Blood Indian: Prussian Carp update
 

Hey guys,

My buddy and I decided to head up to Blood to check out the Rainbow action. The bite wasn't bad, we managed 5 nice fish and missed at least half a dozen more. We saw a behemoth (for Blood) swimming around our holes, my best guess would be 6 or 7 pounds. Couldn't entice him to bite!

After cleaning the fattest one, I noticed it had a very large stomach. After cutting it open, I noticed three Prussian Carp, all three of various sizes. One of them would've been approximately 3 inches long had its tail been intact. I'm not sure if it's because the trout are gorging on them or what it is but the average size fish today was way bigger than last year. I've also fished Blood fairly often and I've rarely seen a fish the size as the one that was swimming around my hole.

I'll add some photos later.

http://i.imgur.com/CpnLpFl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/EsUcz73.jpg

http://imgur.com/H6eejSF

Should make for big fish quick. There will be an unlimited supply of carp babies for a while I imagine. It will be interesting to see if the trout can make a dent in the carp population

Thats crazy lol ... hopefully your spot starts turnin up monsters for ya

wonder what the walleye and pike in J are looking like now, might be some monsters in there if they make the trout that fat

start stocking tiger trout, they'd love those things.

Wayne in gessing the pike weights in J are rapidly getting bigger.the unfortunate part is it might be awfull tough getting one of those big hens to bite with all that premium bait swimming around.

well if I ever go to blood I won't be using maggots.

No kidding! I didn't have any success whatsoever with them yesterday. Corn seemed to work best. I'll be looking for some small 2in minnows that resemble the carp.

What is J ? Or is that code for only those who know?

Variation of lake x:)

What he said.^^^^^ LOL

Caught a real hog today in Blood. It had four Prussian Carp in its stomach and a ton of eggs. Caught it on one of Gnugen's spoons and a secret bait. Great fishing this year!

At least post some pictures...:snapoutofit:

Congrats on the big catch!

Prussian Carp?
 

Could one of you gents elaborate on this species being in Blood?
Was this an unwanted species planting or what?

Whoops, I'll post one later tonight!

Yep, they're an invasive species. Not too sure how they were introduced. It could be that I'm fishing earlier in the season this year but the trout on average are way bigger this year. Each of the big ones I've pulled out have multiple carp babies in their stomachs.

Fished Blood again today and had some success. Fish of the day was an extremely fat ~16in rainbow. Managed two of the newly stocked brookies as well. No browns yet!

As always, each fish I harvested enjoys the taste of Prussian carp!

http://i.imgur.com/SPtwzgn.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YFe0j3p.jpg

brookies? is this the first year they stocked it with brookies?

It was stocked this April with 135,000 rainbow, 7,500 brookies, and 7,500 browns. I've been on the ice twice this winter and have caught 3 brookies out of about 70 fish total. No browns yet.

wow cool i never paid attention to this lake because of the distance to drive. but now with brookies and browns i might have to entertain the idea of a trip there.

The brookies are small, but beautiful. Rainbows are a great size due to all of the Prussian carp they're gorging on. I haven't seen a brown yet, but know of a guy who caught one that measured 17in.

i can certainly imagine monster browns coming out of there in the next few years with such an abundant carp all you can eat buffet.

Have you seen any detrimental effects of the carp on the fishery?

0 limit on both brook and brown. Hopefully as they grow they will become the answer to the carp problem. I too wished they would have put in some Tiger maybe next year. I did catch a few of both brook and brown this past summer but they were all in the 4-5 inch range. so some growing to do for sure.

It is a long drive unless like jhutter you live close. Especially since they lowered the daily limit to 3 rainbows.

Not a single one. In fact, the only difference I've noticed is positive; the trout are significantly latger. That said, it's a stocked lake so, it's a stretch to come to any conclusions about how Prussian carp will affect larger fisheries.


You're allowed 3 trout total, only 1 of which can be a brook or brown and brooks must be 35cm or over.

The brookies I caught were all close to the 35cm mark, so it sounds like they're growing quickly.

Admitedly I dont know much about trout
 

But the boys and I have been enjoying this fishery since they were quite young and thought the rainbow fishing was good enough to justify a boys weekend or 2 each year.
Is there some advantage I am not aware of by placing brookies and browns in what I considered a good rainbow program aside from diversity of species??

I think but am not sure that both Brook and Brown are much more aggressive and will take on the carp maybe even more so than the Rainbow. But like JHutter has shown and I too have caught several nice bows with small carp in their stomach.

Just my thought but I could be totally out in left field.

I'd always thought rainbows were more aggressive and hardy than brooks and browns, thus making them the most desirable trout to stock. Also, brooks only grow a fraction of the size that rainbows do, making them less desirable to take a dent out of the carp population.

I'm definitely not a trout expert!

It's great the trout are feeding on them. My concern would be lack of oxygen in march with all those little oxygen thieves down there. Seen it happen with tiny little sticklebacks that get to the point where they blanket the bottom and whammy, sheez game over. Usually just when the trout are getting trophy sized and if they could make it one more winter...

Put in Tigers and that'll make a huge dent in the population! ;) oh yeah and let's hope for overwintering