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My son and I saw a large school of 6-8" fish in the KY River (pool 3 bewteen Monterey and Frankfort) feeding on the surface on Saturday. They were much bigger than the shad. I could see that they had a forked tail and were silver.
Wondering if they were some of the exotic invasive carp showing up in other big river systems? Anybody know if they have been reported in the KY River? I have heard they have been found in abundance in the tailwaters of KY/Barkley.
Skip Jack?
I guess KY Fish and Wildlife already answered my question: [URL]http://www.kdfwr.state.ky.us/021204.asp?lid=883&NavPath=C105C122C521C394[/URL]
Do skipjacks school at the surface and really disturb the surface? Are they 6-8 inches this time of year?
Yes, Skipjack do feed at the surface, or below. They are active this time of year at the power plant discharges and wherever the shad are. They also like current breaks. I know that they are constantly feeding at lock 1 on the Ky river. If you toss a white grub or a Sabiki rig into these jumps, you can catch them. outstanding catfish bait!
Yes they will feed on the surface and yes they can be 6-8 inches long. However wait till you see a school of 1 1/2 lbers feeding on the surface, that is a awesome sight.
These carp are a terrible threat, and I don't think we're paying enough attention to them. By "we" I mean the fishing community as a whole. The KDFWR site (thanks for the link) says that we can help control them by taking measures to guard against introducing them into fisheries. OK, great, so don't dump your baitfish into the lake, we all know that, but what can we do to actively get rid of them? They've tried different things on the Illinois River, and haven't had much luck. Miles of that river have virtually no other fish in it. Is our beloved Kentucky River next?
I used to fish the Illinois river for white bass and sauger, it was great, so good that pro walleye put it on the spring circut, that has changed. A friend I talked to this spring said it is almost dangerous at times to fish parts of the river because of those fish. they are now supposed to be 80% of the bio mass of the river. If they get into the great lakes, another fishery will be lost.These are not the only scourge in our waters that have been brought here by accident.There is no cheap solution to a problem like this.When the alewives became a problem on the great lakes, salmon were introduced, that fishery became a miracle for awhile, but we couldn't quit. They started commercial netting of the pests, the salmon fishing declined, boat sales almost quit, and many of us who fished those lakes quit.The carp can be netted, but how can they be dispossed of? One of my favorite lakes was ruined by an introduced species, the rusty crawfish. guys brought them in to fish for SMB, and walleye. The ones they didn't use, they turned loose. Several years later, it was fouind that these things had strripped spawning areas, ruined weed beds, and over produced.When a local started to trap them, and they were a marketable item, the town made him stop, the shells and body parts were causing a stink. That lake may never recover as a fishing lake, its speed boat heaven now.I dont believe there are any private solutions to these problems, that wont cause other problems. Heres where efficient government programs could work, but we know what happens then.I guess were just plain screwed!It all starts with a good idea.
Amen to that. I'm wondering if anything at all happened to the fish farmers who had these things in the first place? Most states make it illegal to import exotic species and turn them loose, no matter the the release site. Not that it'd do any good, prosecution that is but it'd sure help spread the word some.
What stinks is that the Asian carp are far far more detrimental to our eco-system then the snakehead. Sadly the media has portrayed the magnificent snakehead as an evil kill all end all monster when it is not. In reality these carp are reaping havoc on our local waters and spreading like wildfire with out a whisper in the media.
Are you sure they were not gizzard shad? They get over 6 to 8". I have foul hooked them as big as 10 to 11" on Nolin up by five fingers.
From what I've seen, skipjack are attack feeders and will slash at minnows on the surface. As far as the Asian carp, I think they are already well established on the Ohio River. I saw a huge school of them at a warm water dishcharge a couple of winters ago.