I know they were confimed in Pickwick. Can't recall hearing about confirmation in Guntersville, Wheeler or Wilson, but they couldn't have skipped roughly 185ish miles of the river to get from Pickwick to Chickamauga.



SILVER CARP CONFIRMED IN CHICKAMAUGA LAKE

NASHVILLE --- The Tennessee Wildlife Resources received a report on Jan. 10 that a silver carp was captured on Chickamauga Lake in October.

The angler, Dustin Hinkle, said the invasive fish “jumped into the boat as I deployed my trolling motor.” Hinkle encountered the fish near the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, and stated he “saw 15-20 more fish near the surface” exhibiting a feeding behavior.

“No additional reports have been made since this occurrence.” said Cole Harty, TWRA’s Aquatic Nuisance Species Coordinator. “This is an excellent reminder to report carp sightings from East Tennessee, where carp are not already known to be established. We encourage anyone reporting to include photos, location information, and if possible keep a fish frozen to share with TWRA.”

Reports can be made by calling the nearest TWRA regional office, or by emailing ANS.TWRA@tn.gov.

It is likely that these fish traveled up the Tennessee River through navigation locks, ultimately finding their way to Chickamauga Lake.

“TWRA has been working with multiple partners to limit the spread and impact of invasive Asian carp in Tennessee,” said Frank Fiss, TWRA Fisheries Chief. “This new observation demonstrates the urgency of the issue.”

Dang!!

Its em live bait fishermen doin all that live bait transporting...im tellin ya!

Dayum. Just a matter of time till they are in Guntersville

Shoot, just let tva know they’re messing up the coolant tower intakes at browns ferry...they’ll take care of em. They’ll kill’em all!

This TWRA release says they so far have confirmed one pod.

How the eff could one small pod get to Chickamauga but with all the angling traffic and boating traffic on Guntersville, not to mention Wheeler and Wilson, no one has seen any on those lakes that could be confirmed?

I'd have to think they're in all the lakes and probably haven't been found yet.

IF you ever get a chance to eat fried Asian carp, do it. It's fantastic. Firm, white and not muddy or mushy like catfish.

If they’re in Chickamauga, pretty good chance they’re already in Guntersville. Dammit.

When they put'em in Conroe it was crazy. it didn't take long for the Hydrilla to disappear. I think it was being sprayed at night too. One of the Murray brothers had a house on Conroe and when he'd cut his grass they'd come up and eat it off the surface. He killed a bunch eat time. The funny thing was that after they ate all the grass, you'd see asians fishing for them with surf sided tackle and they were using lettuce and cabbage for bait.

These Asian carp don't eat vegetation. They're filter feeders, which is worse because it can disrupt the food chain at the base, and also may feed on other items. Along with being prolific breeders and roaming in huge schools, they're just a terrible fish all the way around for a river system or lake.

They're also in Reelfoot, which could change that lake's already weird balance of life.

The grass carp (different from the Asian jumping carp) put into Conroe sure did a number on it. The ones the "stakeholder" group put into Guntersville, against the biology-based advice of TVA and the state, didn't do anything but create a fantastic bowfishing lake. The stakeholder group wasted a lot of money and time by doing that.

They've tried for years to keep the carp species - Asian and bighead (which are in Guntersville) - from getting into the Great Lakes.

https://greatlakes.org/2019/08/new-...igan-is-greater-than-previously-thought/


As for eating grass carp, I know they're available at Asian markets but I've never tried it. The Asian carp is great.

What kind of hook do you use with lettuce?

I believe they are already here. If I could have caught one of the little bastards, I'd of had proof.

I figure they're in Guntersville, too. Would have to be. Grass carp have been in there for 30ish years, bighead carp for at least 15 years. The Asian carp probably haven't reproduced enough yet to be so prolific as to be easily found, like on Kentucky Lake.

Just like CWD, though, it's only a matter of time.

Some more info about the different Asian carp, appearance, how the eat, etc.:

https://www.fws.gov/columbiariver/ans/factsheets/Asian_carp.pdf

Fishermen should start sponsoring several bow fisoing tx's a year.

They eat phytoplankton and/or zooplankton. The same thing that bait fish eat.

I spend quite a bit of time on, and below Guntersville. I have never seen one. We do have Bighead carp and have for a long time. Very close cousin the "Asian" Silver Carp. It is entirely possible that a bowfisherman took them to the Chick. They didn't have to swim there. There's no way to keep them out of Guntersville now, unless they can find the pod on Chick and kill them all. The guvment might come up with something to keep them from swimming upstream, but they'll wash downstream.

They already do. Makes no difference. Bowfishermen at Kentucky Lake don't even put a dent in them.

The states and feds are going to have to come up with some kind of financial incentive for removal. Whether that's to just toss them into a landfill or create processing plants to create food, food substances to sell overseas, animal food, fertilizer or something else, there's no way to adequately eliminate or manage silver carp without something big.


Fur, they've tried electric barriers in the water up around Chicago in the Chicago River to keep them out of Lake Michigan. Can't remember if those work well or work better in combo with noise barriers.

But yeah, once they're in a river system IMO they're there for good. Not much that can be done.

20 gauge with number 8s or 9s with skeet choke would be hell on them

What ya wanna bet the Asians are transplanting them for consumption purposes?

They were brought here in the 1960s and 70s for fish farming in Arkansas and elsewhere, and escaped due to flooding. They've since spread.

Ain't no one transplanting carp into the Tennessee River or elsewhere to eat.

Don't kid yourself Clem.

ah hell, you’d have to shoot steel...

Or you could just stand there with a Louisville slugger ! Great batting practice.

Gettin all Negan up in hea!!!

If you legitimately believe "Asians" are transplanting carp so they can eat them, I can't offer anything else. That's not even logical thinking.

Clem, you cant be serious? You ever heard of a snakehead? Water spinach? Giant African snails??
And have you ever heard of a Feral Hog?
NOOOO, people would never do that.

Snails - small, easy to transport
Vegetation - relatively easy to transport
Snakeheads - they'll be here with cockroaches after the nuclear strike
Hogs - more difficult but it's been done


I know people transfer stuff. Asian carp "could" be transported, but the likelihood of someone bringing them from Kentucky Lake (where they're most prolific) across the state to put into Chickamauga and the fish surviving, is maybe a brazillion to one. And they're not a big enough food source yet for that to even be something anyone would do. They're just not.

It's going to be interesting to see how they impact the Tombigbee after they get into it since they're in Pickwick. The carp pretty much wrecked the Yazoo River, or portions of it, over in Mississippi in short order by depleting food (plankton) sources the other normal fish need. That's going to happen on Wheeler, Guntersville, Nickajack and Chickamauga in the shallow flats, too, if the carp get a firm foothold like at Kentucky Lake.


Speaking of snails, WTH ever happened with all the snails down in the Eastern Shore ditches and canals? Did they ever get any kind of grip on those?

No thanks. This will just be a waste of tax payer money because of:

Would prolly be great in a garden.

My guess is their eggs got attached to duck feet and were transported that way.

On the bright side, once they ruin all the rivers and lakes around here, we can start up a Carp Masters tournament trail.

Carp fishing is a big sport in Europe.

Ol Kentucky just caught 5 million pounds of those suckers

https://www.wkms.org/post/kentucky-...n-pound-asian-carp-harvest-year#stream/0

Grass carp aren't bad, but they aren't near as good as the silvers. You can buy silver meat in some of the grocery stores up here.

Like someone else said, bowfishing doesn't even put a dent in them. No telling how many our team has killed off of ky lake.

If a feller could figure out a way to use them for something other than food, hed be rich I figure.

That's what gets me, bowtarist. I remember years ago hearing about "fish meal" being processed from what we wasteful Americans would call trash fish because they're ugly or had a weird name, like buffalo. They weren't white and pure and the snobs wouldn't eat them so no one did.

And yet those fish were processed into something edible and shipped off, I think, to Africa or used in other ways.

I guess maybe its politics but I don't understand why the same couldn't be done with these carp and others.

Monster blues love them some asian carps

I didn't re-read this thread and I don't know if someone posted this already. I'm thinking that they did. Anywho, Asian Carp are really good eating. I had some at a crappie fishing get together in MS a couple of years ago. The meat is more firm than crappie and if it was on a plate with fried bluegill, I don't think you could tell one from another.