UncleTomsJigs, those carp are probably triploid.
TIGHT LINES!

Is it not possible to have boats drive through rivers at the speeds necessary to capture theses fish? They could use custom boats with secure cages for the boater, and built in side and front nets to capture the jumping fish, and possibly use them for fertilizer. I would think after a couple hundred passes there would be a great number of these jumping carp reduced, and few carp left to jump and hurt or possibly kill boaters? Not sure if anyone has had this idea and sorry if so, just not seen any action being taken to this effect, but see it's a big issue in some places.

It seems that the most efficient way to catch the invasives is to net them. Many of the infested waterways are heavily traveled by both pleasure boaters and commercial traffic. I lack hard figures on this, but it is my understanding that it takes about 2000# of catch to be worth the expenditure of time and fuel etc. The best market for these fish is a commercial proccesor in Pearl, Il that ships to China for human consumption. It should be noted that only one of the two problem species jumps, and apparently not even all of them. Check in here from time to time, I post news as I find it and living in the Chicago area, there is a lot of press on this matter. Tom

I guess I would be referring to the severely overrun waterways, like media we see on TV and even Videos from YouTube like this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS7zkTnQVaM Some of this video is funny, but some of the people you know have to be hurt badly. There is an example at 1:02 where the idea I suggest would work, or at least it would in my own mind.

Or even better, we could have carp hunting season using shotgun. Shooters setup on the bank, then a little remote control boat gets ran through the water. Bang, cheap skeet!!!

Sorry for the double post, guess I can't delete my post.

Just a quick update, nothing earthshaking. The approximatly 6 yr old bighead netted in Lk Calumet apparently arrived there as a juvenile and has been there since. This was determined by chemical analysys of otoliths (ear bones). The good news is that there still is no evidence of spawning in Lk Michigan connected waters above the electric barrier. Tom

Did anyone see the huge catfish--article says it was caught on large chunk of Asian Carp.  Maybe, there is someone bright enough to develop a formula for catfish feed made out of Asian Carp.  The only way you can rid yourself of a problem in this country is to find a way to make money at it.  From the videos I have seen it looks like you could outfit some wide long open boats with some protection and nets to catch fish.  I wonder if you could catch them in small boats rigged to trawl for shrimp.
The tournament thing appeals to me--you could even have a cast net tourney.  Whatever, the longer the wait the more of a pain they become.  Does anything make them get airborne other than noise from outboards? Together we can do anything, separated we can do nothing.  Looking forward to hearing someone has solved this problem.  Uncle Tom

Netting these fish 'on the fly' is probably great sport but only one of the two species that are the problem jump, and not all of them. I doubt these invaders will ever be eliminated and the best we can hope for is to control them enough to minimise the problem. Tom BTW, the best guess is that the Lake Calumet carp was introduced by way of someones bait bucket.

I seriously doubt that the carp found in that lake surpassed the electric barrier.  I agree, it did probably come from a bait bucket.

The Classic Michigander 

Remember when the lamprey took over and they used special chemicals to kill them.  Maybe a chemical can be used that specifically targets members of the Cyprinidae (minnows, carps, and suckers) family.  Of course this would have some drawbacks, too.  The Cyprinidae family not only includes carp, but also includes minnows and sucker which are an important food source for some gamefish. 

The Classic Michigander 

Uncle Tom yes those are Grass Carp ( white amur) that your dad uses and they can be caught on the right bait. The jumpers are silver carp and to a lesser extent big head carp, they are both filter feeders feeding on zooplankton and do not actively bite on any common bait that I know of. I believe all three species require turbulant water flows to successfully reproduce and are extremely migratory so that even flows a couple of times a year could see them getting into places in numbers.

I was able to listen to an interview with Frank Hyla yesterday. Frank hosts a local fishing show here in the Chicago area and also is part owner of a marine dealer/outdoors shop on the Illinois river in Spring Valley, Il. self proclaimed sauger capital of the US. Bowfishing for the asian carp is gaining popularity on the Illinois, with new tounaments being announced regularly. Frank stated that the carp had not really impacted the sport fishing on the Illinois as these fish use a different part of the river than the game fish. A couple of other points. The bighead netted in Lake Calumet was 6 years old, indicating it had been in Calumet since before the barrier, however at the time the barrier went operational there was no evidence of asian carp in that area of the canal, making it likely it was a bait bucket transfer. It seems that bighead and silver carp minnows (fry) have been found in fathead minnow stocks. The other point worth noting is that the bighead do not jump like the silvers do. Considering that bighead are usually two times the size of the silvers, I suppose this is a good thing. Tom

wow, don't stop and read for a few days and bam....yer way behind on the times.

There hasn't been much news on this front lately, but the hearings are starting on the lawsuits concerning the locks. I will keep everyone posted as news becomes available. One interesting note and something that I never thought of is that there are not many launches on Lk Mich in Chicago that are suitable for launching a larger boat, and many of the boat yards are located in places where it would be difficult if not impossible to truck the boats to a launch! Tom

Start bowfishing I did about 5 months ago and am up to 186 carp

Posted By buelltroll on 23 Sep 2010 12:58 PM
Start bowfishing I did about 5 months ago and am up to 186 carp

Bowfishing alone cannot eliminate this problem.

Bowfishing is a great sport and I support it but the Asian carp problem is way beyond what bowfishing can handle. If every licensed angler in Illinois spen 4 hours a week bowfishing the Illinois river, I doubt that it would seriously affect the population. Commercial netting may be the only hope, and that is even doubtfull. Tom

The Chicago Sun Times reported today that the carp lawsuit is entering the final arguments stage and should wind up this week. The judge's ruling is expected in about 3 weeks. I will post here when I have more info. Tom

I think that there would be a fantastic market for asian carp. It would be an opportunity for commercial fishermen to earn money selling over seas, and here in the U.S. It could be a business opportunity for an average fisherman to get into as well. There is a large asian market here in the States for carp as well, and the asian carp is a cleaner tasting fish than the common carp. Eating one is not bad either, it cooks up great. How about fish dinners for the poor, and homeless? Poisoning them would be such a waste, not to mention that since no plan is foolproof, poisoning them may do more harm to us, than them. Commercial fishing would make a serious dent in the population, just like it has put other fish on the endangered list. Maybe not a bad thing. Lets look for opps to make money from this for alot of people, instead of just a handfull of poisoners making money.

Bonepicker:  If you go back and read some of the early posts there is an outfit here in Illinois that is proccessing and shipping bighead and silver carp. Seems the big market is in China! The state just gave them a grant to expand their operation. (Money well spent. Create jobs and reduce the carp population) Seems it takes about 2,000 lbs of carp to make it profitable to haul them to the plant. I will post updates as new info comes along. Tom