Carp fishing tournament @ deal lake in Asbury park

[jtjr09]

In the summer deal lake suffers from lack of oxygen and many of the carp are found dead floating in the lake. This is one of the main reasons that this has been done the last two years. It has nothing to do with them being a nuisance.

[Eskimo]

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Originally Posted by jtjr09

In the summer deal lake suffers from lack of oxygen and many of the carp are found dead floating in the lake. This is one of the main reasons that this has been done the last two years. It has nothing to do with them being a nuisance.

Carp are the toughest fish around. If they can't survive being in that water, I can't imagine what could.

During that drought we had a few summers back, I saw a pond with carp floundering around in a few inches of water with their backs out of the water. I assumed they were all going to die, but they manged to stay that way for the rest of the summer and most of them survived the drought!

I guess the best thing about carp is they can survive in just about anything and privde fishing opportunites in bodies of water that normally wouldn't hold big fish.



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[saxmatt]

Carp can handle extremely low oxygen levels. They are running the tournament because they think carp are an invasive species and are damaging the lake. Sometimes lakes suffer massive fish kills and carp are the only species that survive in numbers because they are tolerant of extreme conditions. When people see there are only carp left in the lake they blame the carp for the decline in fishing for other species. In reality, carp had nothing to do with the decline, there were just able to survive harsher conditions than the other fish. I think this is what happened at Deal Lake. During the hurricanes the ocean flooded into the lake. Carp can tolerate salty water and most other freshwater species can't. I bet a bunch of people complained they're not catching bass anymore and think it's the carps fault. It's just a lack of knowledge. The solution to the problem is restocking whatever fish died after the hurricane, not kill all the carp.

[ScowardNJ]

All good points. There is no denying their destructive qualities also. They can decimate a water body's vegetation which could, in turn, effect O2 levels and spawning habitat for other fish species. I'm not saying that's what's going on in Deal Lake, Sandy laid the smack down on that place so there could be all kind of factors affecting fish populations. A carp population held in check probably isn't a bad thing, but when they take over a water body, it's a bad thing. The same thing goes for any animal population i guess.

[MikeD]

Originally Posted by ScowardNJ

All good points. There is no denying their destructive qualities also. They can decimate a water body's vegetation which could, in turn, effect O2 levels and spawning habitat for other fish species. I'm not saying that's what's going on in Deal Lake, Sandy laid the smack down on that place so there could be all kind of factors affecting fish populations. A carp population held in check probably isn't a bad thing, but when they take over a water body, it's a bad thing. The same thing goes for any animal population i guess.

When you say they can decimate a water body's vegetation I believe you are referring to grass carp. In this case they targeting common carp which is the only species of carp in deal lake. Correct me if I am wrong.

[ScowardNJ]

A quick search found this

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives...arp/index.html

[jtjr09]

The day after Sandy when the water receeded there where hundreds of dead carp in the streets and in the 7/11 parking lot.

[saxmatt]

Grass carp can eat all the weeds in a pond, that's why golf courses stock them. Common carp don't really eat weeds though. I fish some weed choked ponds that are loaded with common carp. They primarily eat insects, crayfish, mussels, worms, nuts, berries, and small baitfish. If a bunch of them are feeding in a muddy area they will make the water muddy, but what's the problem with that? Boat traffic, wind and rain erodes the shore and makes the water a lot muddier than carp do.

[MikeD]

According to NJ fish and wildlife common carp are not an invasive species. On the other hand grass carp, big head carp and silver carp are invasive species. Getting back to my point of starting this thread their are no other species of carp in deal lake besides common carp. So why are thy killing them.

http://njfishandwildlife.org/aquatic_invasives.htm

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/pdf/fishfact/carp.pdf

[Gatto1227]

Down in the Raritan near me it seems over the years I find less small mouth, large mouth and bait fish and so many dam carp everywhere. Huge numbers of Carp. Some times it's insane how many carp you'll see in one spot..