Quote Originally Posted by Amartinbio View Post
Hey guys, thats very interesting that you saw them there mixed in with the other species. In my professional opinion, I highly doubt that the carp were consuming any of the baitfish. If youve ever cut one open you can easily observe that their guts and mouths are not designed to consume fish, even small ones. No diet study, (of which there have been several, including one on ky lake) has found any fish in their guts. That being said, there was a recent paper published modeling the potential effects of asian carp introductions into the great lakes and they did include one model which simulated what would happen if the Asian carp did consume larval fish. (they predicted greater damaging effects when they eat larval fish) I don't personally know how it got published since there is no evidence supporting the idea that they eat larval fish, but I thought Id let you know about it.
There is also a theory that they will hold a fish in their mouths and attempt to knock off some scales or other particulates and consume them before spitting the fish out. This is speculative because its very hard to test for.
I have personally caught them in the mouth on swimbaits. I have also caught a paddlefish on a jug. In my opinion these are incidental hookings due to their open mouth feeding behavior.

you can test this yourselves next time you hook one or one jumps in. Remove the hooks from your crankbait and try to force it into the carps throat. If you manage to force it in, I encourage you to cut open the fish and observe its intestine (it will likely be damaged from the size of the lure)

Thank you for your reply.