Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations When to add Grass Carp?..

Our local fish sale is coming up at the end of September...Just wanting to know if Fall or Spring are best to add GC...

I have added them at both times I have not really seen a major difference. As long as they have something to chew on in the fall when you add them before winter hits I think they will be fine. The one thing about adding them in the fall is you may start to see progress from them come spring time. If you add the in the spring you won't see any changes more than likely till the next season. It takes about a year before you really start to see what they can do.

RC

OH and I would get 10 to 12 inches if you can that helps speed things along a little. Plus they won't get ate if you have any predator fish. I put a few 6 inchers in my pond and I don't think they made it?

I second getting the 10-12" fish. I've stocked them in the fall and had no problems.

Also agree with what RC said.

If you get GC in before you have a weed problem, it's your best chance to prevent the weed problem.

I think that's why traditionally stated GC stocking numbers are so high. They assume people are only putting them in to address an already existing overabundance of weeds.

I am waiting to see if I actually have a weed problem in my new pond. One never developed in my old pond (10 years old). and I don't want them to eat everything green. I want to keep my ornimental water lilies and some submerged vegetation for cover. If things start to get more weedy than I like, I'll start with just one or two GC and give it a couple years. I can always add more, but I am pretty patient. I am giving my forage 2 years before adding preditors.

RAH, that's what I tell people. Wait until you have a weed problem AND make sure it's weeds that the GC will eat before stocking them.

You know what they say.....One person's weed problem is another person's cover....

Adding any fish in spring has one advantage - these fish have some time till winter to get used to the new conditions and theoretically they survive during the winter better.
In many cases there is no many options, so you get the fish when they are available

Anyway, I have added fish in the autumn (even winter) and everything was fine. Just be sure you got proper aeration etc.

Has anyone else caught (accidentally) grass carp on chicken liver?

When I first bought my place, before I tore out and rebuilt my spring fed pond I was up there fishing out channel cats with chicken liver, I had a stringer full of frying pan fish plus and minus a pound, when I started getting hits on my line, the thing kept taking my bait, but was extremely difficult to hook, for one thing it didn't nab the bait and dive like cats do, it more or less slurped the bait, but finally I managed to hook it, man the thing was a monster, after several minutes of fighting I landed this 6 foot behemoth, I honestly did not know what it was, except some kind of carp, took it to my fish farming neighbor and he told me it was a grass carp, I did not know that they ate meat, he said after they get so big, if food is scarce they will. Well when we drained that eight of an acre pond we found three more behemoth grass carp, no wonder the only vegetation was the willows on the bank

State record for Indiana grass carp is 5', 65#...

I caught one by accident while BG fishing a few years ago. Took a beemoth. Four and a half foot ultralight, with 4lb test. Awesome fight.

figured you all would call me on that size, I never put a tape to it just held it up by its mouth, I stand just shy of 6 2 and the fellas tail just touching ground, his lips come to about my neck, he may not have been exactly 6 foot, but he was close well over 5 foot for sure, if I knew they kept records on them things I would have taken better documentation, the fish guy said from the look of him and his age he must have been stocked right at the beginning of legal stocking, forget when he said that was, might have been late 80s early 90s

sprkplug you must have fought that thing for a while, man such small tackle for a big fish, guess its true, its not the size of the tool that matters but how ya use it LOL