Here's a modification of a previous suggestion: stock muskie fingerlings. They cost a fraction of what the adults do, and as carp don't eat much in the way of fish, they would have a good chance of survival. Also, it's common for state game and fish agencies to stock fingerling fish even in lakes with significant predator populations, and have the new fish survive and establish; oftentimes we think we have to stock larger fish if there are already fish present, and while it is preferable, it isn't the only way; all fish born in the wild in any lake or stream start out as fry, and a fair number of them live every year. Muskie are far and away a more aggressive predator than bass, and they also grow several times larger and thus can eat larger carp; a forty-inch muskie could easily eat a fifteen-inch carp, and there are probably more carp that size in the lake than there are huge ones.
It would still be wise to fish out as many as possible of the larger ones in any way possible, but I'd bet a lot of money that some tiger or pure-strain muskie would put a hurting on those carp, and thin them by fifty percent or more within four or five years. Then once you get them thinned, you can stock more bass, and the bass will help in keeping down recruitment. But it does you no good at all to curb recruitment if you've still got thousands of adult carp in the lake.
What about starting a bowfishing tournament, and making it a weekly event? There's got to be some bowfishermen somewhere in the area that would love to get on that lake at night with a few spotlights.
Last edited by Walt Foreman; 07/09/09 08:19 PM.
