Silver Carp

I was bass fishing in the river the other day and started hearing some splashes out towards the middle. Long story short trolled over there and saw schools of huge silver carp with 15-20 fish in each one. Ended up hooking one (snagged) and fought the fish for over 30 minutes. Finally landed it and it must've been a smaller one because it only weighed 12 lbs. It was stripping drag on my baitcaster like crazy but it was one of the most fun times I've ever had. Never been deep sea fishing but i have a feeling this is what it would be like. It was awesome!

On another note should snagging/grab hooking be allowed for silver carp. IMO any way that helps get rid of the **** fish seems like a good option to me. I emailed DNR but have yet to get a reply. What are some of your opinions on the fishing techniques for silver carp? Do you think any way to get the invasive species out should be legal or do the fishing regulations still apply?

I feel that anything we can do to get rid of them is ok with me. Snagging, netting, chemical sterilizing them, spearing them, electro shocking them or any other method that can selectively get them out of our river.

I'm sure that there are some bright minds up at IDNR F&W fishing section that are thinking about how to eradicate these invasive fish. And there are good people in the US Fish and Wildlife Agency that are trying to figure a way to get rid of them.

But the problem is huge and may be impossible to do without harming the other fish in the river.

I'd like to see big river boats with huge catch nets in the front of the boat going along the river 4 or 6 boats side by side and letting the fish jump up out of the water and straight into those nets. Do this hourly until they are all captured. Each net could have a funnel to herd the fish into a tank in the boat that could be hauled to a processing barge. The barge would then chop or grind them up into cat food and fertilizer for the cat lovers and farmers to buy. We may not be able to eradicate them completely but we could put a big dent in their numbers during the warm weather months.

[QUOTE=King31;491407]I was bass fishing in the river the other day and started hearing some splashes out towards the middle. Long story short trolled over there and saw schools of huge silver carp with 15-20 fish in each one. Ended up hooking one (snagged) and fought the fish for over 30

I think they are here to stay...it's a shame,for sure. I wish we could take em out with shotguns...I don't think it would put much of a dent in the population, but it would sure be a good time!

[QUOTE=Relic;491435]I think they are here to stay...it's a shame,for sure. I wish we could take em out with shotguns...I don't think it would put much of a dent in the population, but it would sure be a good time![/QUOTE]

exactly! there really is nothing good about them