Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Grass Carp Removal

Does anyone know an effective way of removing grass carp from a small lake (other than the dynamite or .22 method). Like a trap, poison, trot line?
They have eaten all the vegetation and I need to get rid of them.

Thanks for any advice

bread ball works if they have not been caught before..

Im gonna try and snag mine soon...

Ever tried bowfishing? I hear it's a lot of fun.

I prefer a shotgun.

Dave
That gives me an idea.... Sport shooting bass!

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.



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

Try a limb-line attached to a circle-hook baited with a mouth-sized brussel sprout.
Suspend the baited hook at or slightly below the water's surface. Secure the terminal end of the line securely to the flexible end of the limb, but lightly twist-tie several feet of free line in loops to the limb so the fish can easily pull the loops free once it takes the bait.
IF all works well, the fish will take the bait "deep" to chew on it while moving away from the limb. As the line become taught, the circle hook will engage mr. leathery-lips and hold fast (they rarely come free on their own). The flexing limb allows some "give", unlike a solid anchor-point.

One more key tip: Tie the circle hook to the line using a snell knot, with the line passing through the eye from the side facing the hook-point. This method of hook-attachment better insures that the point will properly rotate and enter flesh as the eye exits the fish's mouth.

That Kelly Duffie always has great ideas.

Thanks for that idea Kelly - I don't have a lot of trees with limbs around the lake. Do you think balloons as bobbers would work. Just toss a few in and if I see a balloon swimming around the lake, then I know I have something.
Also, what about other baits - I have heard cherry tomatoes might work (I want to avoid bread balls because I just want to target the grass carp and not get a bunch of catfish instead)

The balloon may not have enough spring to set the circle hook into the carp's mouth.

Are you looking to relocate or eradicate?

Eradicate - consider a crossbow or a speargun. Can easily be utilized even from a kayak. A useful speargun may be purchased from Amazon for under $175.00 USD.

IMHO if I was looking to catch them and get them out, I would bury a #14 treble in that brussel sprout, bread ball, etc. and fish them with an open bail and let them run.

Scott1993. Return here regularly to report your progress of removing the grass carp. Your experiences will help others with the same problem.

I too want to remove some this year and anxious to give all your ideas a try!

And here's a novel idea when nothing else is working!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjiuF8POpbs

That was a cool video Lovnlivin.
CMM

Suggest you not try to remove them by seining as it can be hazardous to your health. They spook and will often jump the net. If you get hit by a 30 lb GC jumping a net you will hurt.

Originally Posted By: Scot1993

Thanks for that idea Kelly - I don't have a lot of trees with limbs around the lake. Do you think balloons as bobbers would work. Just toss a few in and if I see a balloon swimming around the lake, then I know I have something.
Also, what about other baits - I have heard cherry tomatoes might work (I want to avoid bread balls because I just want to target the grass carp and not get a bunch of catfish instead)

Originally Posted By: Bill Cody

The balloon may not have enough spring to set the circle hook into the carp's mouth.

Bill is correct. Although circle hooks should never be "set" using convention cross-their-eyes methods, they still need some sort of counter-resistance to embed the hook through flesh (usually in the corner of the fish's mouth).
If you have no sturdy limbs near the shoreline, it might be feasible to rig a suspended counter-weight (on the shoreline) attached to the fishing line, but is held aloft by means of a trigger-device that is usually used for snares.

When the fishing line becomes taught, it trips the trigger and the counterweight applies tension to engage the hook. Might take a little tinkering to get it right, but the potential is definitely there (Rube Goldberg style).
Also, it will still be necessary to suspend the bait near the surface with a pole or float (a pole is better, to keep the bait from drifting). I'd stick with brussel sprouts to hopefully avoid turtles, who happen to love tomatoes.

Fish feeder and stay back about 100 yds with a 22-250 or 222. Or as I previously said, shotguns have been settling difficulties for a long time.

Our poor 160 acre lake was intentionally loaded with about 500+ carp about 7 years ago. Now there is virtually NO vegetation. I fish them out as much as I can using a combo of instant oats, italian seasoning and cream of corn or green beans. I roll them into balls (large marble size) and a triple hook. I caught this monster #22.
We leave them in the yard til dead.

Why not just shoot them? Much easier

Once you start shooting at grass carp they quickly learn to not come near the surface. Pretty cautious fish.

did not know that - interesting

Grass Carp are the Isis of lakes. They pillage and destroy everything leaving nothing behind but barren lake bottoms. Why any lake manager would ever recommend them is beyond me. Impossible to get rid of them your best bet is to use rabbit caging to isolate areas and start growing plants again. I place rabbit caging in concrete blocks with cement, seems easier then pounding stakes into the lake bottom.

BTW Grass carp will not eat spatterdock nor water willow, but love hardy water lilies and even cattails. I've seen them pick out and eat water lilies while not touching spatterdock.

You need to get together with your lake association and use barrier devices to get plants established again, you will also need to get aggressive with habitat to try to make up from all the lost vegetation. We do an annual Christams Tree drop in our 65 acre lakes that was poisoned with 200 grass carp 10 years ago, it's been 10 years and the only plants are the ones I started inside rabbit caging.