Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations The Grass Carp: Your Vote?

I am very satisfied with grass carp and I would recommend them. In my 3 acre pond we had a lot of weeds growing and it was a mess. All the while there were not many fish caught. My dad first put 8 carp in and about a year later he died and left me in charge and I could not tell any difference. I found out the ag department in N.C. recommends 10 carp per acre. I eventually put in 22 more grass carp and three years later there are no weeds and more fish caught. This pond never had much of an algae problem but since grass carp have been put in there has been little to no algae in the pond. In fact the only time I saw any of these were before I bought the first ones, one day I was mowing around the bank and noticed several fish swirling around the top. I noticed some of them were eating algae off of a stick and realized it was grass carp. But I would recommend them-I also tell everyone they on't work overnight.

I initially stocked 5 grass carp. Now in my third summer I stocked 5 more in my one acre pond. I have removed two of the first stocking recently. I don't have an answer as far as yes or no on reccomending them. I feed Purina Fish Chow and the Carp like it as much as the bluegill and Bass, don't think they eat much Algea and that's the only weed I have. Carp probably get a bum wrap for not eating weeds because they are full of feed pellets!

Correct me if I misinterpreted your respective answer.

Coach B: Yes/No
Robinson: No/No
GregG: Yes/Yes
rmedgar: Yes/Yes
TentFarms: Yes/No
BillDouglas: Yes/Yes
turkeyft: Yes/Yes
ALWoody: Yes/Yes

Have GC: 16/19
Pro GC: 15/19

His approval ratings are hovering around 80%. I wonder if that will hold if more people respond.

I think it's interesting that with everyone's input on this, you've pretty much developed the defacto information sheet about GC. If we grouped and edited the text to bullet form, it would clearly and simply explain what to expect when stocking Grass Carp.

Can anyone comment on if there is a correlation between GC that have the opportunity to eat pellet food, and GC that are not doing their jobs?

No matter how much my grass carp eat pellets they will always find some time to eat vegetation. I think they just love to eat. I think it comes back to Cody's comment on palatability. If the vegetation tastes good, it gets eaten.

MY GC eat some pellets, but there's no way they're managing to live on them. The get maybe 10-20% as many as a CC does, and they're five times the CC's size. They've gotta be eating something else for most of their calories to live and grow.

The palatability of weeds (vegetation) to grass carp not only involves taste but also texture. If your weeds taste better than fish food then the GC will probably eat more of the weeds but if the fish food tastes better than the current weed growth then the GC may be dining a lot on fish food.

From my limited observations, I think the GC will eat primarily weeds until the present weed growth diminishes or is heavily grazed. Then, in exploring new food sources the GC find out about fish pellets, maybe even from observing other fish eat the floating food. Once this happens some or all of the GC may prefer fish food over the current, prevaling weed growth.

One should always allow for some natural variation. I repeat, I think individual fish have some food preferences. I think, not all GC absolutely favor the exact same foods with the same "enthusiaum".

It sounds like pellet feed may not prove to correlate to well, especially if certain fish possess alternate natural food cravings.

When I posed the question about a correlation between GC eating feed vs. not eating weeds, I was looking for a way to qualify why some people have GC that don't eat the weeds in their respective ponds.

It seemed like some people had the type of weeds/growth that GC are known to eat, yet were not getting a clear result. I think most in that category seemed to have at least stocked enough GC to see a difference.

I wonder if we can't narrow down the variables about the GC who eat weeds vs. those who do not. From what I've heard also, it seems that the grass carp is considered a "smarter than normal" fish. We should be able to pin him down.

On another note, we may want to compile a list of removal methods that have been successful.

EDIT: The Fly, Electroshock, and rifle have been mentioned as removal methods.

Several of you have said you eat GC. How did you catch them?

My GC will take a piece of crawler while I'm fishing for BG, but they won't take a piece of crawler if I'm fishing for grass carp.

I have had them take mealworms 8-10 times (cast right on top of them) and managed to land 1.

I hooked one on an artificial red wiggler (Gulp Worms in a little plastic bottle - sold at Walmart).
Couldn't get him in - GC 1 RME 0.

Sunil bow works great as well. If I can ever figure out an easy photo method for here I will show you. Stuck a 20+ lb grass carp on for first ever bow fish kill.

Also a major issue with my clients is the fact they have filamentous algae but the GC eat all the pellets and scare off other fish. This issue has influenced lower stocking rates if plan is to supplementally fed.

Sidenote... working with a hathcery that plans to raise GC on vegetation rather than pellets to see if this helps with this issue.