Pond Boss Forums MANAGING AN EXISTING POND Evaluating and adjusting fish populations grass carp problem

Our bass club desperately needs to find measures to thin out the grass carp that were overstocked in our lake several years ago. Several are in the twenty and thirty pound range. There is not a trace of vegetation in our lake as a result. We are brushing our lake agressively, but still need vegetation as well. We have heard of commercial poisons used as bait but know of no one who has successfully used this. Our lake is over 150 acres and up to 28 feet in depth. Any ideas or suggestions?

The amount of vegetation the large grass carp are eating is significantly less than when stocked. Their metabolism slows dramatically woith age and size! Thus you may not have to remove as many as you think. You can remove some by shooting with bow or catchig them by baiting an area they love floating fish food. Aquatic Ecosystem used to have a treated bait, but make sure the grass carp are the ones eating.

Have you tried fishing for them with doughballs? You can make, (or maybe buy?) Balls of dough cooked or 'set' onto a hook with a flour/worm/corn mixture of nearly any sort and using a few decently heavy fishing poles set up a few shoreline locations and see if you can't pull some out. (May not work on all 'carp' strains.. I am not sure) I have also heard they can be caught using small skinned potatoes?

Or if you don't want to sit around waiting for them to bite you could use the catfishing trick of a plastic conatiner with a baited line on it and the other end secured to shore.

I used a 22mag to thin my grass carp out. It worked well. The only problem is that they smarten up. I think that regardless of what you do that they will wise up; therefore, a combination of methods may be necessary if you plan to remove a large number.

The grass carp abatement program that was offered by an aquatic biologist in our area (mid-west) was a bust. They tried to train them on pellets, and then slip them pellets laced with rotenone, but the results were disappointing. Time and a good bow hunter are your best options.