Asian carp in VB
 

Went trawling on saturday on the north side of VB and kept having what i suspect to be asian carp jumping from the water one almost landing in my boat. just wanted to see if anyone else has had any run ins like this in the bay? I knew of them just did not think they would be in the bay. Did not have a camera to take pics.

There's a thread here from the past week about them in VB.

Thats not good

TB

They are here to stay, seen them in almost every river in N La. They are big fish, so I think you could make a little money selling them for crawfish bait?
LDWF was trying to market them as 'silverfin' in order to give them a more appealing ring to them. Supposedly excellent eating fish, but I have hear that about mullet too:grinpimp:

gonna have to start wearing motocross gear while running in the boat.

unfortunately we had a run in with an asian carp in shark bayou off vb about 3 years ago. Carp jumped as high as my center console and landed at the feet of a buddy's son - who was sitting in front of the console. Luckily it didnt hit anyone. Our boys thought it was coolest thing ever (in their words) but i knew it was not a good sign.

I would have never to encounter them in the bay. When we saw the first one I had to take a double take then the next one jumped from behind my boat almost landing on the back deck. I know that the salanity is not very high, but I guess it does not bother them.

Saw some jumping close to the boat idling in shark bayou as well....scared the crap out of me wasn't expecting that.

Blind River over here as well

How was the count on the shrimp ?

We had right at 25# of tails. 4-5# of big shrimp and the rest were mixed. It was a nice day with the family.

Where bouts were you dragging? Rec. trawl??

we stay between the chan and the boston about 200-300 yards off the bank. I just have a 16' net and we made 6 drags.

That really isn't good. I've been hit twice, both times in the shell field in the basin. They get huge and that's dangerous. If you see one jump, SLOW DOWN. :-)). getting hit in the head by that at 20+ mph could knock you out cold.

Pretty soon you guys can join in on the "Silver Fin" rebranding campaign. LDWF keeps trying to convince people to eat that nastiness, just bleed it first. Yuck.

It does not really matter if you eat them. The environmental goal is fulfilled if you kill them. I'd probably try eating them though.

I know. I don't think that's gonna really take off though, hasn't yet. They'd do better with the crawfish bait angle or just a bounty, like the nutria program. They are never gonna get rid of them, I doubt even significantly reduce the numbers. That's one NASTY invasive species.

One thing we do when we catch a lot of fish in Colorado is clean them and bring them down to a local soup kitchen. They are always very happy to add fish to the menu, as high quality protein is valued in the world of soup kitchens and food pantries. The cooks in the soup kitchens tend to be highly skilled at making inexpensive food palatable to their customers.

In Colorado, the invasive species are Northern Pike and Lake Trout in some of the mountain reservoirs because they eat tons of small trout and kokanee salmon. The DPW is running a netting operation on one reservoir where they remove several thousand lake trout each year. On another reservoir, they encourage anglers to keep every pike and only permit pike tournaments if the rules are catch and kill and keep. Neither invasive species problem is completely solved, but they are keeping the problems of trout and kokanee predation controlled.

The problem with rod and reel angling for them is that they are filter feeders. There isnt a good way to do that.

I really admire the soup kitchen solution. That's wonderful.

My favorite video of all time when it comes to carp "fishing".