Search Fishin.com

Page 1 of 5 1234 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 12 of 58

Hybrid View

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    17
    Post Thanks / Like

    Asian carp/Kentucky lake

    I just got back from Kentucky lake for the fourth trip this year. Each time I've noticed the number of asian carp have gotten larger and larger. It's not just a few it's hundreds of them at a time. I haven't heard nothing from the department of fish and wildlife about correcting this matter other then carp tournament. Fellas that's not going to do it. I don't know if there's anything that can be done. I do know that unless something is done one of the finest fisheries in United States will be ruined it in the next few years. What are your thoughts about this.
    Likes Kentucky_Bass_Kid liked this post

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Posts
    1,004
    Post Thanks / Like
    I have been considering buying a house there but I admit I have thought about about how this could end up negatively effecting the home values at the lake.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2000
    Location
    Lexington, Kentucky, USA.
    Posts
    1,016
    Post Thanks / Like
    There are commercial packing plants in the area, whose sole purpose is to send these carp to market. Commercial Fishermen are netting them & taking them to these plants.
    Also, believe me ... the KDFWR biologists are hard at work trying to come up with eradication plans for these intruders, but will have to take into account any negative effects that might occur to the rest of the fish population from any of those plans.

    ... pappy

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 1969
    Location
    New Albany, Indiana.
    Posts
    8,955
    Post Thanks / Like
    Quote Originally Posted by crappiepappy View Post
    There are commercial packing plants in the area, whose sole purpose is to send these carp to market. Commercial Fishermen are netting them & taking them to these plants.
    Also, believe me ... the KDFWR biologists are hard at work trying to come up with eradication plans for these intruders, but will have to take into account any negative effects that might occur to the rest of the fish population from any of those plans.

    ... pappy
    I think they are BARELY putting a dent in them.

    Hopefully, they can ramp up the production about 100 fold. THEN and only then, will they be able to "check" the growth.

    I was in a bay this past weekend and it was UNREAL how many were there.

    Later,

    Geo

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Posts
    1,004
    Post Thanks / Like
    I know the Asian carp have been in many places for awhile now and we all have read how they could ruin the fishing but are there actual lakes/reservoirs where this has occurred and the game fishing has actually died off because of these fish?

    I feel bad for the many businesses that depend on the fishery. The unknown of how devastating this problem potentially could be to the local economies has to be a horrible thing to have in the backs of their minds.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 1969
    Location
    .LaGrange
    Posts
    10,740
    Post Thanks / Like
    They are slowly destroying our fisheries and many are being effected. I have no idea what the answer is but I am very afraid that some of our very best places to fish will soon be a thing of the past. They destroy Eco systems by eating all the Zooplankton.

    How can we kill them all when they produce more than most insects.

    I wish I had an answer fellas I really do because its just a matter of time before they are in all of our lakes and rivers.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Bloomfield, KY
    Posts
    562
    Post Thanks / Like
    Quote Originally Posted by mhall View Post
    They are slowly destroying our fisheries and many are being effected. I have no idea what the answer is but I am very afraid that some of our very best places to fish will soon be a thing of the past. They destroy Eco systems by eating all the Zooplankton.
    You are correct! Just one gorges itself on a substantial amount of plankton. When there's thousands upon thousands I can guarantee it will be devastating. We haven't even seen the worst parts of their presence yet. Future fisheries will suffer and I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel. HOPEFULLY these commercial fisherman do damage and maybe those biologist will figure out how to kill them without harming out native species.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    17
    Post Thanks / Like
    I haven't seen any commercial fishing taking place for these fish. If any Guides on Ky lake are reading this what have you noticed with the increasing numbers of the carp?

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 1969
    Location
    .
    Posts
    2,303
    Post Thanks / Like
    Since I am a guide here on Ky/Barkley here is my take on the Asians:

    They are here and they have been for many years......in the past few years they finally reached such big numbers that people finally realized they were here and the populations were growing. This is happening everywhere in the Mississippi River Drainage System where they can get into. They are growing in numbers all the way up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, Ohio, heck they are even finding them now all the way up in the tailwaters of the Mississippi.

    At present there is no way to get rid of all of them without killing everything else in doing so..ie by poison etc....this is basically a national problem which will no doubt have a national impact on the economy and our sport fishing and recreation if they do not get them under control.....it won't happen tomorrow, but overtime it is coming...it already has in some areas like the Illinois River. The only concentrated efforts by the Federal Government is they are spending big dollars trying to keep them out of the Great Lakes up in Illinios but it was discovered last year that some have already gotten in there according to DNA samples.

    KDFW has been actively doing what they can. Basically, the only control at this time is commercial fishing to keep the numbers down before it is too late. It is working in some Illinois rivers where the state made a grant to open some big canneries and the state got big contracts with China to send the fish home for them to eat and also selling there for pet food ingrediantes. The problem is the fish spoil very quick and they have to be processed soon after capture so there has to be some big canneries in the area where they are being taken. Here we do not have that. We have on small canneries opened two years ago on the Tennesse River at Smithland below Ky Dam by a Chinese lady and she is expanding but her anglers are working the river. Not sure what the capacity rate is in the cannery now but last year it was only 80,000 lbs per day...a good dent but it is not enough.

    Back to KDFW: The Carp Tournament they had here was to try to get the attention of big money investors to show them just how much weight can be taken on these fish by our local commercial fishermen in a day in hopes that some investors would construct canneries here that would be very profitable. They also have held a lot of luncheons and meetings with these type money folks trying to make it happen....it has not happened yet and I am not sure if it will.....we are keeping our fingers crossed.

    As far as impact on the fishing...so far I have not noticed any real impact yet...except if you are bass fishing and a large school of the big heads move into the area, your bite will cease and you might as well go somewhere else. I heard one of the biologists say they will bully the other fish out of the area when they move in...I know it has happened to me a number of times already. Since they are attacking the bottom of the food chain, eventually no doubt their presence will reduce the numbers of all fish as plankton is the mother's milk of all baby fish. This will take many years here on the big lakes but unless mother nature or man steps in...it will happen. We did have a very large die off of these fish below Ky Dam earlier this year...estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of them went belly up.....no one has figured out why yet as far as I know but I know KDFW was trying to figure it out.

    Another thing that has come up that a lot of folks are not aware of yet...a number of these fish are now being taken below the dam where they are thick...and they are being taken in the mouth with jigs...means they are actually trying to eat the jigs....that is something plankton eaters do not do.....makes you wonder if the fish may be adapting and starting to eat other things.

    Bottom line here is our best hope right now is to get some big canneries built...we have the commercial anglers here ready and willing to control these fish but at present they cannot get them processed. Big government has not done anything to assist in getting this done.....except in Illinois the state has taken the proper steps. What is really needed is the feds.....and they are too busy bad mouthing one another to even consider doing anything now before it is too late...but then again that pretty much reflects what our feds normally do...that is wait until the crisis has already developed and devastating then they jump in and throw money down the toilet that could have been saved had they acted in a responsible and proactive manner before it was too late.

    Unless mother nature steps in and evens things out like she does in many cases where a species is getting over populated....your kids and grandkids will be fishing for Asians in order to catch any numbers of fish.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2012
    Location
    Bloomfield, KY
    Posts
    562
    Post Thanks / Like
    Thank you Dave for spending your time to give us your knowledge on the issue. I've personally caught asian carp on 3 inch curly tail jigs below the dam at taylorsville. They are adapting and that's scary.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Dec 1969
    Location
    Palestine, Illinois, USA.
    Posts
    1,733
    Post Thanks / Like
    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Stewart View Post
    Since I am a guide here on Ky/Barkley here is my take on the Asians:

    They are here and they have been for many years......in the past few years they finally reached such big numbers that people finally realized they were here and the populations were growing. This is happening everywhere in the Mississippi River Drainage System where they can get into. They are growing in numbers all the way up the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, Ohio, heck they are even finding them now all the way up in the tailwaters of the Mississippi.

    At present there is no way to get rid of all of them without killing everything else in doing so..ie by poison etc....this is basically a national problem which will no doubt have a national impact on the economy and our sport fishing and recreation if they do not get them under control.....it won't happen tomorrow, but overtime it is coming...it already has in some areas like the Illinois River. The only concentrated efforts by the Federal Government is they are spending big dollars trying to keep them out of the Great Lakes up in Illinios but it was discovered last year that some have already gotten in there according to DNA samples.

    KDFW has been actively doing what they can. Basically, the only control at this time is commercial fishing to keep the numbers down before it is too late. It is working in some Illinois rivers where the state made a grant to open some big canneries and the state got big contracts with China to send the fish home for them to eat and also selling there for pet food ingrediantes. The problem is the fish spoil very quick and they have to be processed soon after capture so there has to be some big canneries in the area where they are being taken. Here we do not have that. We have on small canneries opened two years ago on the Tennesse River at Smithland below Ky Dam by a Chinese lady and she is expanding but her anglers are working the river. Not sure what the capacity rate is in the cannery now but last year it was only 80,000 lbs per day...a good dent but it is not enough.

    Back to KDFW: The Carp Tournament they had here was to try to get the attention of big money investors to show them just how much weight can be taken on these fish by our local commercial fishermen in a day in hopes that some investors would construct canneries here that would be very profitable. They also have held a lot of luncheons and meetings with these type money folks trying to make it happen....it has not happened yet and I am not sure if it will.....we are keeping our fingers crossed.

    As far as impact on the fishing...so far I have not noticed any real impact yet...except if you are bass fishing and a large school of the big heads move into the area, your bite will cease and you might as well go somewhere else. I heard one of the biologists say they will bully the other fish out of the area when they move in...I know it has happened to me a number of times already. Since they are attacking the bottom of the food chain, eventually no doubt their presence will reduce the numbers of all fish as plankton is the mother's milk of all baby fish. This will take many years here on the big lakes but unless mother nature or man steps in...it will happen. We did have a very large die off of these fish below Ky Dam earlier this year...estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of them went belly up.....no one has figured out why yet as far as I know but I know KDFW was trying to figure it out.

    Another thing that has come up that a lot of folks are not aware of yet...a number of these fish are now being taken below the dam where they are thick...and they are being taken in the mouth with jigs...means they are actually trying to eat the jigs....that is something plankton eaters do not do.....makes you wonder if the fish may be adapting and starting to eat other things.

    Bottom line here is our best hope right now is to get some big canneries built...we have the commercial anglers here ready and willing to control these fish but at present they cannot get them processed. Big government has not done anything to assist in getting this done.....except in Illinois the state has taken the proper steps. What is really needed is the feds.....and they are too busy bad mouthing one another to even consider doing anything now before it is too late...but then again that pretty much reflects what our feds normally do...that is wait until the crisis has already developed and devastating then they jump in and throw money down the toilet that could have been saved had they acted in a responsible and proactive manner before it was too late.

    Unless mother nature steps in and evens things out like she does in many cases where a species is getting over populated....your kids and grandkids will be fishing for Asians in order to catch any numbers of fish.
    Dave I thought they were starting a processing plant west of Paducah I guess this did not happen. I saw a report on the massive fish kill and the KDFW said the fish had air bubbles in there gills which is a rare occurrence caused by highly oxygenated water. I remember when I read this I thought it was some what suspect it sounded like they could not find a reason and gave this explanation.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Dec 1969
    Location
    New Albany, Indiana.
    Posts
    8,955
    Post Thanks / Like
    Quote Originally Posted by roadrunner View Post
    Dave I thought they were starting a processing plant west of Paducah I guess this did not happen. I saw a report on the massive fish kill and the KDFW said the fish had air bubbles in there gills which is a rare occurrence caused by highly oxygenated water. I remember when I read this I thought it was some what suspect it sounded like they could not find a reason and gave this explanation.
    There are a couple plants down there now.

    Here is the one you're talking about, I think......

    http://tworiversfisheries.com/
    Likes peter liked this post

Similar Threads

  1. Asian carp/Kentucky lake
    By Red Shad in forum Kentucky Discussion Board
    Replies: 50
    Last Post: 11-22-2014, 08:10 PM
  2. KY Lake Asian Carp tournament
    By Fishin is life in forum Kentucky Discussion Board
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 03-22-2013, 12:17 PM
  3. Kentucky Lake Asian Carp epidemic !
    By brucehampton in forum Asian Carp
    Replies: 12
    Last Post: 11-03-2012, 05:11 PM
  4. Kentucky Lake Asian Carp epidemic !
    By brucehampton in forum Kentucky Discussion Board
    Replies: 12
    Last Post: 11-03-2012, 05:11 PM
  5. Been reading about Asian Carp in KY lake
    By Moveon in forum Asian Carp
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 10-31-2011, 07:58 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •