Why? Why? That is so often asked when I tell people of my weekends lately. The reason for the why question? I have been targeting carp with hook and line and releasing them back into the water from which they came.
The Why question is broke into two parts, the first is, why fish for carp? Carp are the number one game fish in the world. They are pure muscle, built to churn up the lake bottom to find food. They roll around uprooting vegetation and moving rocks to eat crayfish. Carp fight for their life when caught on hook and line, they are pound for pound one of the best fighting freshwater fish available to catch in North America. The rigs for catching carp can be inexpensive and the fun can be had by anyone who can sit onshore.
I know they are not supposed to be here, I know they can be a nuisance, they can wreck fish habitat, they can destroy waterfowl habitat as well. They do all of these things in places where the population is out of control.
Fortunately for us and the carp, the fisheries studies over the last number of decades have improved and discoveries have been made to realize that carp have become an intricate part of the food chain in many lakes and rivers. Schools of female carp lay millions of eggs in the shallows on lakes and rivers during the spawning season in late spring early summer. In many places that is a dinner bell for other bottom feeding fish, including other carp, catfish and suckers. When the fish hatch, it begins yet another feeding frenzy with small panfish and other game fish. There is enough predation from game fish on young of the year carp that if you were to remove the carp completely out of many bodies of water, you would have to renew your management structure of your game fish species. They would eat more of either their own offspring or other valuable and “desired” species. No kidding, carp have been here so long that they have worked their way permanently into the food chain, much the same as the gizzard shad and smelt.
All of this leads into the other why question I receive. Why throw them back?
The answer is simple, they don’t get bigger if you kill them!
I am in this to catch big, hard fighting fish. I am not doing this for a meal. If I want meals of fish, I will either keep a few more panfish in the winter from the tournaments or I will ask my Father, a perch farmer from central Wisconsin, for fish. If someone wants to start the argument of non native fish, they must first look at the fisheries management practices on the Great Lakes. I don’t recall King Salmon and Brown Trout being native to Lake Michigan? Oh, but they are good to eat, so it’s ok. How about the lakes with a walleye stocking program across the mid-west? Lakes that have never had walleye before, but a sportsmen’s club wants them there? Walleye may be native to Wisconsin, but not to all bodies of water, sorry.
I believe there is room for bowfishermen, hook and line fishermen, and fishermen who net them to all have a hand in carp management. There are many bodies of water where carp are out of control, they need to be removed to control population density. We have some in Sheboygan County even, areas that without carp, would harbor a better waterfowl habitat and fishery. In those areas I am in favor of some severe measure of population control, just the same as I would be with any animal in the State of Wisconsin impeding on any other habitat.
I fish the Sheboygan River for carp and catfish, I guess I have not read any conclusive studies that have said that the Sheboygan River would be a better fish production river without carp. From what I understand the Salmon and Trout fishery in Lake Michigan is put and take, and the other native fish seem to be thriving more in recent years due to the river cleanup efforts and the crackdown of industrial pollutants.
If anything, I would think if folks are that up in arms about the carp being in the bodies of water they love, then they could put that fishing license to even more use and find a way to catch them as well. If they would like to remove them, be my guest, there are lots of fish to be had, but don’t rag on me and the minority of people who like to catch these great fighters and release them.
For the record, I will do my part in removing a few of these fish this year as well, I know of a few gardens that could use fertilizer.
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