Carp fishing

[Brez]

Great pics Steelpulse. I grew up carp fishing as a kid in Ontario as well. Lots of fun and very challenging for sure.
Are you releasing most of these carp? I would be killing everyone of these fish that you catch. Especially in any salmon bearing waters. They are invasive species. Probably not a popular opinion but absolutely the right thing to do. I'm not trying to stir the pot or tell you what to do, just what I would do.

When the females can lay over a million eggs per year and they will eat anything and survive pretty much anywhere, they are a huge threat to any other native or non-native species. At Christina Lake there is a group of divers hired by the regional district to pull invasive weeds from the lake and talking to them and fisheries biologists and local residents, the carp population is increasing and the bass (also non-native), rainbow, and kokanee populations are decreasing. I have seen violent carp activity around duck hens with ducklings and noticed one hen go from 9 ducklings to 5 ducklings the next day and to one a couple of days later. I did not see the carp actually take the ducklings and there are numerous eagles about but I suspect if they're small enough, the carp would take them.
The young (and old) lads at our campground actively hunt them and kill as many as possible.

[Steelpulse]

I must speak with this man haha

Similar bones to a Pike ?

Iirc Amphibious on here is a carp slayer, though his technique is different

[Steelpulse]

I release a lot in mostly contained carp swamps, but have also stacked a few on the bank with a bow before and it is a lot of fun. I actually think it’s probably fairly popular opinion that the carp should be fertilizer at least with most of the people I have spoken too.
I will do more to kill everyone in the okanagan for sure. Most are in salmon and trout streams and a big carp can Hoover some serious egg during the spawn and really pack on the pounds.


How long can anyone remeber them being here? Any of you older guys remember them as kids in any lakes. And how they got to the okanagan? I imagine swimming up rivers from America over the years is one way. I suppose someone could have just dumped a few in one day 40-50yrs ago.


another thing, what is the maximum capacity of carp in these lakes. With a lot of cold water season their spawning and growth is limited vs waters where they can grow and spawn year round. How much can they actually expand and destroy habitat. What is the damage they have done so far or how many trout and salmon are killed because of the eggs being eaten.


All of this just for the sake of conversation. Maybe. Should go back to school and study the carp in BC haha

[Steelpulse]

As far as hearing about carp eating ducklings I have heard this many times now especially from non fishers around the lakes in fishing in. People always say they eat the baby ducks.
My thinking on this is that the reason it looks like this is because people feed ducks and the carp respond to the commotion as feeding and come in huge schools sometimes thrashing and slurping away at anything in front of them. A feeding frenzy and ducks and carp go nuts. In this commotion I can see a baby duck maybe drowning from the swirling and such.
Maldonado vice versa. When carp are spawning they can be super aggressive in huge schools and if a duckling was near by maybe get swirled under. I would think it would take much for a duckling to drown.

Now I want to believe so badly that there are carp big enough to eat ducks, that for the sake of the argument I am going to test some huge topwater flies and try and entice a carp to slurp that down on an aggressive take. Will report back in the summer and try to get that on video haha

[scoutlt1]

Grew up fishing Osoyoos Lake from the early seventies on. We caught rainbows, perch, catfish, carp (lots), kokanee, whitefish, largemouth and smallmouth bass...
Osoyoos Lake is a bit of a "one off" though I think. Haven't fished it for a number of years but looking to get back up there.

Sockeye in there now of course, which is interesting with all the "coarse" fish that have been there for years.

[scoutlt1]

As far as hearing about carp eating ducklings I have heard this many times now especially from non fishers around the lakes in fishing in. People always say they eat the baby ducks.
My thinking on this is that the reason it looks like this is because people feed ducks and the carp respond to the commotion as feeding and come in huge schools sometimes thrashing and slurping away at anything in front of them. A feeding frenzy and ducks and carp go nuts. In this commotion I can see a baby duck maybe drowning from the swirling and such.
Maldonado vice versa. When carp are spawning they can be super aggressive in huge schools and if a duckling was near by maybe get swirled under. I would think it would take much for a duckling to drown.

Now I want to believe so badly that there are carp big enough to eat ducks, that for the sake of the argument I am going to test some huge topwater flies and try and entice a carp to slurp that down on an aggressive take. Will report back in the summer and try to get that on video haha

I agree with you on this one! I've heard of carp eating ducklings, but I just can't see it (but hey, I've been wrong many times before!!).....and I'd pay to see that video!

[Jagermeister]

I release a lot in mostly contained carp swamps, but have also stacked a few on the bank with a bow before and it is a lot of fun. I actually think it’s probably fairly popular opinion that the carp should be fertilizer at least with most of the people I have spoken too.
I will do more to kill everyone in the okanagan for sure. Most are in salmon and trout streams and a big carp can Hoover some serious egg during the spawn and really pack on the pounds.


How long can anyone remeber them being here? Any of you older guys remember them as kids in any lakes. And how they got to the okanagan? I imagine swimming up rivers from America over the years is one way. I suppose someone could have just dumped a few in one day 40-50yrs ago.

another thing, what is the maximum capacity of carp in these lakes. With a lot of cold water season their spawning and growth is limited vs waters where they can grow and spawn year round. How much can they actually expand and destroy habitat. What is the damage they have done so far or how many trout and salmon are killed because of the eggs being eaten.


All of this just for the sake of conversation. Maybe. Should go back to school and study the carp in BC haha

I go back a little longer than that in the lower Okanagan and they were right plentiful back then.
When school was out for the summer, I used to go with my dad when he worked on the Okanagan River channel dredging from OK Falls to Osoyoos Lake. Carp were in great abundance.
The low land area along the channel from Oliver to Osoyoos Lake was always subject to flooding during the spring runoff. This particular year, the dredging and subsequent dyke trapped many different fish species behind the dyke. The most prolific species were bass and carp with carp exceeding the bass. We packed many carp home to fertilize the garden.
One of the fellows I knew along with his brother used to spear fish them using snorkel and mask. I remember that one of them got towed around for half an hour before he managed to get his carp. This was north of the SS Sicamous.
Another good area, especially for bow-fishing was in the bay on the north-east corner of Vaseux Lake. This area may not to be so good now as I understand that Shuttleworth Creek slit load has pretty much made it into a very shallow marsh area.
Did I mention that pheasant populations were pretty good throughout that zone?

[Brew]

I have only targeted them once in penticton. I just used dough balls made with pancake mix and mushed up shrimp. I caught one around 20lbs. Man did it put up a fight. I used a 6 foot light action ugly stick with 6 lb mainline and 4 lb fluorocarbon litre. I used a slip weight that sat on the bottom of the lake and a balsam float with a stopper so I could adjust for depth. I’ll see if I can find the picture

[REMINGTON JIM]

I have only targeted them once in penticton. I just used dough balls made with pancake mix and mushed up shrimp. I caught one around 20lbs. Man did it put up a fight. I used a 6 foot light action ugly stick with 6 lb mainline and 4 lb fluorocarbon litre. I used a slip weight that sat on the bottom of the lake and a balsam float with a stopper so I could adjust for depth. I’ll see if I can find the picture

Kool The picture would be GREAT ! RJ

[wos]

I remember once years ago i was walking my dog around como lake on coquitlam and i spot this young boy probably about 11 years old on a dock with a fishing rod doubled over. I grew up fishing so of course i stopped to watch what was going on. The whole time im thinking what the heck the trout in the lake cant be over 8" long when the kid lands what had to be a 10 pound carp on the shore. I talked to him for a bit and he explained how he targets them. I was stunned that there were fish that size i that lake.