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N454casull
MemberPosts: 597 Senior Member
New PR Bowfishing
N454casull
MemberPosts: 597 Senior Member
Shot this carp yesterday on the Columbia River. Biggest carp I have taken to date. 
those are size 12 crocs.
those are size 12 crocs.
Replies
― Douglas Adams
Caney Lake, in Northern Louisiana used to be THE trophy largemouth spot in the state. It started getting overgrown with hydrilla, and the DOW introduced carp into the lake to take care of the problem. They stocked it with 20,000 carp.
That was a miscalculation on their part. Turned out, for the size of the lake it should have been 2,000. So.......the DOW was literally begging folks to take out carp by any means available, including bow fishing.
That was when I learned I'm no archer.
OTOH, I was able to hit the lake with 100% of my shots.
Mike
N454casull
Best one shot was 2 about that size-----arrow pasted through and stuck in another.
What fun getting them in as they each ran in different directions.
The ones that eat grass are.... grass carp. In FL (and I presume elsewhere) they are hatchery-produced steriles. Usually triploids (1 1/2 times the normal chromosome number) to keep them from reproducing if they escape.
Oh, and because they are a stocked fish for weed control they are illegal to harvest, if I remember correctly. In private water bodies they are property of the person or group that stocked them. Plus you need a permit to possess them.
Not illegal to catch and release.
I've got a small stock pond (and I do mean small) that has been taken over by what I think is duckweed. Will the sterile carp clean it up?
There’s a couple lakes on the west side of the state with grass carp in them and they did, one time, open it up to reduce numbers but other than that grass carp are off limits.
That fish is pretty dang big for around here but not even close to what they shoot in southern Idaho. I saw some bigger ones but couldn’t get a shot on them if I can get one in the mid 30’s that will be a freaking monster.
Both grass and common carp.
Other grasses, that's a different story. Two years after Caney Lake was grossly overstocked with them there wasn't a blade of grass within 10 feet of the shoreline. That area looked like an underwater beach. Caney went from being a gem to a practical dead zone.
Maybe it's rebounded in the 15 years I've been gone, but it was in sad shape when I left.
Mike
N454casull
As far as wiping out all the vegetation... yeah. They can do that. Even going so far as to beach themselves to eat lawn grass.
The lady biologist in charge of the project was related to the guy in Mississipi who raised grass carp commercially for just such endeavors.
I don't know what, if anything, came of that. I left the state about the time that info became public. Shannon Hayes might know....he lives about 20 miles from Caney.
Mike
N454casull
― Douglas Adams
As to taste, that's a matter for each to decide. As a kid I ate plenty of both and enjoyed it. After not having it for 15 years, trying it as an adult it was all I could do to choke it down. But as a kid, I liked even mud cats.
Mike
N454casull