Asian carp are just my scapegoat for being a terrible fisherman haha. [emoji16]
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app
Asian carp are just my scapegoat for being a terrible fisherman haha. [emoji16]
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app
Especially the bass guys! I keep telling them, those bass didn't just up and disappear into thin air, they are still in there, you just have to adapt and fish differently.Quote:
Originally Posted by pab1981
Just kinda wish we had a measurement of the BIOMASS that I see listed for other lakes/rivers with these carp. I have seen numbers up to 65%. I guess this means of all the fish, the carp represent 65% of the 'Mass' of the fish present(not numbers of fish). If not, I admit, I don't know what this measurement is. I would think this would be a good gage of how bad or good the 'BIOMASS' is in the KY/Barkley lakes if the 'BIOMASS' number shows the ratio of Carp to ALL the other fish in the lake. Just would be good to know the if the lakes have a large 'Mass' or not at this time.
Ok, did not get any replies, so did more investigation of the what I feel is the real measurement of the Carp invasion. The Biomass looks like the way to go. It seems to let you really know the mass of Carp in the lake versus all the other fish. So, all we need now is the Biomass data for the past few years on KY/Barkley lakes to see how we are doing. Looks like the units of measure for this is kg/ha. Hopefully, we won't end up with the data I just found reported by the Great Lakes Commission that states: In some areas of the Mississippi River basin where these fish have steadily taken over, they now comprise up to 97% of fish biomass.
The measure of biomass ratios are telling, but not the whole story. The numbers that are reported on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers are in places where surveys (primarily electrofishing) have occurred over many years. In doing so (assuming you measure length/mass of all the fish you catch), you can simply add up the mass of the native fish vs the AC and come up with a ratio. You can imagine the pile of native fish getting smaller relative to the pile of invasive carp. It is important to note that the ratio will shift even if the pile of native fish stays the same size as long as the AC pile grows.
On Kentucky Lake there have been several surveys that have run for more than 25 years (See KDFWR data in the video), but these surveys are optimized to sample crappies (trapnets) or bass (electrofishing runs) or catfish (trotline) etc. These surveys are not optimized and/or target carp (although some have started in recent years). I know that the state has electrofished below KYdam for many years and I'd bet that they would show a similar trend to the #s stated above (still doesn't tell us much about conditions above the dam).
Getting an estimate of biomass on KYlake that is accurate is extremely difficult. Will require good estimates of fish length/biomass from many locations (and probably across many seasons/years). <---if only this were easy. To get this ratio on KYLake you'd need a sampling method that is as equally good at catching AC, crappies, bass (all kinds), shad, catfish etc. in all habitats at multiple times of year. If all employees working for KDFWR in all districts dropped what they were doing and devoted a year or two to this I'd guess they could provide us with a pretty decent ratio.
h2Obugz, many thanks for the information on the 'Biomass' measurements problem. Did not realize how difficult it was for our state to do this measurement. Looks like it's not feasible. I think the lakes are now OK, but was hoping for some measurement to see if it's getting better or worse going forward with the Biomass ratio data. I guess the visiting fishermen will help us decide this(Carp volume impact) in the coming years.
Great information at this new link showing current price per pound for Asian Carp: Kentucky Fish Center | KDFWR
The subsidies recently put into place now have the price up to $0.15/lb for silver carp if the processor picks them up at the boat ramp. The price per pound is a little higher if the fishermen offload at Wickliffe or Eddyville.
The Kentucky Fish Center, an Asian Carp fish market, opened for business in January. Also known as the KFC, the main purpose of this privately owned entity is to provide a constant buyer of Asian carp from commercial fishermen in Kentucky at a guaranteed price.
The KFC is the culmination of years of effort by Kentucky Fish and Wildlife to partner with private businesses to help bolster the commercial market for Asian carp.
Currently, the mass removal of Asian carp through commercial harvest is our best line of defense to keep Asian carp from spreading.In 2018, commercial fishermen harvested more than 2.5 million pounds of Asian carp from KY waters.
In the first month of operation alone, the KFC facilitated the purchase and sale of 343,846 pounds of Asian carp (there are also other markets buying Asian carp from Kentucky fishermen). The goal for the first year of operation is for the KFC to facilitate the removal of 3 million pounds of Asian carp from Kentucky and Barkley lakes, and another 2 million pounds from other public waterways in Kentucky
Attachment 331211
Make note of the size of those silver carp in that picture, they are all about the same size indicating that they were all the result of the same spawn, probably the one that happened in the lake in 2015 when the current was strong enough to provide suitable conditions for a successful spawn.
What's the average weight of those fish pictured? Ten or fifteen pounds??
I would guess somewhere pretty close to 5 or 6 pounds, as that's been the average size of the ones that have been jumping in my boat. They look big from a side view, but are fairly thin and weigh less than what you might think when you actually hold one.Quote:
Originally Posted by redearhoosier