Asian Carp

[kygorski]

commercial fishing, according to articals I have read, the meat is white and dosn't have a fishy taste. They can be ground up and made into fish pattys, BUT a market would need to be developed.also there is swome talk about using them for organic fertilizerBut the processing would be awfull to live near. Because of their size preditors are out of the question.There are anumber of unwanted imports around, the alewife is one of them, at one time it was estimated they made up almost 80% of the bio mass of lake michigan, hence the coho and king salmon were brought in to deal with them, and the fishing was fantastic for a number of years but something happened to them, and the salmon size went all the way down. Sea lampreys almost wiped out the lake trout in the great lakes, and they still are a problem, but tons of money was spent to kill them off. Zebra muscles, lake erie was covered with them, then the freshwatwer drum began to feast on them.Rusty crawfish were and still are a problem in the upper midwest.We wont get into the weeds there are too many of them to talk about, one is infesting the cum,berland river now.

[DJD]

You know it's sad because when it comes to fisheries and the programs that get implemented to fix something there is always a draw back. Plus the ability to stop anything is almost zilch! It's just a matter of time before Snakeheads are being caught in KY.

[riverrat12]

I heard the introduction of the alligator gar back into the Ohio was is supposed to help somewhat but that jury is still out. Ind. outlawed snagging from there shores because of a bunch of illegal spoonbillers so there is nothing we can do.I enjoyed snaggin the heck out of them and using them for fertilizer.They are one stinky fish,Mark and I can vouch for that.

[mhall]

I heard the introduction of the alligator gar back into the Ohio was is supposed to help somewhat but that jury is still out. Ind. outlawed snagging from there shores because of a bunch of illegal spoonbillers so there is nothing we can do.I enjoyed snaggin the heck out of them and using them for fertilizer.They are one stinky fish,Mark and I can vouch for that.

We snagged and hooked the same one in a pool it was trapped in I bet 5 to 7 times before we finally brought that nasty bighead to hand. We were wading to so it was cuttting in and out around us with a cranbait or treble in it's side, lol. We were doing hand to hand with those dang things, that was fun. Biggest one that day weighed over 45 #. Chuck and I stunk so bad at the end of that day, we could have knocked a buzzard off of a crap wagon. He's right they smell BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DJD]

Man they stink that bad and are supposed to taste good? Yuck.

[colonelmeyer]

The slime and smell is what cost the last one its lower jaw. I picked it up with my hands and got slimed good, latched onto it with the leatherman, it flopped away but left its jaw in my pliers. I've seen some big Alligator gar in pics from Texas and Louisiana, wish we had about a thousand of those brutes. I'm aware that a small population had managed to survive in the slews around the Ohio/Missisppi River junction before this stocking program I heard rumors of but what I am curious about is why they no longer inhabit more northerly waters? Are they not competitive enough? Need stained water? Pollution? What up with that?

[coombro]

Talked to a friend of mine who's an avid bow hunter today about asian carp. He told me Johnny law made them stop shooting the the carp around the lock area at Louisville. Go figure? Looking at his pictures those things get huge!

[JD7.62]

These things are FAR worse then any Channa (snake heads) invading our waters. The reason is because they are filter feeders. Being filter feeders they harm things from the bottom of the food chain to the top.

Id rather have a population of northern snake heads that get up to 20lbs, will absolutely crush a plastic plug, bust tackle, fight hard and actually taste quite delicous. Instead we are dealing with this big stanking, dangerous, bad tasting, plankton feeders.

[F16ENGMGR]

I snagged one on a crankbait near Warsaw, Markland Pool, on the Ohio River 4 years ago fishing a Tue night bass tournament out of Craigs. I didn't know what it was. I put it in the livewell, later took pics, and called Dennis Sharon, the local game warden. He came and looked at it, notified Frankfort, and they said they had no idea that the fish had migrated that far upstream. BTW I left the fish at the ramp for the racoons.

[yellow20xd]

Check out this.... St Louis zoo has the idea... Dan

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14923982/