Don't bother going to the Salt River, either. They've made their way up the Salt to the spillway at Taylorsville Lake. I've rolled a few over casting Road Runners there, and a friend of mine caught one about 20lbs and landed it. She didn't know what it was & turned it loose. She won't be doing that again !!
They are in about every body of water that's connected to the Ohio or Mississippi rivers, either directly (creeks/rivers) or in lakes with locks at their dams that are connected to those waterways. They're even making their way up the Tenn River, and have probably reached as far as the Chickamauga Lake at Chattanooga (if not farther).
Even with the processing plants (which some are expanding) and the commercial anglers hauling them out by the tons ... it's a drop in the bucket compared with their reproductive abilities and their current territory.
As of right now ... there is nothing that can be done to eradicate them. No biologicals, chemicals, or predators are available to even slow down their spread (without potential harm to sport fish species).
The only thing I can think of that would 'eventually' get rid of them is something that would render them sterile, but not any other specie of fish. Even then it would take years before their numbers were reduced to the point where they were no longer a threat. Even if they did manufacture some sort of sterilizing biological or chemical .... can you imagine how much it would cost to treat all the affected waters ??




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