Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Feeding carp problem?

I live in a subdivision on a 25 acre pond. I've been feeding off and on for about three years. The past few months I've been feeding on a regular basis after reading this site. The problem is this pond had around 200 sterile carps put in about 10 yrs. ago. When I feed (bluegill, bream, a few cats) about 20-30 carp come in and suck down all the food. These carp are also about 15-20 lbs. each and go nuts during the feeding, churning up the water and they seem to be the only ones getting fed. Any suggestions, and could this many carp of this size actually be a bad thing?

First off, welcome to the PB forum 12v!
http://www.pondboss.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=20;t=002023
Take a look at the photo on the post above. Does your carp look like this? Are the mouths straight in front of them or is the mouth underneath the fish. If the carp were put in ten years ago, they more than wore out their welcome.After ten years most the original two hundred would be dead.Someone may still be adding g carp to the pond.Are there a lot of weeds in the pond? Some good people on this forum solved many of my questions.

12voltdaddy,

Well if they are more into the feed they sure aren't doing a lot of weed control especially at that size. Sounds like it wouldn't be up to you to get rid of them but I was thinking... If one really wanted to get rid of grass carp, what about putting a Cutrine Plus granule or more mixed in water soaked pellets since Grass Carp are very sensitive to copper? Once you get them started on the feed, throw in the feed that has the copper. Just a thought. Never tried it. I don't know how much it would take to be lethal, but if they are like typical carp you ant to be careful they can't taste the granule.

Bill Cody taught me a way to hydrate fish food that causes it to get doughy so you can make dough balls out of it (not for poisoning fish though).

Here's how he does it for Aquamax: To one quart of pellets add 7 ounces of water. Small batches -- 1/2 cup of pellets to 1 Tablespoon of water. Shake pellets and water for one full minute until all water is absorbed and no "gravy" remains. Pellets should be shaken once or three times with the next 10 to 30 minutes to keep individual pellets from sticking together.

Bill uses a soaking container with a lid to keep in moisture. He lets the pellets soak up water for 2 to 6 hours;long is beter as it produces a more pliable pellet. Sometimes if the pellets are too dry after soaking he sprays a mist og water on them for an hour before use.

You want the pellets to be pliable but not sticky. If you don't squeeze the air out of them they will float. If you do they will sink.

Please if you do this DO NOT LET IT SIT AROUND CHILDREN OR PETS

Quick thought (although I have never tried this)!

At the Ag. Expo last week, I had a gentleman come up to me who needed to replace the carp in his pond. He had been having the same problem with his aged carp eating pellet feed. Do you know how he caught all the old ones? He put a turnip leaf on a hook, and then caught the fish out one at a time. I thought he was pulling my leg until he showed me a series of pictures. He just floated the turnip leaf while pellet feeding, and BOOM. The carp bought it hook, line, and no sinker.
Just a thought in case you wanted to stay away from chemicals.

Deb

Now I like that idea better. You know what the chemical labels say about it being unlawful to use them for things other than what they are labeled for.

I like your idea Deb. Corn and dough balls made from feed work good too. But if it were my pond, I would get out my trusty bow and fishing arrows. Thrashing 20 pound carp are just too much fun to pass up!

Thanks for the replies. I don't want to harm the fish, I would just like to feed fish other than the carp. here are a few pics, I only threw out a handfull of feed at around 3:30, not a normal feeding time, and immediately had around 30 carp swarming all over. I also took a couple of shore shots to give an idea of lake size/layout.

In the second photo, the fish to the left of the bluegill is definitely white amur or grass carp. A couple of the others appear to be GC but not definitive. Of course this story is completely different if you're talking about common carp vs. grass carp.

That second photo sure looks like a GC with a big ol smile on his face.( must be all that feed )I would have never guessed you could get that close to a GC. All I ever saw of mine were the giant waves when I scared them. These fish almost look tame.

Great feeding pics, 12V.

FWIW, I feel certain the large fish in pics 2,3 and 4 are Grass Carp (per mouth size/shape/position, coloration, dorsal fins, and general appearance). Pic 6 - too far to tell for sure, I think they're GC. Pics 1 & 5 - I can barely see fish, these 2 look like MY "feeding fish" picture attempts.

If you don't want to harm/remove them, I think your only option is to set up alternative feeding areas. It looks like you have some pretty big pets, nature will take it's toll over time.

12volt, this is very common in our part of the country. We suggest removing them when this size/age they have slow metablosim and would much rather eat pellets than weeds. You probably have fewer than you think but are training most all of the remianing ones to come to you. YOu can shot with a bow or catch them as suggested.
Also we have some luck by using more expensive but higher protein pellets, it has high fish meal content that is not preffered by (vegetarian) grass carp.

If weeds are starting to reappear since the lake looks very clear you might actually need to stock a smaller sotcking number of newer ones in the near future. Good Luck!

12V I have the same problem.Get a cheap BB rifle and shoot at their sides.They spook easily and will scare the rest. Meanwhile,BG's continue to feed. Great fun as long as you can shoot safely Kids enjoy the practice. Our GC seem to live 12 to 15 yrs..

Do you Hunt? If so try Bow fishing. You could be very selective with the fish you remove, and you wont have to figure out a way to get them to bite. Most large sporting goods stores sell bows, bow fishing arrows, and bow fishing rigs. I persoanlly have never tried this but it seems like a pretty fun and effective way to remove carp.

Now if you really want to have some fun, make up some Super Special Cecil PH Pellet Flies, on a 8 0r 9 wt fly rod, and you'll keep some around for some of the best sport fishing you have ever had in your life.

Fly fishermen spend tens of thousands of $$$$$ at exotic places to fish for bone fish - regular carp are now being called "golden bones"..

I have taken a couple of 15# class GC from our ponds. but release smaller ones.
They go nuts when you get them to the bank so have a gaff or big net handy.

I'm going to keep a few of the big ones around for sport fishing, but they don't seem to like the AQMX pellets all taht much anyway..

PS: Brett295 welcome to the forum - thanks for bringing up an old but interesting topic.