# Here they come... ASIAN ASSAULT



## black swamp

Just got word from someone out on the Ohio river this weekend just east of Cincinnati that they had fish jumping over the boat. She said they were big fish an were jumping all over the place, sounds like asian carp to me. Last confirmed reports had them down at the mouth of Great Miami back in June? May have been mid June but remember reading about not long ago. Now what? Naybe a bounty? Just more fuel for the commercial fisherman to tap our waters. What do you folks think? This is a real problem that is just going to get worse an we are all going to see it at one point. THIS EFFECTS EVERYONE ON HERE!


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## FishNinja

Good thing I live on a lake lol...


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## snag

FishNinja said:


> Good thing I live on a lake lol...


 not if someone dumps some in.. it could happen to any lake anywhere, and they will spread in time .it,s not just the ohio river problem,it would just take a few fish caught and re dumped to a lake for whatever reason, fun to fish or bowfish,but then your stuck with them...


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## lark101_1999

caught one below meldal last year in a cast net


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## I Fish

The thing I don't understand is they have an electric barrier in Chicago to keep them out of the great lakes, but nothing to stop them from traveling up the river. I mean, they have hydro electric dams, couldn't they just build a barrier and charge it with the electric already being produced? I guess they need more time to "study" it.


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## snag

the elec- barriers are just a thumb in the leaky dam, they already have positive dna from the sandusky bay and maume areas, how many fish if any are there time will tell..


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## bigcatjoe

They've been confirmed via electrofishing in the ohio near cinci.

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## CMG_Chelsea

Heaven forbid this administration do anything about it.

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## I Fish

snag said:


> the elec- barriers are just a thumb in the leaky dam, they already have positive dna from the sandusky bay and maume areas, how many fish if any are there time will tell..


It's also been confirmed that the barrier wasn't working for a time. How many other times we'll never know.


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## Daveo76

Asian (Big Head) caught below Greenup Dam. This is the second one so far this year.


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## bountyhunter

ADMIN/gov do anything about it????? takes a 20yr study for them to start thinking about it. example theres two intrsections that had great truck traffic on it for 50 yrs. now the industry is gone , so now there making the road big truck friendly 20yrs late. thats our gov . the fish is here and in our life time will be in the in land lakes.


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## snag

very true they will spread like the zebra mussels have ,whats next the gobies coming to our inland lakes, i wouldn,t be surprised....


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## Bad Bub

snag said:


> very true they will spread like the zebra mussels have ,whats next the gobies coming to our inland lakes, i wouldn,t be surprised....


Honestly, gobies would be a great addition compared to these carp.....

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## snag

true but the gobies eat a lot of spawning bass eggs and the bass eat some gobies, so that is better than those carp eating the plankton that the young fry need to get started. i,ve read where the asian carp have been the fish population has gotten a lot skinnier,due to the food chain getting depleted by them then they move on up river to better feeding grounds, like there doing now in the ohio..


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## Bad Bub

snag said:


> true but the gobies eat a lot of spawning bass eggs and the bass eat some gobies, so that is better than those carp eating the plankton that the young fry need to get started. i,ve read where the asian carp have been the fish population has gotten a lot skinnier,due to the food chain getting depleted by them then they move on up river to better feeding grounds, like there doing now in the ohio..


Exactly. Seems many fish have adapted to making the gobie an important food source in the great lakes. Bluegills eat bass eggs as well, and no one has put a bounty them. (That's not an argument in favor of the gobie by any means by the way) but the carp will eat plankton, stir up the bottom and jump in to boats with little good, if any, returned from them.

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## bountyhunter

I can here my insurance company now. YOU GOT A BROKEN NOSE FROM A FLYING FISH.


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## legendaryyaj

Why don't we as fishermen just start eating them and start spreading the word that there is nothing wrong with eating them? With how much we consume as a nation, there would no problem getting their numbers down. Instead, we lift up our noses and call them trash fish thus making our problem even worse than what it is.

They don't eat off the bottom and their meat is white so besides the name carp, I don't see what the big deal is. If we could successfully sub it in to be served as the primary source for fish sticks, sandwiches, and cakes I think it would help. There's places that have these fish outside of the U.S. that don't have the issue that we do with them because they consume them. If you want to stick to only your precious walleye and crappie then good luck. You are only killing them off.


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## I Fish

legendaryyaj said:


> Why don't we as fishermen just start eating them and start spreading the word that there is nothing wrong with eating them? With how much we consume as a nation, there would no problem getting their numbers down. Instead, we lift up our noses and call them trash fish thus making our problem even worse than what it is.
> 
> They don't eat off the bottom and their meat is white so besides the name carp, I don't see what the big deal is. If we could successfully sub it in to be served as the primary source for fish sticks, sandwiches, and cakes I think it would help. There's places that have these fish outside of the U.S. that don't have the issue that we do with them because they consume them. If you want to stick to only your precious walleye and crappie then good luck. You are only killing them off.


Well, we have the EPA, state government(s), the FDA, as well as every countie's Health Department to satisfy first, or, did you forget almost all Ohio waterways are "polluted" to one extent or another. If they did let "us" harvest them for sale, we'd have a whole other bunch of hurdles to jump, so many in fact, that "we" probably couldn't afford to do it. It would have to be a large corporation. You think I'm wrong, look into the upfront cost of starting a butcher shop, with nothing grandfathered in.


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## legendaryyaj

I Fish said:


> Well, we have the EPA, state government(s), the FDA, as well as every countie's Health Department to satisfy first, or, did you forget almost all Ohio waterways are "polluted" to one extent or another. If they did let "us" harvest them for sale, we'd have a whole other bunch of hurdles to jump, so many in fact, that "we" probably couldn't afford to do it. It would have to be a large corporation. You think I'm wrong, look into the upfront cost of starting a butcher shop, with nothing grandfathered in.


Oh I believe but it c'mon. Strings can be pulled and people eat fish from the Big O and dirtier places. Explain to me how McD's is in business. There's been plenty of studies showing how bad that stuff is but yet people still stuff their face with it and the FDA is perfectly fine with it. Tuna has Mercury in them and look how much of that is sold and for how much. Look at all the farm raised salmon that are dyed orange to sell simply to market. How is that even remotely good? Strings are pulled because of the ill informed. We consume more bad than what is known. Eating some fish that occur in the waters isn't a big deal. Erie fish is harvested and sold and no issues there. That place isn't the cleanest place. Pink slime? It goes on and on.

This isn't to save "Ohio" waters if you didn't know that they are all over the Mississippi. It's a joint effort to save all of the waters they infest.






Wanting the fish to go away is like complaining about the trash smelling but not wanting to take it out because it smells.


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## Bad Bub

Has anyone here ever eaten one? (Honest question)

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## snag

i haven,t caught one to try it, but i,ve read in the illinois river where they jump all over in those u- tube clips that they are good eating , a white meat pretty firm just have to fillet around the bones, i,d try it, get one of those 40 pounders and steak that critter up and get it on the grill...


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## COmmodore 64

Yeah, I'm hoping they are good to eat and fun to catch, because I don't believe there is any way to stop them from proliferating in the Great Lakes. Perhaps they'll thrive on the Blue Green Algae that is toxic to everything else. 

Looks like some people like them.
http://www.voanews.com/content/illi...-carp-invasion-eat-them-130748253/174885.html

Worst case, I'm sure they'll find a home in my smoker.

http://www.boatus.com/magazine/2011/august/aliens.asp


> Parola compares the sweet taste to a cross between scallops and crabmeat.


Now that sounds pretty good.


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## JonTheFisherman

They jump in my boat they become catfish bait. That's what the world record blue was caught on after all 


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## snag

there are some guys in the illinois river system that have the state permits to net those asian and silvers and get them processed and send to ny state and overseas, there is a small amount of people doing it though,the state wants people to try them, but when u hear the carp that does it but they say it is a tasty type meat, it just needs a better name.like freshwater sushi..


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## lark101_1999

kentucky a field did a show on these look on utube for Kentucky Tuna. for ways to fixem . on a side note been a long time since iv had bait just jump in the boat


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## snag

yeah jump in the boat a bust you gourd...............


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## fishdealer04

black swamp said:


> Just got word from someone out on the Ohio river this weekend just east of Cincinnati that they had fish jumping over the boat. She said they were big fish an were jumping all over the place, sounds like asian carp to me. Last confirmed reports had them down at the mouth of Great Miami back in June? May have been mid June but remember reading about not long ago. Now what? Naybe a bounty? Just more fuel for the commercial fisherman to tap our waters. What do you folks think? This is a real problem that is just going to get worse an we are all going to see it at one point. THIS EFFECTS EVERYONE ON HERE!


It is a big problem down south. When we go down to Kentucky lake and snag we catch tons of them as they are everywhere. We have had them jump in the boat in the MO river and Misissippi river. Its just a matter of time until they are everywhere. We have had the Asian carp up here for awhile now though. I first saw them 2 years ago down on the Ohio River by Cincinnati. Slowly they are getting worse and worse. It sucks that they take everything over, however everything they have tried so far does not work. Nets, commercial fishing, electric barriers dont work. Poison works- but then your killing everything else so that is not an option either.


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## snag

i was just looking through the kentucky fishing guide and i see the bighead carp caught by a angler was 64#from kentucky lake,and for bowfishing a bighead went 79# and silver carp was 31.5# from the ohio river last august, the big head came from obion creek. i,ve read articles about the bow tourny s they have around the louisville area on the ohio river, and the get lots of big carp ,20-30# plus, so in yrs to come that will be the case in all the river..a problem that wouldn,t be fixed in time...


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## bsmith

snag said:


> there are some guys in the illinois river system that have the state permits to net those asian and silvers and get them processed and send to ny state and overseas, there is a small amount of people doing it though,the state wants people to try them, but when u hear the carp that does it but they say it is a tasty type meat, it just needs a better name.like freshwater sushi..


I'm glad you brought this up. There's a few points I've heard over and over about this. First, the name "carp" is a complete misnomer. They have nothing in common with carp, they are a filter feeder. The person who gave them this moniker did us all a great disservice because of the stigma associated with carp in America. They're a little too rough for our palates.

They are a common food item all over Asia. In fact, they were brought here to be farmed and sold to markets in Asia because they are over fished in their native lands. Apparently they are that tasty.

Here's the kicker. They are relatively safe to eat from rivers that aren't pristine (like the Ohio). This is because they are filter feeders. They don't eat smaller fish that have eaten smaller fish, larvae, etc. The activity of the food chain tends to concentrate the pollutants as you move up the food chain. Even though they get really, really big, these asian carp are eating the same foods that fish at the very bottom of the food chain are eating. Thus, the pollutants don't build up in their flesh in unsafe levels. Again, the point here is that they're safe to eat from rivers even when predatory fish aren't.

The only downside is that they are a little more bony than the fish to which most Americans are accustomed. Bony fishes are eaten just about everyone else in the world except America. Obviously we aren't better than anyone else so if they can do it we can also. It's just a matter of pulling our heads out of our nether regions and embracing the idea.

I think it's time for a paradigm shift. Apparently, these things are so delicious that they are over fished in Asia and were brought here to be farmed for exportation. If that's the case, we can combat them by making them an American food item. Just about anything that ends up being a common food item gets over harvested. In this case a little over harvesting might be just what we need.


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## snag

yep that about covered it, it,s the name carp that turns people off, that story about the river netting showed tons of fish caught and just a couple of fish processing places in operation to get them shipped out, and there are tons more to be netted out there,any u- tube video about jumping carp is all over the net.. in yrs to come the ohio will be just like those rivers...


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## pppatrick

silver and bighead asian carp are both part of the family Cyprinidae. the same family as the common carp, grass carp, black carp, and pretty much every barbel having freshwater fish or any fish without a stomach. as they should have such name. now that doesn't mean they aren't good to eat. we happen to live in about the only continent that the fish is so undesired and typically not consumed, as i'm sure you all know. 

if i were to consume this species i would forgo filleting. i would gut and scale and cook the fish whole, as the way its typically done in asia. they also use it commonly in stews, soups, and fish balls. 

i would try these things in a heartbeat given the opportunity. which i'm sure will come soon enough when they make it here and i'm burning crankbaits or rattle baits in and snag one.


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## FOSR

There's a thread about them in the Central Ohio section as well. I was reading that and googling around and I found this site:

http://www.carp-usa.info/


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## GULPisgreat

I have a few other ideas to use Asian carp to possibly increase the harvest of them. Use them in ground up fish food. Use them in cat food. Start a specialty catfish dough bait company using them. Ship them out to try and help fertilze all the drought stricken farmlands in the midwest in the spring. (providing there is rain). This years national drought is crazy and if there is going to be a shortage of food like Ive heard about, these "nasty little carp" could go along way to feed alot of people. I wonder how much of a dent would be made in the population of these fish if they could be used in every way possible. I'm not a biologist or anything but one other thing I thought of was I wonder if a chemical could be made to treat the water around their spawning time that would inhibit the growth of the eggs, or somehow make the fish sterile and not affect other species. Just like the chemical that exterminators use to get rid of fleas. The fleas still breed but the embryo inside the egg is born without the little "tooth" to chew its way out of the egg, so they end up dying the flea population declines.Like I said, these were just ideas.


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## Doboy

lol,,, I have a friend that takes home every Erie drum and Ohio River striper/ wiper that he can put his mitts on! He drops 1" chunks of fillets in boiling 7up or sprite for 10-15min.
After they're done, he Dips the cooked chunks in garlic butter.
HE says that they taste and chew way better than scallops and very close to lobster!
I can't wait to try it on some steelhead this fall.

If it works for drum, whites and steelies, it's gotta work on those CARP!


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## JamesT

Turn them into a gulp like product


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## snakedog

Let McDonald's turn them into Fish McNuggets and market them that way. That'll get rid of the pesky brutes.


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## dstiner86

I Fish said:


> The thing I don't understand is they have an electric barrier in Chicago to keep them out of the great lakes, but nothing to stop them from traveling up the river. I mean, they have hydro electric dams, couldn't they just build a barrier and charge it with the electric already being produced? I guess they need more time to "study" it.


You can put all electric barriers up and unfortunately these fish will still spread out in time..and by the way it sounds the "in time" isn't that far ahead of us...when i was up in that state up north i found brochures, signs, and plenty more warning the fast growth in the Asian carp territory ..even witnessed a game warden share some pretty choice words after on fishermen ended his trip by dumping his live bait in the lake.. Spoke with the warden after that he was explaining how they have been having a huge problem all around with young Asian carp found with others live baits at shops. 

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## Ry440

snag said:


> very true they will spread like the zebra mussels have ,whats next the gobies coming to our inland lakes, i wouldn,t be surprised....


I've caught gobies in lake wallace in Berea


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## Dandrews

Here&#8217;s what they&#8217;re trying in Australia to deal with invasive fish. If this technology actually works, it might be the silver bullet that we need.
It might work for gobies too.

http://www.invasiveanimals.com/research/goals/goal-4/4f3/

They&#8217;ve renewed funding so you&#8217;d think that they&#8217;ve had positive results.

http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201208/s3563228.htm


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## pppatrick

Dandrews said:


> Heres what theyre trying in Australia to deal with invasive fish. If this technology actually works, it might be the silver bullet that we need.
> It might work for gobies too.
> 
> http://www.invasiveanimals.com/research/goals/goal-4/4f3/
> 
> Theyve renewed funding so youd think that theyve had positive results.
> 
> http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201208/s3563228.htm


seems feasible. i don't know how many folks would come on board with the introduction of more fish, infertile or not. seems to stand a small possibility the genetically engineered fish may not pass its qualities on and on through to generations down the road. obviously genetics would be the best way to go about it, and i'm sure there are scientists, biologists, and geneticists working on it already. 

have there been accounts of silver carp? i've only seen and heard of the big head variety being caught.


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## oldstinkyguy

Dandrews said:


> Heres what theyre trying in Australia to deal with invasive fish. If this technology actually works, it might be the silver bullet that we need.
> It might work for gobies too.
> 
> http://www.invasiveanimals.com/research/goals/goal-4/4f3/
> 
> Theyve renewed funding so youd think that theyve had positive results.
> 
> http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/201208/s3563228.htm


I wonder if it might work on some of the weirdos we see when fishing the dam in Hamilton?


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## Dandrews

oldstinkyguy said:


> I wonder if it might work on some of the weirdos we see when fishing the dam in Hamilton?


We can only hope, Darwinism doesnt seem to be working there.


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## Dandrews

pppatrick said:


> seems feasible. i don't know how many folks would come on board with the introduction of more fish, infertile or not. seems to stand a small possibility the genetically engineered fish may not pass its qualities on and on through to generations down the road. obviously genetics would be the best way to go about it, and i'm sure there are scientists, biologists, and geneticists working on it already.
> 
> have there been accounts of silver carp? i've only seen and heard of the big head variety being caught.


I dont know how long it takes carp to reach sexual maturity and I dont know how many generations itll take to know if this will work but this but at least its something.


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## E_Lin

Dandrews said:


> Heres what theyre trying in Australia to deal with invasive fish. If this technology actually works, it might be the silver bullet that we need.
> It might work for gobies too.
> 
> http://www.invasiveanimals.com/research/goals/goal-4/4f3/


*WHOA..................*

While reading that article I had flashbacks to movies like Jurassic Park and Mimic. They may not be dinosaurs or giant insects, but doing genetic engineering on fish is now a new potential source of nightmares for me. I am worried enough about the economy and my dwindling paychecks...

Thanks a lot...


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## Dandrews

More info on what's being done/considered.

http://glmris.anl.gov/index.cfm


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## terryit3




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## Doboy

WOW! Terry,,, Now THAT'S NUTS!
What,,, Like maybe 30mph, ducking say 5#????
IMAGINE GETTING HIT!?

lol, I'll have to have my boy figure that one out!!! 

I think adding a SHOTGUN would make a new sport.


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