Grass carp

b116757

5 year old buck +
I ordered 16 grass carp I’m planning on putting 8 each in two of my ponds these are both approximately 1 acre ponds. I’ve got a pretty good crop of milfoil on the two ponds on this new farm I’m hoping the grass carp take care of the issue in the next couple years. $221 for 16 fish seemed a bit steep but I know these things have to have 100% DNA testing to make sure they can’t reproduce so I’m sure that’s a good part of the grass carp price. Anybody else use them for milfoil control?
 
I think mine worked better in the beginning. At only an acre you should be able to pull them out when they get too big. I’ve never been able to catch one. Shot one with a crossbow once…..didn’t kill it. Some of them look like they weigh 40 lbs now at 5 years old.
 
Pretty easy to hook them if you ever decide you want to do so. Notice I said hook and not catch, as they can do some pulling! 👍

They love fish food and you can pretty easily train them to come to it just by throwing out a handful or two a few days in a row. They'll then pick up any number of things you cast to them. Balled up bread is very often used, but I caught this one on solider fly larvae I took out of my compost bin. Was trying to catch brim, but once the carp show up they tend to push off the brim.

Carp.jpg
 
Seems like you have a big lake there so I'm surprised. I have a 12 acre lake and they generally run away when you get within 100 yards of them. Only time I seem to get close is when I am walking along the bank without a rod or bow. I have 3 fish feeders and they sometimes are in the area but I've never actually seen them taking the feed.
 
Seems like you have a big lake there so I'm surprised. I have a 12 acre lake and they generally run away when you get within 100 yards of them. Only time I seem to get close is when I am walking along the bank without a rod or bow. I have 3 fish feeders and they sometimes are in the area but I've never actually seen them taking the feed.

Our pond's 25 acres. Not sure how they find the feed so darn quickly from distant areas of the pond, but if I throw a few handfuls of fish food out they'll be at least 3 to 4 circling the area cleaning up all they can within 5 minutes or so. Guessing at least a portion of the feed you're using floats? If not, might want to add some floating food to the mix so can see them feeding on top.

Ours spook fairly easily too. I'm never really targeting them but if wanting to watch them feed I tend to sit back a ways on my dock and keep relatively still while they're feeding.

One in the picture I shared has to be from one of the more recent stock additions we did... have got some MUCH larger ones swimming around. Sometimes when I'm fishing from my canoe and spook one I'll confuse them for decent-sized alligators pushing by. Always gets the heart racing for a second or two. 😂
 
Ha, no alligators in northern Indiana to worry about but I have confused one sunny itself for a large beaver swimming. We use Optimal Fish Food for the bluegill food.
 
Never seen a grass carp eat my floating fish food in the five or six years I have been throwing out food. I started out with four grass carp and I think I am down to one.
 
I was visiting with a buddy of mine and we where discussing the weed issue I’m having on some ponds and he said when the cattle are actively in the pasture they keep the pond muddy enough usually that the weeds can’t grow and weed problems go down. I had never even thought of it in those terms before so with this little nugget of info I’m probably going to change what ponds I put the grass carp I ordered in. I took three pastures out of cattle production and switched them to row crop last year so those three ponds will receive some grass carp and a pond that’s fenced off from cattle completely will get some also it was already in the plan to receive some of them. Nice bass and even some black crappie in that fenced off pond already it just needs some weed control to be a nice afternoon fishing spot. There are fish in the other three ponds already also but depending on the cattle where oftentimes difficult to fish with the muddy water before.
 
Muddy water cuts down on weeds but also cuts down on phytoplankton. Phytoplankton are the base of your food chain. Your row crops may have fertilizer runoff that leads to algae blooms. Another game changer in the pond world.
 
Article in September Pond Boss addresses unintended consequences of carp: harmful algae blooms, loss of water clarity,forage base depletion,and elevated midge population presumably due to vegetation destruction and attendant increase in phosphorus and nitrogen

bill
 
I’m sure they aren’t the perfect solution but I got to try something pretty tough to fish some of my ponds do to weeds. Mostly the milfoil seems to be the real issue I could live with the rest just fine.
 
The eat a lot more when they’re small. Heard when they get real big that they actually don’t eat very much.

I’ve also heard that if they learn to eat the fish food that they will slow down eating the grass.
 
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