Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Grass Carp appear to be loosing battle...

Well, its a little frustrating so far to say the least but I still have my fingers crossed this year for some decent fishing. Our largest and best fishing lake on the ranch has been taking over with coontail pretty bad for the last 3 years. This year seems like its gonna be just as bad or worse. Its 30 acres when full but probably 25 acres of definite fishing grounds. Last year and the year before its been 75% covered with coontail. Makes fishing embarrasing really, we can only troll around say 4 acres... casting in and around coontail which makes it hard for people that we take that are not that good and handling it. This is pretty much our go-to lake for taking customers also in our business. Thats where I was going when I said "embarrasing."

Anyways, we dropped in 150 12" triploids around jan 2009, then 75 more July 2009.

This year as early as it is the coontail is just boiling up all over again. Im not sure how bad its gonna be yet but I don't really remember it being this early last year when it started to make a big presence.

We are being patient but not sure what I should expect this year. Was the 75 in July in long enough to make a difference this year or were they put in to late in 2009? 225 on say a 25 acre lake is 8-9 per acre depending on survival. they were put in at 12" lengths...

I guess we can add more but its gonna be harder and harder to persuade my two partners (Father & Brother) that we need to put more money in grass carp when they're not seeing any results from the first $3000 yet.

Hopefully we are just jumping the gun. But if they were going to make a difference this year should we be seeing so much coming up to the surface already?

what do you guys think? And sorry about the long post I guess i needed to vent a little.

Chad, the first year of stocking, you won't see a whole lot of difference. It is my experience that the results are seen in year 2 as they graze on new, emerging growth. 12 inch length at stocking is the norm and you stocked just about the right amount. However, some believe that 15 per acre is recommended for really heavy infestation. All of this this assumes that the ones you stocked in July survived hot weather/water stocking.

That said, weeds are going nuts everywhere this year. Are you seeing any of the carp?

Are you doing any pellet feeding? Sometimes the grass carp can fill up on pellets thus making weeds less tasty for them.

I've only had one decent day without a 25mph wind here lately to go check things out. I saw carp swimming around pretty easily. No way to count or anything but they appear to be moving around quite a bit.

Im not feeding.

All swam away on the January stocking and all swam away but 1 on the July stocking so I feel pretty good about the stocking process. Todd O's crew brought them out.

Dave when you say Year 2, do you mean in the spring or fall when you notice changes?

I mean this year by late Spring or Summer. Nothing but chemicals can handle a heavy infestation once it is established. GC are best when eating the emerging stuff.

I'm not even sure that this years weed crop can be managed. It's not just your place.

hmm, yeah its depressing thats for sure, it almost makes the lake unfishable. Whats the point of managing when you can't fish it anyways... Oh well we still have hope. I think it is funny though when you ask for recommendation on carp everyone says to go light say 5 per acre. Heck I probably could have put 400 in to get some results.

Well what Im wondering now is what I should do. If 225 cant control it ever.. Im wondering if I should dump more money in carp or kill off say 50% of the coontail with herbicide this year and then let the carp take over from there.

Only thing that bothers me there though is will it just come back just as strong again next year, in that case I might as well put in more carp

Any ideas...

If you go the chemical route make sure you follow the directions. If you kill too much of the lake at one time it could DO flip then you will have an unusable lake for awhile...

That big of a pond makes it real tough. More like a small lake. Many here know I am not a big fan of grass carp. And you illustrate why, in the real world. Sometimes they are just not that effective. You never know what they are going to control, kind of control or just ignore. If you are down in Texas, I might have gone with Tilipia instead. They are eating machines. But to be honest with that heavy of an infestation expecting the carp to get a handle on it might be a bit much. I am assuming you got triploids which are never going to reproduce. With Tilipia they will populate as long as there is something to eat, and they are prolific. And they will eventually get ahead of it. With Carp it is more or less time will tell.

I had a smaller pond a little over 5 acres with a 99% infestation. I did a combination of herbicide, then manual rake, then herbicide. Just ran out of options. Now I have less than 1%. I used no biological control fish. But Tilipia die off here, and you are permitted to death getting Grass Carp in here. We do have hybrid carp that can't reproduce, but again, they have thier own menu. My worst weeds are Eur Milfoil and Coontail. They are just pond killers. I'd herbicide it just to give the Carp a chance to get on top of it and let them grow needing to control not as much vegetation. Good luck to you.

That is a very good point. You could cause a crash of epic proportions. Just try to kill off enough or take out enough to give the carp a chance. But like I tell any customer, with that stuff, he who hesitates is lost. You need to nail it while it is emerging. Less material, less product, less dead material. If you wait until it is full blown infestation you are almost out of options without large risk of a total crash.