They are somewhat difficult to remove.
I was aghast during one of the presentations at the PB-VI conference when one of the presenters was proud to have gotten rid of weeds in a 45 acre lake by adding 750 grass carp. We have a disaster story near where I live, and where a nearly identical experiment took place. The difference is that the lake was just 44 acres and they planted 1200 grass carp. The only good news is that it resulted in a record fish.
From the Charleston Gazzette, June 27, 2008. While carp are one of sport fishing's least sought-after species, they can grow to monstrous proportions. The state record grass carp, caught in Hardy County's Warden Lake in 2005, weighed nearly 72 pounds and was nearly 51 inches long.
When we bought our present farm, the pond had four big grass carp that ate nearly every pellet that hit the water, unless the uncontrolled giant channel cats didn't get first.
It took three seasons to get the four "torpedo carp" out of that pond. All were taken on dough balls tossed into the water at pellet feeding time.
Grass carp become very hook shy with just a nick from a hook. That is why it took me so long to get them out.
Rifles and shotguns are not very effective. Bullets and shot lose nearly all their effectiveness in just fractions of an inch of water depth. Worse than that, rifle bullets ricochet off water unless shot at a very steep angles into the water.
I had a friend who had a fish bow with reel and arrows meant for fish. The carp could apparently see him, and wouldn't come near when he was on the shore or on the dock.
Arrows, or harpoons, are far more effective than guns.
Good luck.
Ken
