of Bighead carp in the bay I always fish on Barkley. Yesterday I had one come within a few feet from the boat I was wishing I had some way to kill it, I began looking around and noticed there was hundreds on the surface all around me. I don't know what the answer is.

[rnvinc]

Asian carp...(or bighead I'm not sure)...

This pic was from this spring in Big Bear....Ky Lake...



Rickie

[M R Dux]

The fish that I was seeing Sunday had to be bigheads since they would spook but never saw one jump. The silvers are the ones that jump. The swirls they were leaving rivaled my Terrova when I kick it into "rabbit" mode.

[rnvinc]

I saw several of those swirls in KY Dam Marina last Thursday ....

I know it's gotta be those ugly monsters...

Rickie

[Wiskers]

I fish a few of the Lower lakes down in Ballard Co. every now and then. The Carp have all but killed those lakes.

The Carp attack the lake's food chain at the BASE! They devour the food that the Game Fish fry and bait fish eat. Less fry survive and the ones that do have to compete for what few bait fish have survived. I've caught crappie down there in the last few years that are stunted and so thin you can read a newspaper threw them! I cleaned several crappie down there a couple of years ago that had baby turtles in them! Not 1 fish... SEVERAL!!! Now when a crappie is feeding on baby turtles, SOMETHING IS WRONG!!!

I suspect we'll eventually start seeing a decline in the shad and other bait fish. That will cause the gamefish to convert over to eating more and more of their own a other gamefish fry. The problem will perpetuate and eventually destroy the lake's ecosystem.

Of course most of the time the powers that be decide to try and control and undesirable species by introducing another Invasive species to control them. 99.9% of the time that turns out to be worse than the original problem.

If we can clone a sheep we can figure out how to genetically sterilize these carp or introduce a genetic disorder into their population that drastically reduces their life span.

In the meantime the market for these fish needs to be expanded so that more commercial fishermen will go after them! There are lots of other things that can be done with them. Cat food, Hog feed, fertilizer to name just a few. Heck we can eat them! Those we had over at Dux's place were GREAT!!! As a matter of fact, if I can get my hands on some we are gonna have some for people to try at the Shindig this year!

I am afraid that we're coming up on a "point of no return!"

[slabseeker1]

Does the processing plant buy them from anglers? Do the big head or asian carp hit on regular bait? If we can't beat um, eat um.