I know a lot of people on here chase them with stick and string. I think I might be hooked to chasing them on rod and reel. They are slowly becoming my favorite species to catch. I know many consider them trash fish, but there is just something about catching a 30lb+ fish, and the opportunities to fish for them around here are endless. Anybody else target these mudcows? Here is a few from this week:
I have only caught a couple while catfishing, and they are definitely fun to fight. I just like shooting them too much to actually fish for them I think
The bottom one I caught on my smallie river set up, 7 ft light action rod and 6lb mono. That fight lasted almost half an hour. Very very fun stuff!
Asian Carp? I hope to fish for them. Do people think they taste bad or something? The chinese love them, I love chinese food, I dont see how asian carp can taste bad
Used to fish for them a bit as a kid visiting my father in Texas. Now we fish for them with fly rods on some NYC res....haven't gotten any over 20 yet with the fly rod but a few were high teens... Great sport fish.
The ones Isaac is referring to ARE from Asia originally, but they are the "Asian Carp" that are jumping out of the water injuring boaters and whatnot. These "Common Carp" were introduced from Europe in the 1800's as a sport fish. They got into some stream systems and over the next 100 years established themselves in every major river/lake system in America.
We don't have consistent fishing for them around here, but I have hooked a couple. I hooked a 12lb carp, and thought I had a 20lb catfish. That's saying a lot because catfish put up one hell of a fight.
I'm no expert but I'm under the understanding that the Asian "jumping" carp get so thick that they starve out the ecosystem for all the native fish. And they are a filter fish so there is no sport fishing aspect for them.
I've lost many a poles to them years ago. Used to grab a can of corn and hit the local pond for the day. Lost so many poles I ended up having to use a stringer to tie my poles. They'd hit fast and hard, they are a fun fight and definitely will test your skills at landing them. They're not terrible eating, the bones are the biggest complaint most have. The invasive Asian carp eats even better, it's actually more of a whitefish and has a faint "carp" taste. Local fish shack sells the dinners as Silverfin, they debone it as filets. Sells better than their walleye(pollock) when they have it. Not sure what the current major flooding we have going on here in IL will do to the coverage of them. I don't know of how they can combat them. They're thriving in our rivers and way out of control.
The Asian carp is one of the worst invasive species that we have ever encountered. They multiply at unbelievable rates, eat huge amounts of aquatic plants, muddy up the waters because of their numbers and the fact that they eat everything in sight. This causes problems for native fish, and is leading to dropping numbers in those species. Basically they are the plague to our river systems and there's basically no control methods to keep the population down. They are the wild hog of the river, destroying everything they touch.
As a kid I used to fish for them a lot. Only big one I have had (over 30lbs for sure) I foul hooked in the tail with a crank bait bass fishing with 8lb line. Was over an hour fight I had a huge crowd around me watching by the end. And as I finally got my hands on it, I was lifting it up and he got a little energy and I tried to drop him back in, my line wrapped around my wrist and snapped. I was heart broken haha. If I had a spot around that I knew there was some good ones and knew more about them, I would fish for them again. Just havent for years. Tough fish, no doubt about it.
The one my girlfriend caught was 38" and we estimated 35-40lbs. Thing was a tank, after a nearly 30 min fight I had to go in after it and that lasted another 15 mins. She hooked on three kernels of canned sweet corn with a #6 circle hook. She is very very new to fishing so she had my surf fishing set up with 20lb mono to make it a little easier.
That's really cool! We have em round here just not nearly as big an I have never hooked on to one either. Sounds like fun though!
Yeah 3 kernels of corn or just a ball of bread is all I ever used for them. Amazing how well such a simple bait works for em. I used to buy the carp bait and try to make weird baits I read about online and all, but would always do better with corn and bread.
Just curious, but what do you do with the carp once you have caught them? I have had smoked carp before, which wasn't too bad. Just wondering if there are other options.
