Scott Ferguson Posted December 14, 2014 Report Share Posted December 14, 2014 A friend of mine who lives in Ottawa was down by Allen Park in Ottawa and witnessed the DNR removing some silver and bighead carp. This is his report. "The DNR was seining just upstream from Allen Park today in an attempt to control the carp. To do this they drop a large net in the water and then slowly draw it into a circle to trap everything in the middle. They caught this many in one try. Just once! I took a couple pictures of the results. They estimated the catch at 110,000 lbs. That is the nightmare that continues under the water in the Illinois. As I walked across the bloody parking lot I could only be depressed." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Clifford Posted December 14, 2014 Report Share Posted December 14, 2014 Scary stuff! Funny thing is that I'm on 2 completely different committees for the eradication of these carp, but couldn't tell you the names. Had a couple conference calls like 2 years ago and never heard from or about them again. Everybody has a plan..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 A very bad situation indeed. It reminds me of quite some years back when there was a breach in the Hennepin Canal. I helped the IDNR on a mission to save game fish and flathead cats from the stretch of canal that was drying out. We expected good numbers of game fish and some huge cats. They electroshocked and we were able to save some game fish, but their numbers were disappointingly low. No cats were found at all. What we did find were literally truckloads of European carp. I personally helped load some woman's pickup truck with barrels of carp. She took three loads home. Hard to figure why she wanted with so many carp. As the fish were being shocked it looked somewhat like the videos we see today of the Asian silver carp leaping frantically through the air as a boat motors by. We can only hope the Asian carp situation somehow comes into check soon. Too bad we can't find anyone who wants to hoard them like that old woman wanted those common carp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 We can only hope the Asian carp situation somehow comes into check soon. Sorry John, game's over. You can't put the Genie back in the bottle and the Asian carp will be forever with us, our habitat is oh so lovely to this vermin. It's not if, but when this is coming to a theater near you. Unless we get lucky like in Orson Welles War of the Worlds where the aliens aren't immune to our common day bacteria / virus and they specifically die off, we can't get rid of these things without killing off all life and trying to restock the more desirables and that's not going to happen on a large scale basis. They tried that down in Horseshoe Lake down in Southern Illinois and after only a flood or two and a few years, they were right back to major numbers. Get ready to make Lemonade Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 Sorry John, game's over. You can't put the Genie back in the bottle and the Asian carp will be forever with us, our habitat is oh so lovely to this vermin. It's not if, but when this is coming to a theater near you. Unless we get lucky like in Orson Welles War of the Worlds where the aliens aren't immune to our common day bacteria / virus and they specifically die off, we can't get rid of these things without killing off all life and trying to restock the more desirables and that's not going to happen on a large scale basis. They tried that down in Horseshoe Lake down in Southern Illinois and after only a flood or two and a few years, they were right back to major numbers. Get ready to make Lemonade Sadly, this is true. I started making lemonade a couple years back. My shoreline fishing for spring walleye and sauger in the Illinois River has changed into the challenge of telling the difference between the soft take of a sauger and the feel of the lure rolling off the backs of the stacked masses of carp. When I am in a feeding mode the snagged carp end up in the frying pan. Most sauger will live to see another day. I feel no remorse cleaning up a few carp and they do taste good. The bones can be avoided if you don't mind leaving meat behind. It doesn't bother me if half the meat is left on these fish. I am still hoping that their numbers can be controlled to some extent. An Orson Welles ending would be just fine with me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Clifford Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 My shoreline fishing for spring walleye and sauger in the Illinois River has changed into the challenge of telling the difference between the soft take of a sauger and the feel of the lure rolling off the backs of the stacked masses of carp. I shudder at the thought of trying to fish for smallies under this scenario in any given "usual spots on the usual flows". What a frightening future we're facing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norm M Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 best hope might be ta commercial fishery to sell them to the Chinese . When I went to Conservation Congress a few years back they announced a deal to sell some, never heard if it grew wings. I heard that in typical Illinois political fashion there was wrangling over whose district the cannery would be in . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Clifford Posted December 15, 2014 Report Share Posted December 15, 2014 Here is the video from that specific netting that Scott posted about in the first post of the thread. Turns out the IDNR is making a MAJOR dent in the population on the upper IL.Just had a long phone discussion about it with the Director.I'm feeling much better knowing this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norm M Posted December 16, 2014 Report Share Posted December 16, 2014 Net the carp Feed the poor 'til there are no carp no more I'd love to change the river A nod to Alvin Lee and Ten Years After Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Posted December 17, 2014 Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 That is really sad. Stuff like this and the Big Sandy Hog Farm are tough issues and just leave me scratching my head. Wish there was more we could do to turn back the clock rather than sit by and watch our world deteriorate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mannym Posted December 17, 2014 Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 I tried to get into this commercial fishing business a few years ago. Fact is, if you are not one of the " good old boys in the club", you do not have a place to sell the fish. One of the processors has been eating up the grant money and not increasing the input. The crappy part is I still have all of my gear and boat, sitting idle since 2012. God bless Illinois! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Gillio Posted December 17, 2014 Report Share Posted December 17, 2014 Mike,the tribs in my area are also Asian carp choked, making smallies a tough target at times also. Thus the reason I have, at times, spent time with the fly rod trying to set into the mouth of an Asian carp. I am still trying to find a fly they will take with any regularity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Wright Posted March 29, 2015 Report Share Posted March 29, 2015 Net the carp Feed the poor 'til there are no carp no more I'd love to change the river A nod to Alvin Lee and Ten Years After Nice drop in Norm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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