Kentucky Lake Asian Carp

I went fishing in Sledd Creek on 3/23/2020 beautiful day but the Crappie fishing was extremely slow. I was able to watch some commercial fisherman run their net. They had placed the net across a small pocket off the main bay. It was clearly marked with their red floats and yellow flags. It was amazing how many carp they took from this small pocket. I also saw large numbers throughout the bay. WHAT surprised me was that a Asian carp actually bit my minnow, The fish was 4-5 lbs.
This is very troubling due to the fact that the story being spread is that they are plankton feeders. I hope this was not the norm and we find out later that the plankton feeder was a cover-up.

They do not have a stomach to process a minnow. Lack of a stomach is why they feed constantly.

They draw in food/water through their mouth, run it across the filters/rakers, and expel anything that isn't food. Everything gets run across, in one hole (mouth) and then out the other hole (gills).

It'll be interesting if they can deplete these things to a manageable number. If they could eliminate >50% of the population, I truly think it would reinvigorate the sport fish.

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Originally Posted by redearhoosier

I truly think it would reinvigorate the sport fish.

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According to sampling data by KDFWR, the sport fish populations are good and on par with cyclical patterns of year's past, the carp haven't impacted populations like so many seem to believe.

The carp have however changed the behavioral patterns of the sport fish, which means you simply cannot fish the same way you have prior to the carp arriving and expect the same results. The sport fish tend to be scattered more, suspended more, and move around a lot more. The behavioral changes are what's driving a lot of the "new" techniques you see being used, like trolling cranks, planer boards, etc. for crappie.

good information and thanks for posting the sports fish positive news! asian carp need to be fished harder for commercial uses including organic fertilizers.

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Originally Posted by hdhntr

good information and thanks for posting the sports fish positive news! asian carp need to be fished harder for commercial uses including organic fertilizers.

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It's a very complex issue when it comes to markets for them.

Fertilizer uses don't generate much of a market price for the fish. Processing costs and handling costs play a big role in this for a final product that doesn't sell for a very high price.

I think fish meal has been one of the major uses, but it's doesn't generate much of a market price either. Processing costs and handling costs play a big role in this for a final product that doesn't sell for a very high price; livestock/animal feed is the main market for fish meal.

Simply tossing them in the landfill isn't going to work either (though I'd be fine with that), as it appears $0.15 per pound is what it takes to generate enough interest for commercial fishermen to go after them, so if 8 million pounds per year is the goal, at a $0.15/lb subsidy that's $1.2 million a year for just dumping them in a hole.

Food grade is VERY difficult with Asian Carp as they start to spoil immediately once dead, meaning it takes tons of ice to keep them cool enough soon after being caught to preserve them enough. Food grade generates higher market prices, but commercial fishermen have an added cost of ice that factors into the equation. The ice facility installed not long ago by KY Dam helps with this a little, but I believe there is a need for more ice machines, and even processors to start supplying insulated totes in order to preserve fish well enough immediately after being caught to meet food grade standards. In the heat of summer, this is a really big issue.

Finding consistent buyers in support of helping to provide decent payouts to commercial fishermen is tough, especially right now with all that's going on. With KDFWR starting to allow smaller seine sizes (mainly due to having data resulting from the modified-unified method test showing very low sport fish impacts/by-catch through seine net use) I believe the catches from commercial fishermen will go up dramatically. A commercial fisherman just last week pulled in over 60,000 lbs in two days with the newly allowed seine net/mesh size through an experimental gear approval by KDFWR, with only about 10 sportfish caught and released in the process....that's great news, but if there's no buyer for the fish, and the fishermen can't sell their catch for a decent price, then it means nothing.

From what I gather, allowed methods for higher catch rates are improving, and commercial fisherman are anxious to do it, however without consistent places to sell their fish or decent payouts, the boats are sitting idle. The commercial fishermen believe KDFWR is wasting time and money with tests and studies and have been very vocal with their displeasure of KDFWR, I for one support KDFWR in their efforts and applaud everything they've been doing in this fight against carp. I've got several commercial fishermen wanting to string me up for voicing my support of KDFWR as I understand that in today's world every entity, including KDFWR, has to have documentation and proof to cover their liabilities with anything they allow to happen....and some people just don't quite seem to get that. I again applaud KDFWR for all they've done and what they continue to do in this fight.

Fished Clay bay and Byrd bay on the LBL side of KY lake yesterday, lots of carp, no bait fish found, no crappie found.

Fished Sugar Creek by Irvin Cobb later in the day, LOADED with silver carp, no crappies, no baitfish, I didn't fish in super shallow water, maybe bait fish back in the coves?

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Originally Posted by Northforker

I didn't fish in super shallow water, maybe bait fish back in the coves?

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You know how that goes.....they're always in the place you didn't check! Ha! With water temps at 57+ and rising water, it's about to get right! :)

For the next year or so, Crappie fishing on KY and Barkley Lakes is going to be about quality over quantity. There are some nice fish being caught but to expect to catch numbers that might have been common a few years ago isn’t typically realistic.
Of corse, the numbers we all caught as kids were enormous( in our minds mostly).
Word from Fish and Wildlife is we’ve had good spawns the last two years. Crappie populations have always been very cyclical with up and down numbers being the yearly norm. It takes 3 years to grow a 10” keeper here. It’s easy to blame the lack of catch in the livewell on the carp.

If it means anything to anybody, I built a 55 gallon minnow storage tank during the winter and now have it stocked with 3+ pounds of shiners. My minnow buckets had cobwebs in them. I had to replace a bunch of spider rigging action Southern Crappie Rods that had been give away, stepped on, or misplaced over the years. Bought a Livescope too.

Change comes hard to many.




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The Carp problem should be solved shortly if we trust all the information we get or get told. They don't reproduce, we have a barrier set up to stop any more getting into the lake and we still have commercial harvest of the current fixed population of Carp in the lake, so, just a matter of time before they are reduced significantly. Hope this is true. Will find out this year with the number of fishermen that show up and report catches in the lakes this year for game fish. Should be good fishing if he carp are having no affect on the population of these fish as we are told. Will be there in May to see what's going on.

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Originally Posted by perchjerker108

The Carp problem should be solved shortly if we trust all the information we get or get told. They don't reproduce, we have a barrier set up to stop any more getting into the lake and we still have commercial harvest of the current fixed population of Carp in the lake, so, just a matter of time before they are reduced significantly. Hope this is true. Will find out this year with the number of fishermen that show up and report catches in the lakes this year for game fish. Should be good fishing if he carp are having no affect on the population of these fish as we are told. Will be there in May to see what's going on.

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Actually no, we won't learn much this year. The keeper fish we are fishing for are basically 5 years old for the most part and there aren't a whole lot left. Another full year to year and half or the 2021 season will be more telling about where we stand. There are big numbers of small fish in some places. I am hopeful with another good spawn and if bait holds up like recently, we will be more toward normal 2021-2022 and beyond.

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Is anybody catching large numbers of 5" to 8" dinks? The few fish I'm catching are all 12"-15" slabs, no dinks.

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Originally Posted by Northforker

Is anybody catching large numbers of 5" to 8" dinks? The few fish I'm catching are all 12"-15" slabs, no dinks.

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Brenda and I are catching dinks off our docks again. This is good karma.

We caught several dinks yesterday on KY.

I had several days late last summer/early fall that I caught 30 and 40 short crappie along with 15-20 keepers. I haven't fished a lot since then but catch several shorts every trip and see stakebeds that look to have 50-100 shorts on them pretty much every time.

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I have 4 buddies that are there now. They fish mostly blood river.
Staying until next Saturday.
I might get a report from them in a couple days.
I suggested they stay home due to current pandemic but they didn’t listen.
I will let all know if they do any good.


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pab1981, thanks for correcting me on the potential outcome for this year on the carp. I was hoping the turning point would be this year. Sad to hear it will take another year or two to figure out if the situation improves. Feel sorry for the businesses there to have to wait out another 1 to 2 years. I guess we will all deal with the best we can for a couple years.