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| I have always wondered the effects of large numbers of carp effect our lakes. Some think that they're a nuisance and they screw up the equilibrium of native species and they make the water green by their feeding etc... I've also heard they provide a great foodsource for pike and muskie. Some kill them at any opportunity. I'm not sure what to think.
What do you think? |
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Edited by Sponge 8/23/2006 9:26 AM
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Posts: 20269
Location: oswego, il | I think pike and muskie do utilize them for forage but carp can outgrow their usefulness as a forage base so their lifespan is only partial to being forage. One thing I have noticed and i have brought it up before. I have seen shad and carp in the same lake before, carp seem to be in any lake I have been on with shad in it too. But the carp don't seem to be in excessive numbers in those lakes like populations that you see in some lakes without shad. I think petenwell, madison, fox chain and pewaukee are great examples of lakes without shad that have huge carp populations. I have just never seen a lake with shad in it, that had a carp population anywhere close to these lakes. |
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| What is the easiest/quickest way to determine if shad are in the lake? |
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Posts: 350
Location: WESTERN WI | Contact the nearest DNR office. |
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | let me be brutally honest.....I can't stand carp. I don't care how big they get, how well they fight, or if they provide food for any musky or pike. As far as I Concerned, they are no different then a goby, then a rusty crayfish, or any other invasive species you want to name. To me, they do not belong here, period. THey seem to take over lakes like no other species I have ever seen. I try my best to stay away from lakes that have any type of sizeable population of these things. I did enjoy catching them as a kid, but it stops right about there. If there was ever anyway for a goup of bounty hunters to try the impossible task and start eliminating them one by one, count me in |
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Location: Northern Wisconsin | are you guys sure musky and pike use them as a main forage soucre? sometimes when i go fishing
i sein my minnows/suckers. sometimes i catch little carp to go with the shiners and suckers. the suckers
and shiners always get bit by pike/ bass but i have never had anything ever eat one of the carp. if i cant
go musky fishing ill go to my river and try to catch some but besides that i dont think they serve any
good in our musky lakes. |
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Posts: 7101
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Todd - Webster has many shad, and gigantic carp.
Oukachee does too. |
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Posts: 654
Location: MPLS, MN | I like Carp. Love fishing in the Mississippi River for smallmouth bass and carp. |
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| The Winnebago system as a plethera of carp and shad. I for one can't stand carp and wish there were no exsistant, but it doesn't mean they aren't fun to catch and that great fisheries can't co-exsist with high carp populations. The only major negative is that I have seen them eliminate once prominent weedbeds. |
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| Yes indeedy they'll eat "kerp", but not as readily as other baitfish if available. These fish have a long history, and there is now a grass roots organization called "Kids 4 Carp Campaign" sweeping the southern part of the nation. They are easily identified by their little brown jumpsuits and orange arm bands. They usually travel by pick up truck, and can be found at the entrances to covenience stores, a Piggly Wiggly, or Walmarts handing out leaflets and selling homemade doughballs or small cans of niblet corn so as to finance their infrastructure. These kids and their families can often be found protesting in front of a Bass Pro Shop, and soon plan a sit in on the White House lawn. Here locally, a popular fund raiser is the Carp Rodeo; a Mr Turtle plastic pool containing a large aggressive carp is hauled in and a bullfrog is lashed to his back; peeps then bet as to how long the amphibian will stay in the saddle. Small recon teams are set up to ambush PETA members should they attempt to stop the event. I'm still pretty much neutral to the whole carp concept, although this group can be very persuasive at times... |
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Posts: 2361
| Sponge is living in the past and still listening to too much Cream, probably smoking National Forest Tobbacco, and at night, lights plastic bags on fire to watch and listen to them drip and sizzle into a wastebasket full of water, well, aside from that, carp can get in many watersheds and pretty much disappear, but in eutrophic, soft bottom streams and lakes they are a big contaminant and ecosystem changer. Carp are excellent reproducers and without a big predator base, the raw tonnage of carp in some waterways is amazing and can be extremely destructive while at the same time competing with game and pan fish for the forage base. I don't know how often they get hit by muskies and pike but they are present in numbers that have to make them at least some part of the forage base when they are smaller. At one pound or thereabouts they get to be a pretty tough target, though obviously consumable. |
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| Dude! You left out the electric toadstools and the Lionel Ritchie cassettes played backwards.  Until one has sat down w/ family gathered 'round a holiday table festively adorned w/ cornbread, grits, mustard greens, a 5 gal. bucket of ice cold Coke Colas, and a filet knife in preparation of carving the cajun Christmas carp as the Yule Log crackles in the background, then life is missing a vital piece of the overall puzzle...anyhoos, these fish do have a tendency to school and vacuum up the eggs of others fish, and may also to a small degree ingest the young of the aforementioned, as they can on occasion be caught on live minnows, as well as miniature minnow shaped baits/grubs/jigs; if I remember correctly, Artie caught a carp at Cave Run that hit a Rattle Trap...I can see where their presence could be especially damaging during periods of spawning, although I know of no initial studies to back such a theory... |
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| Carp chew up weedbeds and some claim they eat musky eggs also!
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Posts: 8848
| They chew up weedbeds, they eat gamefish eggs, and they stir up sediment which causes a whole host of problems.
NFG
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Location: Northern Wisconsin | carp suck!! |
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| Carp don't have teeth they have to suck to feed. |
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Location: Northern Wisconsin | true,lol |
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Posts: 654
Location: MPLS, MN | Panfish and Bass are no differant. Same with Salmon, they all eat eggs yet no one wants to get rid of them. It's just perception. |
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Edited by Sponge 8/23/2006 9:26 AM
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Posts: 20269
Location: oswego, il | Slamr, yes this is true but the carp populations out that way are in no comparison to the lakes I mentioned without shad, that was basically my comment. |
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