Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Corrective stocking Grass Carp overstocking?

Hey Salex here in the Carolinas grass carp are everywhere...for some reason people hate milfoil? First let me say that even though I understand that Eurasian is a non-native invasive species...so? the fish don't know. Example ther is 20+ acre covenant pond close to me that I fish. Tons of milfoil and absolutely crawling with fish! Then the HOA decided to spray something and kill it all and lots of carp added. Well for the first year or two the residents were able to harvest fish at an astounding rate because they could fish their old school country bumpkin methods with ease plus the fish had suddenly no where to hide. Well starting that third summer things petered out quick. The fine folks that lived there had managed to fish themselves out of fish. I do have a point to this ramble trust me. Anyway I got myself invited to one of their HOA meetings and explained to them that having a sustainalble fishery was probably in their better interest than a two year glut of fish. Also taught them a little about how to effectively fish that milfoil with more modern techniques etc. So to finally answer your question during the next couple of years we had some fun getting those carp out. You can harvest them with bread balls, bow and arrow(my fav) among others (google it). There are some ponds I fish that I would love to see 40% milfoil coverage. Milfoil gives off oxygen-provides beautiful nursery habitat for fish fry-shade and perfect holding cover for predators to fatten up on the aforementioned fry and avoid their own predation. As far as muddying up the water...nah.. they will create a brief puff of mud when you spook them but until they eat everything down to the ground like a goat...they don't just waller and root around on the bottom like a hog.