Thread: Chinese Crap And Reelfoot Lake

First I've heard about them (chinese crap). I wonder what the natural wildlife/resource folks have to say?

..............They can commercial fish those nasty reelfoot catfish. Leave the crappie alone.

He's talking about the Chinese carp. The jumping kind that will jump out of the water and put a whoop'n on ya if you aint careful. That eat everything in sight and get to be over 100lbs. They snag em' down near the spillway. It isn't good at all for Reelfoot.

The Hound

From what I've read, I don't think there's anyway to actually get rid of these carp. Yes, they are devastating to the fishing environment, by eating up to 40% of there body weight per day in plankton. Thus, upsetting the food chain tremendously. Probably, the best way to keep these under control is to allow commercial fishing for them. Also, from what I understand, they are supposed to be excellent to eat, a mild white meat, similar to cod. One article I read, suggested renaming the fish, so it would have more public appeal for eating. This has been done successfully with other species.

From what I know there is nothing that can be done once they are present......they're there to stay....may be able to control them but I haven't heard of anyone being able to successfully yet.

No joke i heard / read in an article that they were considering feeding the fish to prision inmates. I swear.

We are flat invaded on the rivers here by them. I hate the jumping suckers They have stopped collection of bait within an certain area of the dam at Rend to try and keep folks from accidently getting some and using for bait in the lake itself. There is a festival in Bath IL (I think) that they have the redneck fishing tourney where you try and get the most to jump in the boat. No rods allowed:D I here they are trying to come up with commercial uses. Looks to me like cat and dog food would be a good outlet.

I have a personal vendetta against the after one hit me in the face and chipped a tooth!! Old style 2 stroke engines really get them going. Seems the Opti doesn't bother them as bad!

They arent the worse fish to eat but not the best by far. Many studies have been done on these invasive species, and the devastating effects they have on lakes is un-real. Reelfoot will definately be destroyed in the next 5 years by the fish if nothing is done about them. Just look at Horseshoe lake in IL for example. We have talked about hosting a bow fishing numbers tournament on Reelfoot to maybe help make a dent on the invasive carp, but nothing is for sure yet.