Based on what I have read so far about these Asian carp I think you are right about them eating up most of the phytoplankton which the young crappie and other sport fish need to grow from fry to bigger fish.

The report that I read was from Dan Carnahan, IDNR fishery biologist, but that report was several years ago. Things may have changed drastically with the arrival of these Asian carp.


Quote Originally Posted by Relic View Post
Yes..by quality I mean size. I'm sure Hovey has some big crappie in it, but we noticed the average size of the ones we started catching got smaller and smaller each year...this could mean the population of crappie "blew" up and we where catching young ones or it could also mean that something is stunting their growth. My opinion is that asian/silver/big head carp whatever they are called have destroyed that place..eating everything that the baitfish feed on and causing the shad to die out which in turn has caused the population of fish that typically eat the bait fish to drop off in size and quantity. I have no data to prove or disprove this theory, but it sounds logical to me.
As far as the "drain"...yes they built a structure across it quit some time ago and the way its set up it looks like smaller fish can still move freely but anything larger than 3-4" wouldn't be able to make it into hovey unless the creek flooded..which it does. The structure hasn't totally sealed hovey from the river but it did affect the fishes ability to move in and out of hovey freely.