Flying Carp

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Obviously non-native fish. There is major concern in Wisconsin, Michigan, and the other Great Lakes states that because these fish have been confirmed in the IL. river that empties into Lake Michigan by Chicago. The fear is that eventually they will over take the lakes and destroy the muti million dollar sport fishing industry (Trout, Salmon). It has even gone far enough for the attorney generals of these states to sue IL to try and get the locks close permantly by Chicago to keep the fish from the Great Lakes. There was a recent ruling by a federal court that said the locks could stay open.... :twisted: #-o

Outdoorsman
 
Growin up on the Illinois river, these lil Bas#$$$ are devastating. They have really destroyed the Illinois river over the last 10 years and they hurt like heck when ya catch one in the chest cruising 35-40 MPH.
 
We have those **** fish everywhere here in Missouri. I hate them. Slimy, nasty fish that are ruining everything. A few weeks ago, I landed one a little over 4 lb. Belly hooked it with a lipless crank. The net, the boat deck, the lure, the line above the lure all had snot like slime dripping from it! If you catch one....cut it up and leave it on the bank to die. And.....I'm being nice. :lol:
 
Fortunately we don't have them here in Ontario (yet). Hopefully US efforts to keep them out of the Great Lakes will be successful.

Like one of the guys in that video suggested - take a shotgun with you and do some skeet-shooting!
 
They are horrible. They are all over in reelfoot and alot of small creeks and tributaries between reelfoot and the mississippi. I had one jump in the boat with me one time just idling from one spot to another. Nasty fish.
 
Count me in as a hater of those things too! I hope they can be contained. Sparrows, starlings, carp (not these, but regular carp), kudzu, wisteria, hyacinth, fire ants, etc., etc.! All these non-native things can really hurt our woods and water. There are many more non-native species here, some, like ring necked pheasants, are not so bad, but most seem to be horrendous! Man, this is frustrating!

So far, I don't know of any in GA or other places in the south where I fish, but a couple of weeks ago, I was with a friend in an old oxbow lake off Mississippi River near Natchez, and a guy told us to be careful while running the motor because they are in there. We didn't see any, but I was concerned...
 
Until there is a viable commercial market for them, the current efforts to stop or reduce them won't even scratch the surface.

It is truly unbelievable how quickly these things reproduce. They are stopping commercial harvest of all bait fish around here next year because the carp are wiping them out from competition. You can see clouds of hundreds of thousands of carp fry pretty much anywhere you look in the tailwaters of the two dams here.

As ugly and slimy as they are, the things are actually pretty darned good eating. They have the odd bone pattern of a pike or like fish but if you can figure out how to clean them, they're not bad at all. Heck, they've nearly been wiped out in their native waters from overfishing. There are a couple of companies here that now have a contract with China for several processed tons of them this coming year.
 
Maybe someone can come up with a good use for them, like fertilizer. We do not have them in SC as far as I know but if we did my kin on the redneck side of the family would have a dozen or more recipes for them.
 
I have also heard about the contract with China to provide them as food. After watching a cable show about a guy traveling the planet eating exotic (gross) foods in different countries I guess eating these fish seem tame compared to some of the stuff this guy eats. I saw him on a show in China one time and WOW....no thanks....one of his stops was an exclusive resturant that specialized in animal peinis's (SP?) some cooked...some raw... :sick:

I would use these fish as fertilizer.....

Outdoorsman
 
Don't be so quick to dismiss the tablefare of the fish just because of the label of "carp" that has been hung on it.
 
back home, the major commercial fisherman do nothing but fish these nasty turds and do quite well (100k) plus per year. There is a large market for them but no where in the "real America" mostly larger foreign populations and back overseas where they came from
 
gouran01 said:
back home, the major commercial fisherman do nothing but fish these nasty turds and do quite well (100k) plus per year. There is a large market for them but no where in the "real America" mostly larger foreign populations and back overseas where they came from

Got to love that! Reverse importation...

I have eaten carp, regular kind, often. I would eat these jumping rascals too, but just don't like having them here.
 
KMixson said:
Maybe someone can come up with a good use for them, like fertilizer. We do not have them in SC as far as I know but if we did my kin on the redneck side of the family would have a dozen or more recipes for them.

It's already being done. Our state championship bowfishing tournament on the Illinois river takes about 30,000 out of the water each year. We have a couple companies come and take them and they make liquid fertilizer out of them. We also have a crayfish farmer from Wisconsin that takes several thousand pounds to use as food for the crayfish. It helps us as a club because they toss us a couple hundred dollars too.

Unfortunately that doesn't make a dent in the population.
 

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